CLASSICAL MUSIC / KENNETH HERMAN : Pianist Bares All About All-Gershwin Pops Program

Pianist Cecil Lytle was eager to quell the rumors about his upcoming appearance on the San Diego Symphony’s SummerPops all-Gershwin program.

“Contrary to popular opinion, I will appear fully clothed,” said the originator and prime mover of a celebrated local traveling show called “The Naked Gershwin.”

“Even when we did the programs, only George was naked on the poster.”

For the record, Lytle’s Gershwin poster was pretty innocuous: a strategically placed piano keyboard saved the composer’s likeness from X-rated exposure. Lytle, however, was able to get the more favorable type of exposure with his potpourri of Gershwin songs and piano music. In 1985, when Lytle was still a member of the UCSD music faculty, his Gershwin program was aired locally by the public television station, which led to national syndication the following year.

“We worked on the Gershwin show for only a year and a half, but I had been a Gershwin fan for some 20 years,” explained Lytle. “Gershwin is hardly an unsung composer, but like Franz Liszt, his breadth is not appreciated. We know maybe half a dozen pieces and some of the songs. And there is still a wealth of Gershwin material being unearthed.”

Although pianists regularly perform Gershwin’s Three Preludes, according to Lytle there were originally six of these compositions. From a program Gershwin gave in 1927, musicians know of the additional preludes, and Lytle believes the other three can be reconstructed from sketches in the Gershwin archives at the Library of Congress.

Lytle describes himself as a musician of purposely eclectic pursuits. An accomplished jazz performer, Lytle has also championed the keyboard music of Liszt, Busoni and Scriabin. His latest project is preparing a recording of piano works by the obscure French-American composer Dane Rudhyar.

“I have always appreciated in Gershwin the collusion of musical cultures,” said Lytle. “On a Tuesday night, say, he could accompany Bessie Smith, then later in the week perform with Walter Damrosch.” In fact, Gershwin premiered his Piano Concerto in 1925 under the baton of Damrosch, who at that time conducted the New York Symphony.

Tomorrow through next Saturday at Hospitality Point, Lytle will play the final movement of Gershwin’s Piano Concerto with the San Diego Symphony.

“We’re playing just one movement because it’s a question of timing,” he explained. “The full concerto, which is his finest piece for orchestra and piano, is too long, and the other single-movement pieces are too short.”

Lytle will also solo in Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm” variations, which he acknowledged is not one of the composer’s more sophisticated compositions.

“The piece ties symphonic style with popular music. Like Beethoven did with some of his variation cycles, Gershwin simply wanted to get his music out to the widest possible audience.”

A year ago, Lytle left UCSD’s music department to become provost of the university’s Third College, a move that has effected his typically busy schedule of performing. He claims the demands of administration have changed the focus of his piano-playing from live performance to making more recordings.

He will be able to integrate his professional pursuits this coming year when he gives a series of benefit concerts to raise money for the Third College’s Martin Luther King Scholarship fund, which assists minority students. The variety of these concerts embodies Lytle’s sophisticated eclecticism. His October recital will feature Beethoven’s last three Piano Sonatas; the February concert will be an all-Mozart program with the La Jolla Civic-University Orchestra, and the May 6 concert will be a collaboration with jazz artist Sonny Rollins.

Composing down under. San Diego State University’s senior resident composer, David Ward-Steinman, has departed to Australia for a year’s residency at La Trobe University in Victoria. Ward-Steinman was awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholar grant to perform some of his own music, to lecture on contemporary American music and to compose. The versatile San Diego musician has also recently published a multi-disciplinary tome entitled “Towards a Comparative Structural Theory of the Arts.”

Singing the high C’s. The La Jolla Symphony Chorus is looking for experienced choral singers to augment its ranks. The UC San Diego-based ensemble presents major choral works during the academic year, frequently with the La Jolla Civic-University Orchestra. In May, 1990, the chorus will tour Poland and the Soviet Union, premiering a new composition by noted Polish composer Krsysztof Penderecki. There are openings in all sections, according to Peter Jorgensen of the chorus. Interested singers can call Jorgensen, 481-1582.

Brass attacks. On weekends, they slink through the lower mazes of Horton Plaza playing the theme from “The Pink Panther.” Brasszania, a slick brass quintet from East County, may be the local answer to the Canadian Brass. Under the leadership of horn player R. B. Anthony, Brasszania plays the gamut of music from Scott Joplin to Disney themes to transcriptions of orchestral classics. Their classy, shortened version of Rossini’s William Tell Overture not only affords each player an opportunity to play an extended solo lick, but allows the brand of comedy for which brass players are known. After the overture’s slow introduction, the first trumpeter turns his back to the audience and dons a black face mask just in time to turn around and announce the clarion Lone Ranger theme.