By Marilyn Lester***In the last Standard Time concert of the 2025-26 season, singer-pianist-historian and keeper of the American songbook flame, Michael Feinstein, presented a marvelous My Celebration: The Magical Music of Johnny Mathis and Henry Mancini at Zankel Hall, a featured event within Carnegie Hall’s United in Sound: America at 250 festival. The evening was possibly Feinstein’s 
most personal show of the long-running series yet—an element that added an extra layer of mood and magic to the program.
The Carnegie Hall Big Band paved the way for the evening’s riches with an explosive arrangement of Mancini’s driving 1958 theme for the Peter Gunn TV series. With that attention-grabber, Feinstein arrived onstage with his usual flair, treating an eager audience to “Le Jazz Hot,” the showstopper from 1982’s Victor/Victoria (Mancini, Leslie Bricusse), moving into Mathis territory with that singers 1956 debut single “Wonderful! Wonderful!” (Ben Raleigh, Sherman Edwards), the song that catapulted Mathis to fame at age 21.
In his always rich, witty and informative narrative, brightly salted throughout the program, Feinstein provided key biographical information about the two music legends, along with anecdotes of his personal relationships with each of them. The prolific composer-arranger Mancini ((1924–1994), a mentor to Feinstein, greatly shaped the music of TV and film. His work is indelibly 
American and instantly recognizable; Mancini received 72 GRAMMY nominations and won 20 GRAMMYs, also earning 18 Oscar nominations, taking away four Academy Awards. During the concert, Feinstein took the piano only once, and it was to sing Mancini’s own personal favorite, “Two for the Road” (Leslie Bricusse), the title song of the 1967 film.
Mathis, who will be 91 on September 30, has long been a soul mate in music to Feinstein as well as a respected friend. Mathis, a sensation from the get-go, only stopped touring last year. Fun fact: he was a gifted athlete, giving up a potential spot on the 1956 U.S. Olympic track team for a music career. Good decision: after his aforementioned ’56 breakout single, he released his first “Greatest Hits” album a mere two years later in 1958! His versatility, from romantic crooner to pop, soul, R& and soft rock has earned a GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award and induction into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame. Feinstein dove into those early greatest hits with crooning renditions of “Chances Are” (Robert Allen, Al Stillman and “It’s Not for Me to Say” (Allen, Stillman).
It would be unthinkable to presume that Mathis and Mancini never intersected; the two were friends and 
collaborators, touring together and notably recording the 10-track The Hollywood Musicals album, which Mathis has cited as a favorite among his releases (but no songs from it were chosen for this concert). A short homage to songwriter Bart Howard, who championed the newly-arrived-to-NYC Mathis, included his 1952 work, “Let Me Love You.” Among the many high points of My Celebration: The Magical Music of Johnny Mathis and Henry Mancini, was “Misty,” composed in 1954 by jazz pianist Erroll Garner. Eventually, this instrumental had lyrics set by Johnny Burke. Mathis recorded it in one take for his 1959 album Heavenly. The tune wasn’t on the studio set list, but Mathis insisted and it became his signature song.
Providing extraordinary musical support was The Carnegie Hall Big Band, music directed by pianist-arranger Tedd Firth, leading a tight unit of first-call, top-level musicians. Firth’s brilliance as an arranger was evident in 11 tunes, 
outside of Mancini originals. Among Firth’s was a Latinized “Wild Is the Wind” (Dimitri Tiomkin, Ned Washington), originally recorded in 1957 as a sweeping, romantic ballad; and in an homage to disco Mathis, a funky version of the 1934 standard, “I Only Have Eyes for You” (Harry Warren, Al Dubin).
In a concert that cut a wide swath through the indelible contributions of two giants of American music, the closer, “Moon River” (Mancini, Johnny Mercer), was perfection with Firth’s arrangement of alternating flute and clarinet “shout chorus” layers and Feinstein’s delivery well-illustrating why this song won a 1961 Academy Award, a 1962 GRAMMY for Record of the Year and Song of the Year, induction into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame and selection for preservation in the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry. By the concert’s last impelling note, we’d crossed in style to that rainbow’s end.
Concert photos by Stephanie Berger
