Like every musician before him, George Gershwin was the product of his age, a reflection of his predecessors and a prophet of what would follow. In his latest Keyboard Conversation marking his debut appearance at the Hylton Center’s Merchant Hall, Jeffrey Siegel considers the man regarded as America’s greatest popular composer. He opens with “Rialto Ripples Rag,” Gershwin’s first opus, published at age 18. The ragtime rage started by Scott Joplin consumed Tin Pan Alley in the early 1900s, but 50 years earlier the nation embraced its first popular pianist/composer, Louis Moreau Gottschalk. His music ranged in style from sentimental and melancholy to nationalistic. The latter is best represented in his patriotic piece “The Union,” a declaration of his support for the North during the Civil War.
Between Gottschalk and Gershwin, Siegel points out, Edward MacDowell wrote melodic piano pieces evoking nostalgic moments and the beauty of nature. Every parlor pianist learned his “To a Wild Rose,” still a favorite assignment of piano teachers. By the turn of the century, however, New Orleans-inspired ragtime and jazz were consuming young composers like Gershwin and Aaron Copland. Growing up in Brooklyn, a teenage Copland proved to be just as precocious as his contemporary. His first piece, “The Cat and the Mouse,” was published at age 18.
| Onstage |
| Jeffrey Siegel’s Keyboard Conversations |
| Where: Hylton Center’s Merchant Hall, Manassas |
| When: 8 p.m. Saturday |
| Tickets: $22 to $38; 888-945-2468; hyltoncenter.org |
“This is about an old cat and a young mouse,” Siegel said. “When the old cat catches him, the young mouse persuasively argues why he should be freed and the listener assumes he will get away. But if you listen to the end, you will hear the old cat pounce, then lick his chops.”
Although Leonard Bernstein was nearly two decades younger than Gershwin and Copland, his personal track was similar. Siegel performs two of the composer’s rarely heard pieces. “Anniversary – In Memoriam: Helen Coates” is Bernstein’s bluesy lament about the death of the music teacher he began studying with in 1932. Siegel follows it with the area debut of Bernstein’s “Meditation on a Wedding,” an unpublished work.
After intermission, Siegel performs three of Gershwin’s distinctive short pieces. “Promenade,” or “Walking the Dog,” written during his years spent in Hollywood, comes from the film “Shall We Dance.” “Sleepless Night,” or “Three Note Waltz,” is a pretty piano piece conducive to dancing, while “I Got Rhythm” from the show “Girl Crazy” is the jazzy favorite that typifies the composer’s robust style.
The piece de resistance is, of course, his “Rhapsody in Blue,” originally composed for orchestra, later transcribed for solo piano. Siegel is a master of this work, always propelling the audience to a standing ovation.
