Some amazing work by George

Feb 2, 2007

Author: Jim Kershner

Position: Staff writer

Source: Spokesman Review

Spokane Symphony music director Eckart Preu calls George Gershwin "the original crossover musician."

And he lived before the term "crossover musician" was even invented.

The symphony audience will find out exactly how Gershwin blazed this trail during the next SuperPops concert Saturday night.

The program includes the classical-jazz fusion of "Rhapsody in Blue," the opera-blues-folk fusion of "Porgy and Bess" and the jazz-show tunes-Tin Pan Alley melting pot of songs such as "I Got Rhythm."

In other words, this concert will work as a high-spirited survey of Gershwin's enormous musical range a range made even more remarkable considering that he accomplished it all in only 39 years on earth.

He was an original American musical genius, soaking up Old World and New World musical forms and combining them in exhilarating new ways.

The evening's capper will be Gershwin's best-known work, "Rhapsody in Blue," with guest artist Jody Graves on piano.

Graves is an associate professor of piano at Eastern Washington University and a concert soloist the world over. She recently returned from a tour of the Middle East as a "cultural ambassador" for the U.S. State Department.

"Rhapsody in Blue" is instantly familiar to almost every American today (it served as the United Airlines commercial theme), but it was revolutionary when it debuted in 1924: a classical-style rhapsody written for Paul Whiteman's big jazz band.

Gershwin's original solo version, unearthed on an old piano roll, is fast, jaunty and loaded with swing.

Soprano Nicole Cabell will be the evening's other guest, singing some of Gershwin's best-known songs: "I Got Rhythm," "Embraceable You," "The Man I Love," "Summertime" and "Our Love is Here to Stay."

Cabell is the winner of the 2005 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. She recently completed her apprenticeship at the Chicago Lyric Opera Center for American Artists.

She evidently has a particularly nice touch with Gershwin. A recent New York Times review raved about her "light and outrageously beautiful soprano that traced the downward arc at the end of Gershwin's 'Summertime' in chills along the listener's spine."

The orchestra will also perform Gershwin's second-best-known orchestral work, "An American in Paris." This was written in 1928 but made famous in 1951 as the ballet accompaniment in the Gene Kelly movie of the same name.

The overture to "Girl Crazy" and excerpts from "Porgy and Bess" considered by many to be Gershwin's true masterpiece will round out the evening.

"Porgy and Bess" was one of the first American operas based on folk idioms, and certainly the first starring black characters. It flopped when first presented in 1935, but has grown steadily in stature ever since.