A Musical Walk With Gershwin, Rachmaninoff, and Papageno

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The Dutch baritone Thomas Oliemans visits the haunts of great composers. And the air clears, just a little.

By James Barron

Good morning. It's Friday. We’ll go on a walk — something you probably shouldn't do today, but reading about it might take your mind off the smoke from the Canadian wildfires. We’ll also find out when the air quality in New York will improve.

Thomas Oliemans is a newcomer who navigates New York like a native. He has read up on niches of New York history — niches that reflect his passion for George and Ira Gershwin, for Leonard Bernstein and for other musicians.

Oliemans is a Dutch baritone who has spent the last two months in Manhattan. He came for the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Mozart's "Die Zauberflöte," which will have its last performance on Saturday. When he was not at the Met for a rehearsal or a performance, he did what New Yorkers do: He walked. He said that walking was a way to decompress after the on-the-job athletics in "Zauberflöte." A lot of running and jumping and bending.

I tagged along as he led the way across and down the Upper West Side.

Oliemans started the trek there because it was where the Gershwins lived when George worked on "Rhapsody in Blue." It is a 10-story building on the corner of Amsterdam Avenue that was apparently once called the Dreadnought, perhaps not the most inspiring name for an apartment house. Now only the address is on the marquee.

Ira "suggested changing the title from ‘An American Rhapsody’ apparently," Oliemans said. "I probably heard ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ in a movie when I was 10 or 11, and we had a wonderful record." Even the image on the cover of album conjured New York: "I think it was the Chrysler Building," he said.

"When I was here the first time, I took a photo," Oliemans said, "and somebody came by who lived here, apparently, and said there's still a piano in the same apartment, probably not the Gershwins’ piano. But that's New York. They see you take interest in something, they engage with you and share what they know and what they’re curious about."

Oliemans led the way to Riverside Drive, just south of Duke Ellington Boulevard, and stopped in front of two townhouses.

On the day the city renamed West 106th Street for Ellington, Sonny Greer—Ellington's longtime drummer — played hits with a combo at No. 333, where Ellington had worked.

On the day Oliemans and I walked by, the sound in the air was from birds in the trees on Riverside Drive. That was somehow appropriate: In "Zauberflöte" he plays Papageno, the bird catcher.

He said he has heard bird songs from his Upper West Side apartment since arriving in April — until the weather turned warm. Now he hears a mechanical hum. "Air conditioning everywhere," he said. "It sums up spring in New York for me. You only hear birds when it's too chilly."

Oliemans had wondered why there was no plaque about Ellington at No. 333 or next door, at No. 334, where Ellington lived for some years. At 505 West End Avenue, there was not one plaque, but two, about the composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff. He lived there from the mid-1920s until his death in 1940. In those years, he wrote "Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini," among other works.

Oliemans spotted the marquee of the building before I did — and the cluster of dog walkers in front. "All dogs love Rachmaninoff," he said with a laugh.

We had gone there after a stop in front of 316 West 103rd Street, another Gershwin house.

When they lived there, it had a ballroom. The Gershwins used it not for soirees but for table tennis, according to the Gershwin biographer Howard Pollack. The house also had an elevator. "Morris operated the elevator," Oliemans said, adding that one guest reportedly mistook George and Ira's father — a man proud to have a house with an elevator — as someone hired to do the job.

It was a rather chaotic house, apparently. In search of a quieter place, "Gershwin would go over to a hotel on Broadway to compose," Oliemans said.

The Gershwins lived there for four years. In 1929, George and Ira moved into adjoining penthouses at 33 Riverside Drive, at West 75th Street. It turned out that Rachmaninoff had lived at the same address, in a townhouse demolished to make way for the building the Gershwins moved into.

"This would have been the Ira side," Oliemans said, looking up toward the penthouses as we started down the block. The one facing east.

George had the one facing west, toward New Jersey and, ultimately, Los Angeles, where he died in 1937. It must have been a showplace. One story has it that Ethel Merman, summoned for an audition that led to her being cast in the Gershwin musical "Girl Crazy," could not decide whether she was more thrilled to get the audition or to see the apartment.

Weather

On a mostly sunny day, expect a chance of showers and thunderstorms persisting through the evening. Temps near the low 70s will drop to the high 50s in the evening.

ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING

Suspended because of smoky air.

Rikers: Louis Molina, the correction commissioner, has failed to stop the violence there, and officials have shut down avenues of information about what happens behind bars, according to a report filed in federal court.

Redistricting: State courts that struck down Democrats’ gerrymandered maps a year ago are poised to decide a renewed legal challenge.

Lawyer who used ChatGPT: A lawyer who filed a brief filled with fake judicial opinions and legal citations, all generated by ChatGPT, appeared before a Manhattan judge to face something real: potential sanctions.

Composting bill: The New York City Council approved a bill that will require New Yorkers to separate their food waste from regular trash.

Retail jobs lost: In the three years since February 2020, New York City lost 37,800 retail jobs. The city's job losses in retail were also far worse than in the rest of the country.

The meter on airnow.gov stopped at merely "unhealthy" yesterday — it registered 166 at 5 p.m., down from 172 an hour earlier — and the prediction was for 120 today.

It was a welcome change from the 400-plus levels and the dystopian look of New York City on Wednesday, when the smoke that poured in from Canadian wildfires blurred out the skyline. For much of the day on Thursday, the sky was a bright silvery gray. It could almost have been a foggy day, except that what was hugging the ground did not burn off as the day went on.

The smoke on Wednesday carried particularly dangerous pollutants, a concern for people with asthma or other respiratory conditions. Yesterday Mayor Eric Adams noted on Twitter that the air quality health advisory had been extended until 11:59 p.m. tonight. "Please continue to limit your outdoor activities and mask up," he said. And Gov. Kathy Hochul dispatched forest rangers trained in fighting wildfires to Quebec — the first such team sent there in nearly 20 years.

Hochul said that the only place in New York not affected by the smoke was the Adirondacks, the mountainous region in the state's north.

"The message is: This is not over," she said.

Everything from schools to racetracks rewrote plans and schedules. The city's public schools will conduct classes remotely today. This mainly affects high school students; school was already scheduled to be closed for most children in elementary and middle schools.

Horse racing was canceled at Belmont Park, and training was called off at Belmont and Saratoga Springs upstate. Hochul announced enhanced measures to protect horses at the state's tracks in anticipation of the Belmont Stakes on Saturday.

But in much of New York City the mood was lighter, even as many people continued to wear masks on the street. Some, like a man cleaning the steps at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, shed theirs.

He said he simply grew tired of it: "We’re progressing toward better air."

Selvin Duffus, who works his father's bicycle shop nearby, echoed that idea. "We’ll be fine in a few days," said.

METROPOLITAN diary

Dear Diary:

5:23 p.m. Five boys sat apartWith no regard for postureSlumping in their seatsAfraid to look awayFrom their video games5:30 p.m.Two angry women sat togetherBoth had braided hairThey appeared to be swearingIn a dialect foreign to meWhen melons escapedTheir grocery bags5:36 p.m.A woman across the aisleStared and called me touristWhen I asked how she knewShe mentioned I was smiling5:38 p.m. Then she told me she was sadBut how sad she couldn't determineHer chest kept getting in the wayMaking it impossible to tellIf her heart was bruised or broken

— Danny Klecko

Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.

Glad we could get together here. See you on Monday. — J.B.

P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.

Melissa Guerrero and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].

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James Barron is a Metro reporter and columnist who writes the New York Today newsletter. In 2020 and 2021, he wrote the Coronavirus Update column, part of coverage that won a Pulitzer Prize for public service. He is the author of two books and was the editor of "The New York Times Book of New York."

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