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(Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire (Still from Shall We Dance)
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Gershwin goodies light up our first hour. Stretch your legs and that of your pet(s) to “Walking the Dog.” Then wax rhapsodic with Rhapsody No. 2, which truly ain’t blue!
Gershwin’s sprightly “Walking the Dog” was written for a scene in the 1936 film “Shall We Dance.” When Ginger Rogers takes her tiny pooch for a walk on the promenade deck of an ocean liner, Fred Astaire pursues her, walking a Great Dane he has “rented” from a steward. First, it was “Manhattan Rhapsody” and then “New York Rhapsody”; “Rhapsody for Rivets” was rejected for the simpler and more dignified Second Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra. Less romantic and jazzy than the one “in Blue,” No. 2 is nevertheless still Gershwin, and Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops play it to perfection (just as they played the doggy promenade).
Garrick Ohlsson brings his considerable pianistic expertise to bear on Chopin Impromptus Nos. 1 through 4. A special, magnificent treat: Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Stowkowski’s arrangement of the Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565.
Gershwin’s sprightly “Walking the Dog” was written for a scene in the 1936 film “Shall We Dance.” When Ginger Rogers takes her tiny pooch for a walk on the promenade deck of an ocean liner, Fred Astaire pursues her, walking a Great Dane he has “rented” from a steward. First, it was “Manhattan Rhapsody” and then “New York Rhapsody”; “Rhapsody for Rivets” was rejected for the simpler and more dignified Second Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra. Less romantic and jazzy than the one “in Blue,” No. 2 is nevertheless still Gershwin, and Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops play it to perfection (just as they played the doggy promenade).
Garrick Ohlsson brings his considerable pianistic expertise to bear on Chopin Impromptus Nos. 1 through 4. A special, magnificent treat: Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Stowkowski’s arrangement of the Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565.
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