George Gershwin / Camelot
On this day in classical music: George Gershwin’s “Piano Concerto in F” received its premiere at Carnegie Hall in 1925. The composer was the soloist with the New York Symphony conducted by Walter Damrosch. Impressed by the premiere of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” in February 1924, Damrosch commissioned the composer to write a full-scale piano concerto the day after the premiere. Gershwin completed the score in November 1925. While Ferde Grofe orchestrated the “Rhapsody in Blue,” Gershwin orchestrated his “Concerto in F,” often relying on textbooks about the craft of orchestration. The concerto includes references to the blues and ragtime. Reviews of the premiere were mixed — critics couldn’t decide if it was classical or jazz. Nevertheless, the “Concerto in F” has remained a repertory staple since its premiere. Listen to Peter Jablonski perform the concerto’s finale with the NHK Symphony Orchestra. Marek Janowski conducts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4yJVsuzimo
On this day in the musical theatre: Lerner and Loewe’s “Camelot” opened on Broadway in 1960. Based on the novel “The Once and Future King” by T.H. White, “Camelot” was a musical version of the Arthurian legend. Starring Richard Burton as Arthur, Julie Andrews and Guenevere and Robert Goulet as Lancelot, “Camelot” didn’t measure up to the Tony Award-winning songwriters’ previous effort, the magical “My Fair Lady.” Audiences were slow to respond to “Camelot” but the musical caught on after Burton and Andrews perform excerpts on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” “Camelot” has remained popular over the decades, with Richard Harris, Howard Keel, Laurence Harvey, Michael York and Gabriel Byrne playing Arthur, and Constance Towers, Elizabeth Larner, Christine Ebersole and Marin Mazzie as Guenevere. “Camelot” became strongly identified with the Kennedy Administration, which is sometimes referred to as the Camelot era. Listen to Burton sing the title number in a 1978 television appearance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–oNWmh3kOU
