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" Oscar Levant: "
Boyd, Caleb T.
Decker, Todd
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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1113885
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| Doc. No
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TLpq2394319762
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| Main Entry
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Boyd, Caleb T.
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Decker, Todd
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| Title & Author
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Oscar Levant:\ Boyd, Caleb T.Decker, Todd
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| College
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Washington University in St. Louis
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| Date
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2020
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| student score
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2020
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Page No
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406
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| Abstract
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Following George Gershwin’s death in 1937, his friend and fellow pianist Oscar Levant (1906-1972) constructed a multifaceted professional career across many forms of modern media that not only helped him build and maintain his popular status as a Gershwinite, but also helped establish Gershwin’s piano music in the American concert hall canon. For nearly twenty years, Levant – more often than any other pianist – performed the Rhapsody in Blue and the Concerto in F in concert halls, in outdoor stadia, on radio, and in films. He first came to national attention in 1938 as a regular panelist on the radio quiz show Information Please. His weekly demonstrations of his vast musical memory amazed listeners, and his rapport with his fellow panelists and penchant for a smart jibe or quick retort earned him popularity as a wit. With 1939, he used his radio fame to launch an additional career as a touring pianist, and by 1942 many Americans recognized him as the leading interpreter of the Rhapsody and the Concerto in F. Levant performed works by other composers, as well, but none so often as Gershwin, and he maintained his popular status as top Gershwin pianist for many years.
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Classical music
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Gershwin
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Middlebrow
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Piano
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Popular music
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Radio
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