It’s April in Paris (and everywhere else for that matter).
Vernon Duke was born Vladimir Dukelsky in what is now Belarus in 1903. In Kiev, he studied composition under Reinhold Gliere. He left the USSR in 1920, traveling to New York, where he was befriended by George Gershwin. In fact, it was Gershwin who suggested the name change. (Gershwin himself was born Jacob Gershowitz.)
For a time, he ping-ponged back and forth to Europe, where he fulfilled a commission by Serge Diaghilev (for the ballet “Zephyr and Flora”). The work impressed Sergei Prokofiev, and the two became fast friends. Dukelsky’s Symphony No. 1 was given its premiere in Paris, under Serge Koussevitzky, on the same program as excerpts from Prokofiev’s “The Fiery Angel.”
Around the same time, Duke began contributing material to musical comedies in London. This laid the groundwork for a return to New York in 1929. There, he continued to composed “serious” works, while insinuating himself into the Broadway scene. A number of his songs – “April in Paris,” “Autumn in New York,” “Taking a Chance on Love,” “I Can’t Get Started” – have since become standards.
When Gershwin died in 1937, Duke stepped in to complete his unfinished score for “The Goldwyn Follies,” for which he contributed a couple of ballets (choreographed by George Balanchine) and the song, “Spring Again.” His greatest success came in 1940, with the Broadway show, “Cabin in the Sky.”
A number of his concert works have been recorded in recent years. While bouncing around YouTube this morning, I came across this rare concert broadcast of his Symphony No. 3:
Here’s a fine, digital recording by Metropolitan Opera cellist Samuel Magill of Dukelsky’s Cello Concerto:
Mov’t I: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwqtTdGa2Co
Mov’t II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78ggFix_8x4
Mov’t III: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0eXu5wSF_8
Finally, Sarah Vaughan sings “April in Paris”:
PHOTO: Duke (right), with Ira Gershwin
