Sunday Classics: Our all-American "encore presentation" kicks off with Copland and Gershwin

You may remember how I was just going on about the jam-packed new-style summer TV season. No doubt you too have noticed that the cable networks tend to assume that either nobody is watching on holiday weekends, or it's different people who are watching, or at least that their regular viewers are watching differently. They seem to give their original series the week off over holiday weekends. In that tradition we're having our First Sunday Classics Rerun, or rather what the Car Talk guys might call an "encore presentation" -- an all-American celebration originally put together for Thanksgiving. (Of course if the idea was to give me a holiday, it didn't work so great. I wound up spending almost as much time on the "additional" material, not to mention reassembling the thing, as I do on a normal post. Oh well.) -- Ken

* * *

PART 1: KICKING OFF OUR FOURTH OF JULY
MUSICAL CELEBRATION WITH A COPLAND FANFARE


Thanks to skillful organ registration (and of course skillful playing), this 1995 rendition of Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man on the organ of Washington National Cathedral by the cathedral's organist and choirmaster from 1985 to 2002, Douglas Major, works surprisingly well, doesn't it?

The Fanfare for the Common Man originated as one of 18 fanfares premiered at the start of concerts in the 1942-43 season by the Cincinnati Symphony's music director, Eugene Goossens, who had similarly commissioned fanfares for concerts during World War I. Goossens commented of Copland's effort, "Its title is as original as its music." The composer subsequently recycled it as the opening of the fourth movement of his Third Symphony.

Since its creation, the Fanfare has tended to take on a more upbeat character, and tonight it heralds a Sunday post of some just-for-fun American treasures, including more Copland.

Here, by the way, is how the Fanfare sounds in more conventional orchestral form, conducted first [a Fourth of July addition -- Ed.] by the composer's young friend, protégé, and great champion Leonard Bernstein and then, more broadly, by the composer himself:

COPLAND: Fanfare for the Common Man


New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, cond. Columbia/CBS/Sony, recorded 1966

London Symphony Orchestra, Aaron Copland, cond. CBS/Sony, recorded October 1968

[The Copland-conducted Fanfare for the Common Man seems to have been issued in at least 50 couplings. I don't think you can do better, though, than the remarkably inexpensive two-CD Copland Celebration, Vol. 1, "Famous Orchestral and Chamber Works," including such Copland classics as the Four Dance Episodes from "Rodeo," the Billy the Kid suite, El Salón México, the Danzón Cubano, and the original chamber version of the "Ballet for Martha [Graham]," Appalachian Spring (with the bonus of 17 minutes' worth of rehearsal with the all-star "Columbia Chamber Ensemble" assembled for this historic 1973 recording).]

BONUS: COPLAND'S OLD AMERICAN SONGS

from Jet magazine, Nov. 29, 1951

In 1950, inspired by his friends the English singer/composer-pianist tandem of Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten, who frequently performed traditional English songs in Britten's arrangements, Copland arranged a set of five Old American Songs for voice and piano, which he recorded the following year with bass-baritone William Warfield (1920-2002). In 1952 he arranged a second set of five songs, and he and Warfield recorded them the following year. Copland subsequently orchestrated both sets, and in 1962 he and Warfield made a simply gorgeous stereo recording, which still hasn't been bettered. (Did Pears and Britten ever perform these songs? I don't know.)

We're going to hear "I Bought Me a Cat" from Set 1 and "At the River" from Set 2, in both versions -- with Warfield sounding that decade (more or less) younger and fresher in the piano-accompanied ones. (The piano-accompanied version of the Old American Songs is included in Vol. 2 of the Sony Copland Celebration; the orchestral version, in Vol. 3.)

FOURTH OF JULY UPDATE: We're going to hear some other songs/performances as well.

COPLAND (arr.): Old American Songs

Set 1, No. 5: "I Bought Me a Cat"

William Warfield, bass-baritone; Aaron Copland, piano. Columbia/Sony, recorded Aug. 16, 1951

William Warfield, bass-baritone; Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Aaron Copland, cond. Columbia/Sony, recorded May 3-4, 1962

Set 2, No. 4, "At the River"

William Warfield, bass-baritone; Aaron Copland, piano. Columbia/Sony, recorded Aug. 18, 1953

William Warfield, bass-baritone; Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Aaron Copland, cond. Columbia/Sony, recorded May 3-4, 1962

Set 1, No. 3: Long Time Ago

William Warfield, bass-baritone; Aaron Copland, piano. Columbia/CBS/Sony, recorded Aug. 16, 1951

William Warfield, bass-baritone; Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Aaron Copland, cond. Columbia/CBS/Sony, recorded May 3-4, 1962

Eleanor Steber, soprano; Edwin Biltcliffe, piano. VAI, recorded live, 1956

Set 1, No. 4: "Simple Gifts"

William Warfield, bass-baritone; Aaron Copland, piano. Columbia/CBS/Sony, recorded Aug. 16, 1951

William Warfield, bass-baritone; Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Aaron Copland, cond. Columbia/CBS/Sony, recorded May 3-4, 1962

And here's the tongue-twisterishly fastest "Simple Gifts" you're likely ever to hear:

Eleanor Steber, soprano; Edwin Biltcliffe, piano. VAI, recorded live, 1956

Set 1 (complete):
i. The Boatmen's Dance
ii. The Dodger [3:09]
iii. Long Time Ago [5:06]
iv. Simple Gifts [8:05]
v. I Bought Me a Cat [9:20]

Sherrill Milnes, baritone; Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Erich Kunzel, cond. Telarc, recorded 1985-86

MORE COPLAND TO COME: We'll have more Copland in Monday's "Sunday Classics on Monday" post.

* * *

ALL-AMERICAN "ENCORE" HOLIDAY KICKOFF, PART 2:
GERSHWIN'S "I GOT RHYTHM" (DOES HE EVER!)


It's only 33 seconds' worth, but if those 33 seconds of "I Got Rhythm" don't lift you out of your chair, I don't know what will. (The 1943 date on the clip seems dubious, since Gershwin died, alas, in July 1937, following surgery for a brain tumor, two and a half months short of his 39th birthday.)

We have more Gershwin coming in our All-American rerun, but for tonight we're focusing on the song "I Got Rhythm." It was written for the Broadwqy musical Girl Crazy (1930), with music by George and lyrics by his brother Ira, one of the most brilliant lyricists in the English language. Both on Broadway and in Hollywood, George and Ira were among the most successful and sought-after songwriters of the '20s and '30s.

We'll come back to the original, but let's start with the set of variations George wrote for piano and orchestra.

GERSHWIN: Variations on "I Got Rhythm"

Earl Wild, piano; Boston Pops Orchestra, Arthur Fiedler, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded 1961

STILL MORE "I GOT RHYTHM": THE ORIGINAL!
THE GERSHWINS ON BROADWAY

Girl Crazy included a couple of other numbers you may have heard of. We're going to hear a little suite drawn from the Nonesuch recording of the show, part of the ambitious series of scrupulously reconstructed Gershwin musicals, cast reasonably enough and conducted attentively if not incandescently by John Mauceri, and remarkably thoroughly annotated.

Overture

Orchestra

"Embraceable You" (with encore)

David Carroll and Judy Blazer, vocals

"I Got Rhythm" (with encore)

Lorna Luft, vocals
In the encore: vocal quartet (Guy Stroman, Stan Chandler, Larry Raben, and David Engel); Dick Hyman, piano solo

Entr'acte

Orchestra and vocal quartet (see above)

"But Not for Me" (with "comic reprise")

Judy Blazer and (in the reprise) Frank Gorshin, vocals

Orchestra, John Mauceri, cond. Nonesuch, recorded Feb. 26-28, 1990

THE GERSHWINS TRY THEIR HAND AT OPERA:
PORGY AND BESS

George and Ira's most ambitious project was a full-fledged opera: Porgy and Bess. It was produced on their home turf, Broadway, and its 124-performance run in 1935-36 (followed by two months of tour performances) was a flop by Broadway standards but stands as one of the more remarkable box-office accomplishments in operatic history. For all its limitations and flaws, Porgy is a brilliant piece of musical theater, and probably still the most successful American opera.

"Summertime," sung by the Catfish Row neighbor Clara shortly after the Act I curtain rises to help set the atmosphere of the scene, is as beautiful as any song ever written. It's hard to imagine that it's ever been sung more beautifully than it is here by the young Leontyne Price, in the celebrity "Gala" sequence from Decca's 1960 recording of Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus.

Price with Herbert von Karajan, recording Carmen in Vienna, 1963

GERSHWIN: Porgy and Bess: Act I, "Summertime"


Leontyne Price, soprano; Vienna Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. Decca, recorded June 1960

Here's "Summertime" as it fits into the early minutes of the opera. I can't say I'm crazy about the conducting of either of these performances, which really don't have rhythm, but it's what I've got on CD. (Note that the Glyndebourne-EMI performance includes a significantly expanded version of the Introduction.)

Porgy and Bess: Act I, Introduction; "Summertime"


Nicole Cabell (s), Clara; Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri, cond. Decca, recorded Feb. 26-March 1, 2006

Harolyn Blackwell (s), Clara; Glyndebourne Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Simon Rattle, cond. EMI, recorded February 1988

Finally, here are some Porgy excerpts from a recently released 1952 broadcast performance from the Berliner Festwochen. It's based on a production that was touring Europe at the time, with our friend William Warfield as Porgy, the really young Leontyne Price as Bess, and Cab Calloway as the drug dealer Sportin' Life. The conductor is Alexander Smallens, who conducted the original Broadway run of the opera.

Act I, Introduction; "Summertime"

Helen Colbert (s), Clara

Act I, "Oh, the train is at the station"

Leontyne Price (s), Bess

Act II, "I got plenty o' nuttin'"

William Warfield (bs-b), Porgy

Act II, "It ain't necessarily so"

Cab Calloway (t), Sportin' Life

Chorus of the Blevins Davis and Robert Breen production, RIAS Light Orchestra, Alexander Smallens, cond. Membran, recorded live in the Titania Palast, Berlin, Sept. 21, 1952


IN TOMORROW'S SUNDAY CLASSICS POST --

We proceed with our all-American encore presentation, with "American Treasures" by Gershwin, Grofé, Ives, and bandmasters. Then "Sunday Classics on Monday" features, Copland, Ives, Gottschalk, and Bernstein.


SUNDAY CLASSICS POSTS

The current list is here.

#