Gershwin Memorials

With the possible exception of Victor Herbert, only one U. S. composer was ever so inventive of melody and rhythm that a full evening of his work could attract vast crowds to a concert. Four times during the life of the late George Gershwin, the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, in its summer series, sold out Manhattan's Lewisohn Stadium with all-Gershwin evenings. Last week, on the day after the first anniversary of Gershwin's death, the Philharmonic joined forces with Paul Whiteman and his orchestra, played the fifth Gershwin Memorial concert to be heard during the past year.* If the performance, bolstered by names from radio and cinema, was a box-office draw such as the stadium periodically needs, it was also, to an eager and uncritical audience, a moving tribute to a well-loved U. S. musician.

There was the inevitable Rhapsody in Blue, with knowing hummings in the audience during the slow section. There was the less familiar Second Rhapsody in Blue, written as a Rhapsody in Rivets, and there was An American in Paris. The rest of the evening was Gershwin at his best; not the Gershwin of symphonic gropings and inexpert orchestrations, but the Gershwin of effortless, ingratiating song, in musi-comedy and cinema.

To many a listener, it seemed to be news that George Gershwin was the creator of three fairly recent movie tunes, They Can't Take That Away From Me, Nice Work If You Can Get It, Love Walked In--all played under the title of Hollywood Medley. Smash hit of the evening was poised, satin-voiced Negro Maxine Sullivan, singing Nice Work and Summertime (from Porgy and Bess) from memory. The rest of the vocalists, apparently under some pernicious radio influence, had not bothered to learn their songs, so that the Lyn Murray Chorus sounded ludicrous in the insinuating verses of Do It Again: "You won't regret it ... [flutter of turning pages]. . . . Come and get it. . . ." Least whistleable, least inspired Gershwin item on the program was Dawn of a New Day, the "Official March" he wrote for the New York World's Fair.

*Others: One in Hollywood Bowl last summer; three on the CBS and NBC chains.

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