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Tag: Oscar Levant

Funny Men Play Serious Rachmaninoff

As April Fool’s Day and Rachmaninoff’s birthday elide, here are two funny men in recordings that take the composer rather seriously.

Oscar Levant rode his neuroses and mordant wit to fame as a popular panelist on radio and television, the disheveled, chain-smoking second banana in motion pictures, and author of books with titles such as “A Smattering of Ignorance,” “The Memoirs of an Amnesiac,” and “The Unimportance of Being Oscar.” But he was also one of the most respected champions of the music of George Gershwin, a composer who studied with Arnold Schoenberg, and a serious pianist who performed and recorded the standard concerto repertoire with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Here, Oscar plays it straight, with Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in G major, Op. 32, No. 5.

The pianist Victor Borge also displayed a genius for comedic improv, early in his career segueing from standard concert recitals to his signature cocktails of music and humor. His Broadway hit, “Comedy in Music,” entered the Guinness Book for the longest run of a one-person show (849 performances, from 1953 to 1956). In the 1960s, Borge was one of the highest-paid entertainers in the world.

Like Levant, he had his personal demons, but their source would appear to have been circumstantial rather than psychological. He attained early popularity in Scandinavia (Borge was born in Denmark), but as his extensive touring took him all over Europe, a Jew getting laughs with anti-Nazi jokes didn’t exactly endear him to Adolf Hitler. When German forces occupied Denmark, Borge hopped a U.S. Army transport out of Finland – though he would return, not long after, disguised as a sailor, to visit his dying mother.

He arrived in the United States in 1940, with 20 dollars in his pocket and no understanding of English. But he was a fast learner, and he taught himself the language by going to American movies.

Here, all jokes aside, Borge plays Rachmaninoff’s arrangement of Fritz Kreisler’s “Liebesleid” (“Love’s Sorrow”).

Kreisler was one of the world’s great violinists. A famous anecdote relates that he and Rachmaninoff were giving a concert in New York. In the middle of a performance, Kreisler suffered a memory lapse, and as he noodled around on his violin, trying to find his way back, he inched closer to his pianist and whispered, “Where are we?” To which Rachmaninoff replied, “Carnegie Hall.”

Rachmaninoff gets the last laugh on April Fool’s Day, as he performs Kreisler’s “Liebesfreud” (“Love’s Joy”).

April 1, 2025
Gershwin & Schoenberg An Unlikely Friendship

Who’d a thunk the High Priest of Dodecaphonic Music would be such an admirer of popular success George Gershwin? You know, the guy that gave us “Swanee,” “I Got Rhythm,” and “Embraceable You,” and also “Rhapsody in Blue,” “An American in Paris,” and “Porgy and Bess.” And that furthermore the admiration would be reciprocated?

In this Arnold Schoenberg sesquicentennial year (he was born on September 13, 1874), we mark Gershwin’s birthday anniversary (born on this date in 1898) with a glimpse into classical music’s most unlikely mutual admiration society.

Gershwin and Schoenberg were tennis partners, both very serious about the game; they were painters (although Schoenberg abandoned the art to devote himself to music); and of course Gershwin hoped to study with Schoenberg, arguably the most influential avant-garde master of the 20th century.

Sadly, just months after Gershwin painted Schoenberg’s portrait, he died of a brain tumor at the age of 38. The next day, Schoenberg eulogized his friend for broadcast over the radio.

Interestingly, Gershwin’s friend and champion, the pianist Oscar Levant, did study composition with Schoenberg. Schoenberg was sufficiently impressed that he offered Levant a job as his assistant, but Levant turned him down, feeling he wasn’t worthy. Levant is still considered one of Gershwin’s foremost interpreters. Of course, he also appeared in the film version of “An American in Paris” with Gene Kelly.

George and Arnie were like the Frog and Toad of Beverly Hills. Remembering the multifaceted George Gershwin on his birthday.

Gershwin the painter

https://smtd.umich.edu/ami/gershwin/?p=870

Schoenberg paintings and drawings

https://www.schoenberg.at/index.php/en/schoenberg-2/bildnerischeswerk

Home movies of Schoenberg, filmed by Gershwin, set to a recording of Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 4 that Gershwin sponsored. The nattily turned-out Gershwin can be seen with pipe and five o’clock shadow, winding the camera. Also, Schoenberg eulogizes Gershwin. All in three minutes!

More Gershwin home movies, including images of Schoenberg, courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Levant in “An American in Paris.” He’s the whole show in Gershwin’s Concerto in F.

PHOTO: Gershwin paints Schoenberg

September 26, 2024
Vintage Gershwin on the Lost Chord

This week on “The Lost Chord,” it’s very clear our love (for Gershwin) is here to stay!

We’ll get a jump on the Fourth of July celebrations with an hour of vintage recordings of music by one of our most versatile composers.

George Gershwin occupied a unique place in American music, rising from Tin Pan Alley scrapper to Broadway royalty. From there, he conquered the concert hall and even the opera house, with his blend of popular song, jazz, blues, spirituals and European classical forms.

Like Franz Schubert a hundred years before, Gershwin managed to churn out an astonishing amount of music over a comparatively brief span. His songs, in particular, have been of enduring interest. His gift of lyricism and invention defied early critics as he bestrode the worlds of popular and classical music like an American colossus.

Sadly, at the peak of his success, he died of a brain tumor at the age of 38.

We’ll sample Gershwin’s artistry in recordings of the era, including several songs performed by Al Jolson, Fred Astaire, and Ella Logan. (So many excellent recordings to choose from!)

We’ll also hear the world premiere recording of “An American in Paris” – performed by the Victor Symphony Orchestra (really members of the Philadelphia Orchestra), with the composer himself on the celesta – and the Concerto in F, performed as part of a memorial concert at the Hollywood Bowl, with the composer’s friend, Oscar Levant, as soloist.

Three of these recordings date from 1937, the year of the composer’s death. All are from his era. I hope you’ll join me for “Vintage Gershwin,” this week on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

PHOTO: (left to right) Astaire with George and Ira Gershwin

June 29, 2024
Barber Antheil Hollywood Bowl Find

In a post earlier today about Howard Pollack’s new Samuel Barber biography, I mentioned a meeting between Barber and Trenton’s own George Antheil. The meeting took place in Vienna in 1934. Barber was surprised by Antheil’s congeniality and touched by his genuine interest in his music. In fact, in a letter to his parents, Barber specified that he felt they had parted the best of friends. Unfortunately, the two were not to have very much contact in the future.

Interesting, then, that I should stumble across this audio for a concert with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra from 1950. The first half of the program is devoted to Barber’s “School for Scandal Overture” and Antheil’s Symphony No. 5! (Clearly, Antheil was on a Prokofiev kick at the time of its writing.)

The second half features Gershwin’s Concerto in F, with an assortment of encores, performed by Gershwin friend and acolyte, Oscar Levant. Last and least is a suite from Jerome Kern’s “Showboat.” Artur Rodzinski, notorious for packing heat on the podium, is the conductor.

A gem of a find and a remarkable coincidence that Barber and Antheil would wind up shoulder-to-shoulder on the same concert!

April 4, 2023
Remembering Oscar Levant’s Genius

“Happiness isn’t something you experience; it’s something you remember.”

Bearing in mind the words of Oscar Levant, I hope that you had a happy Christmas.

Levant was born in Pittsburgh on this date in 1906 to Orthodox Jewish parents from Russia. It was his father’s desire that his sons become either doctors or dentists. Ever the contrarian, Levant opted to become everything else instead.

A preternaturally talented musician, Levant studied in New York with the great Polish pedagogue Zygmunt Stojowski. By his early 20s, he was in Hollywood, where he met and befriended George Gershwin. With Gershwin’s death, Levant became regarded as the foremost interpreter of the composer’s piano music.

Levant himself was a composer of talent. In Hollywood, he scored over 20 films. He also wrote and co-wrote popular songs, including the enduring “Blame It on My Youth.” Determined to become a “serious” composer, he sought out and undertook private studies with Arnold Schoenberg. He also found work as a Broadway composer and conductor.

But it was likely through his memorable appearances on radio and television that he became best known, as a brilliant panelist possessed of impeccable timing and an acid wit. His remarks were invariably off the cuff, and this spontaneity would sometimes throw the sponsors into a panic. A show was cancelled after he remarked, “Now that Marilyn Monroe is kosher, Arthur Miller can eat her.”

Now a certified – some would say certifiable – celebrity himself, Levant appeared in a number of feature films, including “An American in Paris” (1951) and “The Band Wagon” (1953). He played himself in the Gershwin biopic “Rhapsody in Blue” (1945). He would receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in recognition of his recording career.

On top of everything else, Levant wrote three books: “A Smattering of Ignorance” (1940), “The Memoirs of an Amnesiac” (1965), and “The Unimportance of Being Oscar” (1968).

Levant was as famous for his neuroses and hypochondria as he was for any of his actual talents. He smoked prolifically, became addicted to prescription drugs, and was frequently in and out of mental institutions. He died of a heart attack in 1972, at the age of 65.

“There is a fine line between genius and insanity,” he once quipped. “I have erased this line.”

Happy birthday, Oscar Levant – even if only in remembrance.

Levant plays Gershwin:

Levant on “The Tonight Show” with Jack Paar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVOl49AHD6Q

Levant plays his Sonatina:

Levant in “An American in Paris:”

December 27, 2018

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