Delishious – A Gershwin News Update

More news from the world of George and Ira Gershwin.

Hollywood is abuzz with the announcement of the impending production of Fascinating Rhythm, a movie to be co-produced by the legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull, Goodfellas) and directed and co-written by John Carney (Once).

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Soul singer Billy Stewart, who hit the music charts in 1966 with an unexpected cover of “Summertime” from the opera Porgy and Bess, is the subject of a new documentary, Fat Boy: The Billy Stewart Story.

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Although the house at 1019 North Roxbury Drive in Beverly Hills that George and Ira Gershwin called home in 1936 and 1937 was demolished sixteen years ago, the location recently received local landmark status and has been awarded one of the city’s first Golden Shield cultural recognition plaques.

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Emmy Award-winning actor Eugene Levy (Schitt’s Creek, A Mighty Wind) discusses the music that has influenced him throughout his life, including George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

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An increasingly rare moment caught on film: Liza Minnelli sings “Embraceable You” at Feinstein’s in Los Angeles.

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We acknowledge the passing, at age 86, of dancer and choreographer Jacques d’Amboise, one of the stars of George Balanchine’s 1970 ballet of Gershwin songs, Who Cares?

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A selection of recent recordings, films, and books that may be of interest to Gershwin aficionados follows.

Recordings

The Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Marin Alsop present a live recording of highlights of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. The cast includes Lester Lynch (Porgy), Angel Blue (Bess, Clara and Serena), Chauncey Packer (Sportin’ Life), and Kevin Short (Crown, Jake). The album was recorded live in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, in March 2020, in the last concerts performed by the orchestra in front of a public audience before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Piano Classics label has released two new all-Gershwin recordings. Italian pianist Enrico Fagnoni performs the eighteen arrangements by George Gershwin from the 1932 Random House book George Gershwin’s Song-Book, followed by his own interpretations of the same melodies, while contemporary English composer Michael Finnissy’s arrangements of George Gershwin songs are performed by Belgian pianist Lukas Huisman.

Gershwinicity is the debut recording, on the Somm label, of the Art Deco Trio, a disc of George Gershwin melodies arranged for clarinet, saxophone, and piano.

Get ready for a new listening experience, with the release of Gershwin’s Magic Key, a new album from Classical Kids Live that tells the story of George Gershwin’s life and career, with music performed by the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Films

The London filming of the glorious Gershwin stage version of An American in Paris has been released on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Books

A look at a specific geographic location connected with George and Ira Gershwin is highlighted in author Gregory Suriano’s latest book, Gershwin in Pittsburgh, a volume in the Images of America series from Arcadia Publishing. Mr. Suriano is also the author of Gershwin in His Time: A Biographical Scrapbook, 1919-1937 (1998) and The Cinematic Gershwin (2016).

The controversial Russian-American psychiatrist Gregory Zilboorg, who counted George Gershwin among his many notable analysands, is the subject of a new, two-volume scholarly biography by Zilboorg’s daughter, Caroline. The Life of Gregory Zilboorg, 1890-1940: Psyche, Psychiatry, and Psychoanalysis covers his story up to 1940 and should interest anyone who wishes to see the subject of Gershwin’s treatment in a new light.

— Michael Owen