Pied Piper

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 943, 6 September 1957, Page 8

Pied Piper

RATHER rising out of the above, I listened last Sunday afternoon to @ programme commemorating the 20th

anniversary of the death of George Gershwin. Unique in modern music in starting from the popular ditty and ending with opera, symphonic poems and piano concertos, Gershwin never lost the common touch, and is becoming more and more respected as a musician who, however light-hearted his intentions, was always a serious craftsman. His songs are still current, his Rhapsody in Blue is played here at least once a year; the National Orchestra: have given several performances of the Piano Concerto and An American in Paris, and his opera, Porgy and Bess still holds the stage as the only genuine opera America has produced, A splendid musician and a most lovable man, it seems, and it was surprising, though after a moment’s reflection, fitting, that the principal valedictory at his death should have been broadcast to the American nation by Arnold Schoenberg. There was a fascinating recording in the programme made at a rehearsal in 1925 of Fred Astaire singing and dancing a song called "You Don’t Know the Half of It, Dearie," with Gershwin playing for him, and an engaging character called Irving Caesar talked of Gershwin and sang his songs in an endearing rasp. No modern musician has had us dancing to his tunes with more willingness, and every year, what Schoenberg called "the directness of a great musician" becomes. more

apparent.

B.E.G.

M.