Performance of Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue'

REVIEW: QUEENY POPS

Radio City director
and pianist Biegel add
spark to Pops' lineup

Their performance of Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue'
takes the masterpiece and makes it greater.

BY JOHN HUXHOLD

Perhaps it was putting the woodwinds and horns on risers at the rear of the stage in a less crowded setup than usual.

Perhaps it was conductor Donald Pippin's choice of music like Bernard Herrmann's 'Citizen Kane' overture, 'On the Trails" from Grofe's 'Grand Canyon Suite," or 'Pavanne' by Morton Gould such cre ative alternatives to the usual Pops fare.

Maybe it was radio personality Bill Wilkerson's opening pep talk about how wonderful this concert was going to be.

Whatever the masons, Friday night at the Queeny Pops lived up to Wilkerson's hype.

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra seemed to dig into every phrase, and with the exception of a few minor horn and trumpet tubs (and a spectacular one on clarinet), attacks, balances and execution were of Powell Hall subscription concert quality.

Pippin, who is music director at Radio City Music Hall, included his own graceful arrangements of Jerome Kern and Cole Porter music and had the players stomp their feet during Joplin rags and bark at the end of Leroy Anderson's 'The Waltzing Cat" (it's an inside joke you had to be there).

But I think it was pianist Jeffrey Biegel.

His performance of Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue, restored some cadenzas, ornamentations and extra notes that Gershwin was said to have included when he performed the work but which have been cut out over the years.'

Not only was the added material interesting and idiomatic, but it transformed this episodic masterpiece into a more coherent one.

And can this guy play! Not a single note out of place, even in those high-speed runs and cross-hand complexities. Not a single awkward or mannered rhythm; rather a deep feeling for every gentle or dramatic Gershwin sensibility.

It was the greatest and most exciting performance of the rhapsody I have heard, right up there in quality with Frank or Ella singing 'I've Got a Crush On You' and even better than Gershwin's own piano rolls.

Will somebody with connections please get Biegel into a recording studio so we can have a copy of this treasure?

^{IN OTHER NEWS}
Pianist Jeffrey Biegel's performance of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" Stole the show at Friday's Queeny Pops concert. Donald Pippin, music director of the Radio City Music Hall, conducted an energized St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.