American composer Vernon Duke was also publicly known by his given name as Vladimir Dukelsky, particularly in connection with his concert music and poetry. It is more common for posterity to refer to the composer as "Vernon Duke" whether in writing classical music or popular; the standards he wrote for musicals, such as "April in Paris" and "Autumn in New York" have such a strong jazz feel some have even developed the impression that Duke had to be an African-American! Actually, Duke was Russian-born, and in a purely ...
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American composer Vernon Duke was also publicly known by his given name as Vladimir Dukelsky, particularly in connection with his concert music and poetry. It is more common for posterity to refer to the composer as "Vernon Duke" whether in writing classical music or popular; the standards he wrote for musicals, such as "April in Paris" and "Autumn in New York" have such a strong jazz feel some have even developed the impression that Duke had to be an African-American! Actually, Duke was Russian-born, and in a purely cultural sense, this student of Glière and close friend to Prokofiev never got very far from his Russian roots in his concert music, though there, too, a trace of the telltale influence of Tin Pan Alley can be detected. Not very many of Duke's classical works have been circulated before the release of Naxos American Classics' Vernon Duke: Piano Concerto, which includes two major pieces and a charming piano suite, Homage to Boston (1945), none of which have ever appeared on recordings...
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