In Tuesday’s (1/21) New York Times, Allan Kozinn writes, “ ‘The stage setting was unconventional as the program,’ the New York Times critic Olin Downes wrote of a concert he attended at Aeolian Hall, on West 43rd Street, on Feb. 12, 1924. He went on to describe ‘a scene that would have curdled the blood of a Stokowski or a Mengelberg,’ two of the most revered conductors of the day.… The program, led by Paul Whiteman, was billed as ‘Experiment in Modern Music,’ and was meant to offer a zesty overview of jazz by ways of jazz-tinged symphonic works by Irving Berlin, Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern, and Zez Confrey. It turned out to be a milestone in both classical music and jazz history: its centerpiece was the premiere of Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue,’ with the composer at the piano.… Maurice Peress, a conductor who has made a specialty of leading works in which the influences of jazz and classical music mingle … plans to re-create Whiteman’s concert on Feb. 12, its 90th anniversary.… Vice Giordano and the Nighthawks orchestra will stand in for Whiteman’s band, with Mr. Peress conducting and the jazz pianist Ted Rosenthal … currently on the faculties of the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of music, will be the soloist for ‘Rhapsody in Blue.’ ”
Posted January 22, 2014
