UHF No 70 (Net).indd - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine

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Broadcast Canada
publisher of UHF
announces a new online boutique
that offers luxury audio electronics
of unique value
at unique prices.
The legendary Van den Hul amplifi ers and preamps
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A tube amplifi er at an absurd price.
The international version
of an acclaimed headphone amplifi er
Grofé at Whiteman’s request. It will
become a cornerstone of the American
musical heritage. It will be played at
the 1984 Olympics on 84 white pianos,
to extraordinary acclaim, and in 1990
Warner will spend a small fortune to
purchase the rights to it.
By the way…about the famous
clarinet introduction that continues
to astound audiences, it was actually
improvised by Whiteman’s clarinetist,
Ross Gorman. It was a happy fi nd, for
no matter how many times we hear it, it
remains most impressive.
It is at about the same time that the
conductor of the New York Symphony,
Walter Damrosch, commissions a concerto
from Gershwin. That same year,
George and Ira collaborate for the fi rst
time on a musical, Lady Be Good, marking
the start of a durable partnership.
In September Gershwin leaves for
Europe. Disappointed by the tepid
success of The Rainbow, he returns to
London with Primrose, with his own
orchestration. The new show is greeted
warmly.
On December 1 st of the same year
comes the New York premiere of Lady
Be Good, starring Fred and Adele Astaire,
with extraordinarily novel jazz numbers,
hailed by the critics as “the best musical
in town.” One of the original songs from
the show is dropped, judged too intimate
for a large venue. As fate would have it,
60 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine
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the song becomes a Transatlantic hit! It
is The Man I Love.
It is only the following July that he
will fi nally begin the concerto Damrosch
has requested.
What about the ladies?
Handsome, brilliant in sports,
wealthy, with the halo of the successful
composer, an amateur painter, a collector
of art objects, Gershwin has a retinue of
women about him. He is not ashamed
to say that he would happily maintain
a mistress if the practice were not so
expensive. Though he is not interested
in marriage, we do know he had an
affair with the ravishing Kay Swift,
herself a talented pianist and composer
for Broadway, one of the fi rst women to
attack this hitherto masculine domain.
The affair will lead to Swift’s divorce
from composer James P. Warburg.
After Gershwin’s death, she and Ira
will fl esh out some of his fi nal sketches
to create a score for the 1947 fi lm The
Shocking Miss Pilgrim, which will feature
Betty Grable and the warm voice of Dick
Haymes. The songs refl ect Gershwin at
his best: For You, For Me, Forever More,
and Aren’t You Glad We Did.
The name of Gertrude Lawrence,
screen star and fi rst lady of the musical
comedy in both New York and
London, is inextricably linked with
that of Gershwin. She stars in Oh Kay!,
a musical dedicated to Kay Swift. In it,
Lawrence sings Maybe, Do-Do-Do, and
Someone to Watch Over Me.
Exterior Signs of Fame
The Gershwin family has moved
into a luxurious fi ve-storey house on
103 rd Street near Riverside Drive. It has
space for his parents, and his siblings
Arthur and Frances. The great living
room serves for family meals and for
Rosie and Morris’s passion, poker. There
is a gymnasium, and a top fl oor that is
entirely George’s. It is his kingdom.
The period from 1925 to 1931 will
be en exceptional one for the Gershwin
brothers.
December 3, 1925 sees the Carnegie
Hall premiere of the New York Concerto,
which George has himself orchestrated.
Music lovers wait in a downpour for the
doors to open. The program includes
Glazunov’s Symphony No. 5, Henri
Rabaud’s Suite anglaise, and the New York
Concerto, later more commonly called the
Concerto in F. Gershwin has rehearsed
the concerto numerous times, even with
orchestra the week before, recording it
so he could make corrections. Yet he
struggles to conceal his nervousness.
The moment has arrived. An elegant
George Gershwin prepares to showcase
his music. Barely has he touched
the keyboard that already the audience
is mesmerized. The work itself is
not immediately acclaimed by critics,
perhaps put off by its very American
character. It will, however, eventually
earn praise from many of the greatest
composers of the age, and it will enter
the standard concerto repertoire. It will
even twice be reworked into ballets, in
Vienna in 1969 and at the New York City
Ballet in 1982.
At the end of 1925, the music of Tip
Toes is applauded by the critics, and it
launches the career of one of its youngest
performers, Jeanette MacDonald, who
will become a major fi lm star. Two days
later, the 44 th Street Theater sees the
premiere of Song of the Flame, considered
either an operetta or a romantic opera.
A year later, Gershwin is accompanist
at a recital at the Roosevelt Hotel in
New York, and ends with a premiere of
his Preludes for Solo Piano. He steals the
spotlight from the soloist of the evening,