rhapsody in blue is one hundred and two

 

Hint: I meant the title to be read as if it were a poem. 

That 26-minute composition by George Gershwin was the highlight for me!!!

I'm fairly certain I've not heard it before in its entirety, and I know very well that I've never heard it from just a piano and a clarinet.

This was not just any ordinary clarinet, either.

Seth Kibel bought the silver-bedecked instrument from a man in Pennsylvania that custom made it.

Isn't it absolutely gorgeous?!!

Here's Seth playing that opening glissando, while Daniel Weiser's hands waited, poised to strike the piano keys at the precise moment that the clarinet ceased its wail - so awesome!!!

I'm glad this was the finale at today's concert!

I cannot imagine anything trying to follow that piece!

When it first premiered in 1924, on what would have been Abraham Lincoln's 115th birthday, it had been the penultimate of 26 musical pieces.

What a long concert that had to have been!

How did I know all that?

Daniel Weiser was absolutely full of such tales and regaled us with them several times during this matinee concert at the Savannah JEA.

The two men together are AmiciMusic, who came here last year, too, with their musical history lesson.

Today's was titled, "Jewish Jazz, The Sequel: Return of the 'Jew'di" - gotta love that "Star Wars" pun!!!

I'm sure that's what had drawn Rabbi Haas and his family there, though his little girl was quite disappointed to not see Princess Leia or Luke Skywalker there, so they left fairly early.

Not I!

I was there from Scott Joplin's ragtime ("The Favorite") through all three Hassidic Tunes collected by Lev Kogan.

I stayed for two that built the house of Sammy Cahn (the Anglicized Yiddish tunes, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schein" and "Yosl, Yosl"), the man known for "Three Coins In The Fountain".

There were also two pieces from famous clarinetists Ziggy Elman and Bela Kovacs before a little dessert reception.

Very sweet!

Then we had "Viktor's Tale", by John Williams, as well as a funny anecdote.

Apparently, when he was approached to do music for "Schindler's List", Williams told Steven Spielberg that he didn't think he was good enough.

Spielberg apparently replied, "I know, but all the good ones are dead."

Hahahaha!!!

Williams won the Oscar for Best Original Score for that movie!

What else today?

Oh, yes, three pieces from the prolific Harold Arlen: "Stormy Weather", "It's Only A Paper Moon", and "Come Rain Or Come Shine" - all magnificent!!!

Ella Fitzgerald once described him as "the Negro-ist white man she'd ever known."

High praise indeed!!! 

Then the concert ended on that fabulous "Rhapsody In Blue", with its mimicry of a train clack-clack-clacking along at one point.

Of course I thought of Sheldon Cooper!

You don't spend twelve years with a man in your house and not think of him when his favorite topic comes up!

(smile!)

Now, I'm going to catch the 5 PM screening of "Sinners"!

That should set me up right nicely to cheer it on at the Oscars tonight!