NY Philharmonic Summertime Classics - Independence Day Special
Tonight we had the first of two performances of the special “Born on the 4th of July” program in the NY Philharmonic’s Summertime Classics series, the second to be presented on the day itself. Sort of funny that the NYP decides to observe Independence Day with a Brit on the podium and a French-Canadian piano soloist, but the music was all-American without a doubt: Gershwin, Copland, and Sousa. Every one of them, of course, the son of immigrants, and that point should be reiterated in this country which has all too often in recent years been hostile to the foreign-born...
We began the concert with a mystery. The program book listed the opening number as “Strike Up the Band,” from Strike Up the Band, so naturally I expected to hear an arrangement of that song by one Rose (not otherwise identified than by the last name in the program listing). But that’s not what we heard at all, and the program note was no help here. It sounded to me like we heard either the overture to the show, in an orchestration by Mr. or Ms. Rose, or a medley of songs from the show by the same. The familiar strains of the song “Strike Up the Band” brought up the tail end of the arrangement, but was preceded by an array of attractive tunes in different tempi and styles. It would be nice for them to tell us correctly what we were hearing.
Then came Variations on “I Got Rhythm” for Piano and Orchestra, a piece Gershwin wrote to perform on a concert tour on which he would also be performing Rhapsody in Blue. Since Rhapsody in Blue is shorter than a full-length concerto, the addition of the Variations would make a sequence of substantial length to take the place of a concerto on a program. By the time he wrote this, Gershwin had progressed from depending on an arranger to doing his own orchestrations, and he left a fine orchestration of this piece. But for some reason not explained in the program notes, the Philharmonic decided to use an orchestration by one Schoenfeld (first name and gender not specified in the program). And, of course, when we then had Rhapsody in Blue to round out the first half, we had the traditional orchestration by Ferde Grofe, who was the staff arranger for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, a jazz band that played the first performance. (Grofe did two orchestrations – the jazz band version for Whiteman, and then a symphonic arrangement that was used when the NYP and other orchestras took up the piece.)
Which means we had over half an hour of Gershwin’s music, none of which was orchestrated by Gershwin, and the only instance of arranging discussed in the program book was Grofe’s involvement with the Rhapsody. Gershwin enthusiasts have come to prefer the composer’s own orchestrations where they exist, so it was disappointing that the Philharmonic did not go with the original on the Variations. And we could have used some enlightenment on what we were hearing for Strike Up the Band, but because that came first on the program, there was not a word about it by Tovey, who narrates these concerts with remarks between pieces but never says anything prior to the first piece, for some reason....
On Tuesday night, following the first concert in the series, I mentioned that ensemble was a bit loose as Tovey and the orchestra were becoming reacquainted and the substitutes and temporary players who made up a part of the orchestra were becoming integrated into the mix. I predicted things would improve, and they have. Tonight they were excellent, in NY Philharmonic class. Hamelin, who has made a bit of a specialist of seeking out jazzy piano music by classical composers (sample his recordings of Kapustin) was just fine in Gershwin, if not as totally uninhibited as some American pianists to the manor born, and Stanley Drucker, principal clarinetist in the final concerts before his retirement, was excellent in his solos with one tiny exception – that famous upward schmear that starts the Rhapsody actually hit a road bump just towards the top.... Well, it added a bit of spontaneous flavor. It was a privilege to hear him playing this repertory tonight.
After intermission, we had a fine performance of the orchestral suite drawn by Aaron Copland from his ballet Appalachian Spring, then some Sousa marches, two listed in the program, one for an encore. As soon as I saw the program, I knew what the encore would be. The listed marches were “Hands Across the Sea” – a relative rarity – and “Washington Post.” Well, how can you do an Independence Day concert without “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” and so it was... A fine send-off and a great evening from Tovey and what passes for the NYP at these concerts. (Actually, the proportion of substitutes and ringers seems a bit smaller this year than last. Perhaps in the current economy more of the orchestra regulars wanted to make some extra bucks playing this gig....)
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