ISO centennial salute: Supremacy of Gershwin's songs soars on 'Rhapsody in Blue' level

It's been a hundred years since the ultimate in crossover musical achievement premiered: Geroge Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." In celebration, Jack Everly, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra's principal pops conductor, has made the pioneering work for piano and orchestra the centerpiece of the season's second program in the Pops Series. 

The celebratory concert Friday was all-Gershwin at a high level, heralded by the mayor's proclamation that Oct. 11 was a day in honor of the ISO in its 40th-annniversary weekend at Hilbert Circle Theatre. Apart from the "Rhapsody," with the solo part incisively performed by Stewart Goodyear, the focus was Gershwin's songs. Everly told the huge audience, with some pride, that there are 30 songs in this show. 

Some of them were in a few show overtures, of which several had choral arrangements by Eric Stark, artistic director of the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, which sang them.  The large chorus seemed to be displaying its usual clear diction, but the heft of the instrumental accompaniment downstage tended to obscure the lyrics. You could come close to wishing for supertitles, as is the norm for Classical Series selections that feature the voice. Yet "But Not for Me," a song of subdued regret, came through clearly as part of the Overture to "Girl Crazy."

George Gershwin (1898-1937)

In an interview some 30 years ago, the English maestro Raymond Leppard, the ISO's fifth music director, called Gershwin "the American Schubert." It's a whimsical comparison with a core of truth: Songs poured out of Gershwin as they had for the Austrian composer. They have proved to be immortal. Like him, Gershwin was also short-lived, though fortunately much more renowned in his time.

Felled at 38 by a quickly developing brain tumor, the popular songwriter suffered a wrenching death and was widely mourned. Many felt, as the short-story writer and novelist John O'Hara put it: "George Gershwin died on July 11, 1937, but I don't have to believe it if I don't want to." 

We have gotten used to denial of facts in the political sphere, and of course O'Hara's remark is a figurative tribute, with rueful humor, to the public sense that there should have been new Gershwin music to come indefinitely. The bounty was considerable, of course, as it was with Schubert, who died at 31.

Solo songs being  the definitive Gershwin genre, the special treat on the program is the Indianapolis debut

Allison Blackwell: a radiant vocalist

of a substantially credited vocalist from the East Coast: Allison Blackwell. Everly discovered her on one of his frequent visits to Broadway, and told the audience he readily decided she should be part of this program. It turned out she is close to essential. Though her voice is without the inimitable blare of Ethel Merman (who introduced "I Got Rhythm" to the world in "Funny Face"), it has considerable oomph, rising to a lush soprano as needed. It has security in volume, phrasing, and tone.

Blackwell's stage deportment suited each of the selections, from the lament "My Man's Gone Now" from "Porgy and Bess" to the faux-crazy rhyme circus of "Just Another Rhumba." Her riveting gaze and adroit body language put across everything she sang. Making explicit her debt to Ella Fitzgerald in remarks to the audience, Blackwell nonetheless put her own stamp on such songs as "Someone to Watch Over Me" and "Our Love Is Here to Stay." Her "Summertime" was a lullaby that would put no one to sleep, but could be taken as universally calming. 

Everly's knack for programming made the most of a first-act closer, the Overture to the film "Rhapsody in Blue," a 1945 biopic featuring Robert Alda as George Gershwin. With its recurrent splashes of tunefulness and well-judged climactic moments, it delivered everyone happily into intermission. 

As for "Rhapsody in Blue" itself, it was the centerpiece only in importance, not in the central position. It was placed aptly at the end. All that preceded it constructed an ascent to Goodyear's saucy, sparkling interpretation of the beloved music, impeccably joined to the orchestra's accompaniment in the same spirit. If you would like to build your own stairway to paradise, the program will be repeated at 7 p.m. today.