A Dated Gershwin?
- Share via
Don Heckman roundly applauds Marcus Roberts for removing “Rhapsody in Blue” “from its usual dated context” (“Roberts Uncovers New Dimension to ‘Rhapsody in Blue,’ ” Calendar, Sept. 30). Is this dated as in how Chopin is dated? How about that Perry Como version of the Polonaise in A-flat, and that bonus lyric “Till the End of Time”?
The Roberts rendition of this landmark composition meanders and wanders about cutely, but hardly gives the piece “a vigorous new future.”
A new version of “Sunset Boulevard” with an added subplot of how the chimp died would be amusing for a while, but eventually we’d get back to the real thing.
No one can know for sure whether “Gershwin surely would have loved it,” but for a composer who determinedly cleared the piano bench of other players whenever he arrived at a party, I think that pronouncement is also highly suspect.
STEVE SCHMIDT
Westwood
The biggest entertainment stories
Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
