Re: OT George Gershwin


"WWW.Handelmania.com" <Placido21@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1136007955.690284.165430@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Well, except for the magnificent "Porgy and bess," and the ill-fated
> "Blue Monday" (not really an opera), George Gershwin was known for
> essentially popular music.
> Tonight cable TV showed "Rhapsody in Blue," which is highly
> fictionalized,much like the "Great Caruso" was...however,the second one
> of the Gershwin songs or compositions (Concerto in F,Cuban
> Overture,Rhapsofy in Blue),I get a certain kind of chill that no other
> composer (including Verdi,Wagner,Puccini,etc.) produces in me.
> What is it??Maybe i am "jazzier' than I thought??/Maybe his
> untimely death, and the thought of what he might have produced even for
> another 10 years..gives me a feeling of sadness and frustration..but I
> am haunted by his work....I might have mentioned the "musical
> intervals" that rip into me ( e.g. "Love.....Walked right in and drove
> those sorrows away).
> Perhaps some of you would want to comment on the work of
> this great genius,who left us all too soon. Charlie



I don't know what it is either, Charlie. I can go from Wagner directly to
Gershwin and not feel that I am "slumming". Is it a stereotypically American
thing? Russians seem to be able to hop from Prokofiev or Shostakovich to
Dunaievsky or Blanter and not bat an eyelash. The English can skip from
Britten to Eric Coates with no trouble at all. I once spoke to a graduate of
the Leningrad Conservatory who was extremely snooty in her musical tastes.
Even she admitted that Porgy and Bess was a great piece of music.

There are certain melodies that can, just by playing them, cause a big lump
to well in my throat. I don't know why it is so; I have always simply
accepted it. "The Red Sarafan" by A.I. Varlamov has done that to me from the
very first hearing. "Love walked right in" is another.

Gershwin and Schubert ... worlds apart, yet so very similar in other ways.
-Larry


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