Rhapsody In Blue, by George Gershwin, performed for first time - Feb 12, 1924 - HISTORY.com Rhapsody In Blue, by George Gershwin, performed for first time Share this: Rhapsody In Blue, by George Gershwin, performed for first time Author Rhapsody In Blue, by George Gershwin, performed for first time URL Publisher A+E Networks “The audience packed a house that could have been sold out at twice the size,” wrote New York Times critic Olin Downes on February 13, 1924, of a concert staged the previous afternoon at the Aeolian Hall in New York City. Billed as an educational event, the “Experiment In Modern Music” concert was organized by Paul Whiteman, the immensely popular leader of the Palais Royal Orchestra, to demonstrate that the relatively new form of music called jazz deserved to be regarded as a serious and sophisticated art form. The program featured didactic segments intended to make this case—segments with titles like “Contrast: Legitimate Scoring vs. Jazzing.” After 24 such stem-winders, the house was growing restless.

Then a young man named George Gershwin, then known only as a composer of Broadway songs, seated himself at the piano to accompany the orchestra in the performance of a brand new piece of his own composition, called Rhapsody In Blue. “It starts with an outrageous cadenza of the clarinet,” wrote Downes of the now-famous two-and-a-half-octave glissando that makes Rhapsody in Blue as instantly recognizable as Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. “It has subsidiary phrases, logically growing out of it…often metamorphosed by devices of rhythm and instrumentation.” The music critic of the New York Times was in agreement with Whiteman’s basic premise: “This is no mere dance-tune set for piano and other instruments,” he judged. “This composition shows extraordinary talent, just as it also shows a young composer with aims that go far beyond those of his ilk.” It may be true that George Gershwin had always hoped to transcend the category of popular music, but the piece he used to accomplish that feat was put together very hastily.

Just five weeks prior to the “Experiment in Modern Music” concert, Gershwin had not committed to writing a piece for it, when his brother Ira read a report in the New York Tribune stating that George was “at work on a jazz concerto” for the program. Thus painted into a corner, George Gershwin pieced Rhapsody In Blue together as best he could in the time available, leaving his own piano part to be improvised during the world premiere. Rhapsody would, of course, come to be regarded as one of the most important American musical works of the 20th century. It would also open the door for a whole generation of “serious” composers—from Copland to Brecht—to draw on jazz elements in their own important works. Related Videos George Gershwin — Rhapsody in Blue — Listen, watch, download and discover music for free at Last.fm gershwin Rhapsody in Blue is a musical composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band written in 1924, which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects.

The composition was orchestrated by Ferde Grofé three times, in 1924, in 1926, and finally in 1946. The piece received its premiere in a concert entitled An Experiment in Modern Music, which was held on 12 February 1924, in Aeolian Hall, New York, by Paul Whiteman and his band with Gershwin playing… read more Similar Tracks Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue - the story behind a hastily composed masterpiece - Classic FM Schedule Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue - the story behind a hastily composed masterpiece The great American composer first found out he was meant to be writing his most ground-breaking work from a newspaper article. Late at night on 3 January 1924, George Gershwin, his brother Ira and lyricist Buddy DeSylva were having a game in the Ambassador Billiard Parlor at 52nd Street on Broadway, when an item in the amusement section of the New York Tribune caught Ira’s attention.

It was about a concert of new American music to be given by Paul Whiteman and his Palais Royal Band at Aeolian Hall on 12 February - Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. “George Gershwin is at work on a jazz concerto,” ran the article, “Irving Berlin is writing a syncopated tone poem…” It was all news to George. His musical comedy, Sweet Little Devil, was set to open in just three weeks. And now he had to write a concerto by 12 February as well? Paul Whiteman was the most popular bandleader of the 1920s and enjoyed the title “King of Jazz” – although this was no jazz band; rather it was a large dance orchestra that used jazz musicians from time to time. But Whiteman twisted Gershwin's arm that all he had to do was supply a piano score. Ferde Grofé, Whiteman’s brilliant in-house arranger, would be able to orchestrate the work tailored to the band’s line-up. While he was on the train to Boston for rehearsals of his musical, Gershwin sketched out a framework for the new piece, which he began writing on 7 January.

Over the next few days, while he also made last-minute changes to ready Sweet Little Devil for its New York opening on 24 January, the genius completed a two-piano score. What Gershwin produced was not a “jazz concerto” but a rhapsodic work for “piano and jazz band” incorporating elements of European symphonic music and American jazz with his inimitable melodic gift and keyboard facility. Gershwin’s original title for it was American Rhapsody. But, by chance, Ira had been to an exhibition of Whistler’s paintings and saw the painter's Nocturne In Blue And Green of the Thames at Chelsea. Why not call the new piece Rhapsody In Blue instead, he suggested. The title would reflect the European and American influences. Also at Ira’s suggestion, George contrasted the syncopated character that dominates the tune with an expressive romantic theme the composer had previously improvised at a party. The Rhapsody, with its composer as soloist, was premièred in front of a packed house that included such musical luminaries as the composer Rachmaninov , the violinist Fritz Kreisler and the conductor Leopold Stokowski .

Despite not yet having written down much of the piano part, Gershwin scored a triumphant success with the work which today is hailed as a landmark in American music. Latest on Classic FM Bernstein Plays Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue : NPR Embed Embed <iframe src="" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> On June 23rd, 1959, Leonard Bernstein and the Columbia Symphony took their places at the St. George Hotel in Brooklyn, N.Y. and made a landmark recording of Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue.' To celebrate the event, Ted Libbey adds the album to our list of 50 essential classical recordings. Rhapsody In Blue, the first "serious" composition by George Gershwin (1898-1937), is likely to remain his most popular work in any form, more for its prodigious melodic richness rather than for any deeper expressiveness or structural brilliance.

In the hands of another composer, Rhapsody In Blue could easily have turned into a disjointed exercise in symphonically dressed up jazz rhythms, melodic figures and quasi-improvisatory instrumental licks. Instead, Gershwin's uncanny sense of timing, and a gift for memorable melody unparalleled in the 20th century, turned the Rhapsody into an embodiment of the Jazz Age's upbeat lyricism and dance-driven vitality. The roaring Twenties had a soul, and this was it. The piece was composed in considerable haste, for a concert on February 12th, 1924, organized by jazz bandleader Paul Whiteman. It took place at New York's Aeolian Hall, billed as an "Experiment In Modern Music." The piece was scored for jazz band by Whiteman's arranger, the multitalented Ferde Grofé, and Gershwin himself played the piano solo — though at the time of the premiere he had not yet written it out. Grofé also scored the work's orchestral version. Article continues after sponsorship The Bernstein Swagger Leonard Bernstein's recording is a disc for the ages. It's American music performed with mid-century flair, a moment never to be recaptured.

Bernstein had the feel for Rhapsody In Blue, and he does full justice to the still racy and spontaneous score. His performance of the piano solo has a smoky, sultry jazziness to it, along with a brash exuberance; there is touching tenderness in the lullaby, riveting dynamism in the fast pages. The sound on this "Bernstein Century" CD is spectacular. To hear last week's feature, click here. For a full archive of NPR's Classical 50, click here . Related NPR Stories Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin Songfacts Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin Songfacts Songfacts By 1923, the bandleader Paul Whiteman wanted to do something different with jazz. He wanted to turn the American dance band into something a bit more prestigious, or as Paul Osgood, the author of 1926's So This is Jazz put it, make "an honest woman out of jazz." Whiteman said in 1927, "I never questioned her honesty.

I simply thought she needed a new dress." Whiteman invited George Gershwin to perform in his Experiment in Modern Music show with his Palais Royal Orchestra, slated for February 12, 1924. George's brother Ira Gershwin recalled reading an article in the New York Herald on January 4 about the upcoming jazz concerto, which said that George would be performing. This was news to Ira. George reports that he had started to consider the idea of writing something that pushed "the limitations of jazz" the previous December. When working out the theme, he heard it as "a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America." "American Rhapsody" became "Rhapsody in Blue" at Ira's suggestion. Whiteman's show began in the afternoon and carried into the evening. The packed house had already enjoyed a full program of some of the America's finest jazz. A critic for Theatre Magazine wrote, "Mr. Whiteman's jazz concert was often vulgar, but it was never dull." However, it was Gershwin's piece that was the star of the show.

The two-and-a-half-octave clarinet glissando is instantly recognizable today, but was not like much that the crowd had ever heard before. "Rhapsody in Blue" commanded three curtain calls, despite the fact that Gershwin had been so rushed to complete the score, he improvised his own piano solo. His manuscript of the music contained blank pages in place of his piano parts. In addition to Gershwin, 18 musicians played a total of 23 instruments at the concert. The piece was arranged by Ferde Grofé. Is this jazz? Critics have been divided on that. Some have suggested that it is a series of songs strung together that can easily be broken up. Maybe that was, to a degree, the point. Gershwin wanted to write something that exemplified America as a melting pot, not to mention to prove his own worth as a serious composer. He did both. Respected writer William Saroyan said of the piece, it is "an American in New York City; at the same time it is an American in any city...

It is also an American in a small town, on a farm, at work in a factory, in a mine or a mill, a forest or a field." New York critic Olin Downes said of Gershwin after the show, "This is no mere dance-tune set for piano and other instruments. This composition shows extraordinary talent, just as it also shows a young composer with aims that go far beyond those of his ilk." By the end of the year, Whiteman and his orchestra had performed "Rhapsody in Blue" more than 80 times and their recording had sold over a million copies. The success of the song was not lost on Gershwin. Legend has it that when he was speaking with composer John Ireland, Gershwin asked him how often Ireland's rhapsody, "Mai-Dun," was played per year. When Ireland replied, "Three," Gershwin said, "Three. Ah, Mine gets played two or three times per day!" The original 1924 performance of this song was recorded, and it was released on June 10, 1924.

Running a total of 8:59, it took up both sides of a 78-rpm record, and much of the middle section was omitted. In 1927, Ferde Grofé re-orchestrated the song, and Gershwin again recorded it with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. With a slower tempo and much better sound quality, this became the most popular version of the song. Many listeners will recognize this song as the signature music of United Airlines, which used it in commercials and on board their planes starting in 1987. Unlike older classical compositions, the song is not in the public domain, so United paid a fee of $300,000 per year to license the piece. For United, the recognizable and elegant song helped brand the airline as trustworthy while soothing passengers in potentially stressful circumstances. It was a major change from their "fly the friendly skies" campaign which they used pre-"Rhapsody," and remains one of the most iconic uses of music in corporate branding. United was the first company to use the song in commercials.

Some of the media uses of this song include the TV shows The Simpsons (in the 2010 episode "Elementary School Musical" and again in 2012 in "The D'oh-cial Network") and Glee, and the movies Poetic Justice and Fantasia/2000. Many older movies featured the song as well, including St. Louis Blues (1929), King of Jazz (1930), and The Great Ziegfeld (1936). Gershwin conceived his famous piano concerto while on a train to Boston. He said at the beginning of 1924: "I had already done some work on the rhapsody. It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang that is often so stimulating for a composer." Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson says that this is the first song he ever heard, and that he was enthralled by it. "I loved the part where the violins came in," he told Rolling Stone.

"I just got this overwhelmingly beautiful vibe from the music." George Gershwin | About the Composer | American Masters | PBS About the Composer Comments George Gershwin was born in Brooklyn in 1898, the second of four children from a close-knit immigrant family. He began his musical career as a song-plugger on Tin Pan Alley , but was soon writing his own pieces. Gershwin’s first published song, “When You Want ‘Em, You Can’t Get ‘Em,” demonstrated innovative new techniques, but only earned him five dollars. Soon after, however, he met a young lyricist named Irving Ceaser. Together they composed a number of songs including “Swanee,” which sold more than a million copies. In the same year as “Swanee,” Gershwin collaborated with Arthur L. Jackson and Buddy De Sylva on his first complete Broadway musical, “La, La Lucille”.

Over the course of the next four years, Gershwin wrote forty-five songs; among them were “Somebody Loves Me” and “Stairway to Paradise,” as well as a twenty-five-minute opera, “Blue Monday.” Composed in five days, the piece contained many musical clichés, but it also offered hints of developments to come. In 1924, George collaborated with his brother, lyricist Ira Gershwin, on a musical comedy “Lady Be Good”. It included such standards as “Fascinating Rhythm” and “The Man I Love.” It was the beginning of a partnership that would continue for the rest of the composer’s life. Together they wrote many more successful musicals including “Oh Kay!” and “Funny Face”, staring Fred Astaire and his sister Adele. While continuing to compose popular music for the stage, Gershwin began to lead a double life, trying to make his mark as a serious composer.

When he was 25 years old, his jazz-influenced “Rhapsody in Blue” premiered in New York’s Aeolian Hall at the concert, “An Experiment in Music.” The audience included Jascha Heifetz , Fritz Kreisler, Leopold Stokowski, Serge Rachmaninov, and Igor Stravinsky. Gershwin followed this success with his orchestral work “Piano Concerto in F, Rhapsody No. 2” and “An American in Paris”. Serious music critics were often at a loss as to where to place Gershwin’s classical music in the standard repertoire. Some dismissed his work as banal and tiresome, but it always found favor with the general public. In the early thirties, Gershwin experimented with some new ideas in Broadway musicals. “Strike Up The Band”, “Let ‘Em Eat Cake”, and “Of Thee I Sing”, were innovative works dealing with social issues of the time. “Of Thee I Sing” was a major hit and the first comedy ever to win the Pulitzer Prize. In 1935 he presented a folk opera “Porgy and Bess” in Boston with only moderate success.

Now recognized as one of the seminal works of American opera, it included such memorable songs as “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” “I Loves You, Porgy,” and “Summertime.” In 1937, after many successes on Broadway, the brothers decided go to Hollywood. Again they teamed up with Fred Astaire, who was now paired with Ginger Rogers. They made the musical film, “Shall We Dance”, which included such hits as “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” and “They Can’t Take That Away From Me.” Soon after came “A Damsel in Distress”, in which Astaire appeared with Joan Fontaine. After becoming ill while working on a film, he had plans to return to New York to work on writing serious music. He planned a string quartet, a ballet and another opera, but these pieces were never written. At the age of 38, he died of a brain tumor. Today he remains one of America’s most beloved popular musicians. What did you think? Classical Notes - George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue", Classical Classics, Peter Gutmann Composers' own records have unique value.

More clearly than verbal descriptions or even written notation, they document the creator's conception, inspire understanding and guide further interpretation. Among the most essential of these is George Gershwin's brilliant 1924 record of his Rhapsody in Blue, which preserves the world premiere of one of the most popular works in the entire repertoire – and in a performance strikingly different from those to which we're accustomed. Here is Gershwin himself playing the piano solo in his own peerless style, accompanied by the musicians for whom he wrote the work. If only we could transcend conjecture to hear how Beethoven played his own revolutionary piano sonatas or how Wagner conducted his own tradition-shattering operas! Gershwin was born Jacob Gershvitz in 1898 to Russian immigrant parents in Brooklyn, where he was immersed in a vast range of music. He left high school for Tin Pan Alley and worked three years as a pianist plugging sheet music for Remick's music publishers. Quickly absorbing both the writing and performing styles of his time, Gershwin moonlighted as a vocal accompanist and dabbled in composition.

A mere 20 years old, he soared to fame with “Swanee,” a mega-hit for Al Jolson. Within the next few years the flow of songs continued, including several Broadway musicals. Apparently, at one point Gershwin had mentioned his desire to write a serious piece incorporating jazz and pop elements to Paul Whiteman, whose dance band was among the most popular in America. Nothing more came of this until January 3, 1924, when Whiteman announced an eclectic concert to take place at New York City's Aeolian Hall, with the bold purpose of displaying modern American music in all its varieties. A self-portrait Whiteman went on to proclaim that Gershwin was at work on a jazz concerto which would receive its premiere at the event. This was news to Gershwin, who read about it in the next day's paper along with the rest of the world. Gershwin protested that he had nothing in progress except a new show and was headed to Boston for a tryout. Worse yet, the Whiteman concert was slated for February 12! Despite the confusion, Whiteman apparently persuaded Gershwin to accept his commission.

Gershwin later recalled that he formed the concept of the piece on his way to Boston, inspired in part by the rhythmic noises of the train ride. Upon returning to his New York apartment, he produced a two-piano score to be orchestrated by Whiteman's top arranger. Best remembered for his glitzy but trifling Grand Canyon Suite, Ferde Grofé knew the special talents of the Whiteman musicians and was uniquely qualified to customize the score to maximize its impact. Thus, the famous opening glissando was tailored for Russ Gorman, Whiteman's first-chair clarinetist. The instrumentation was completed barely a week before the scheduled premiere. Due to the rushed circumstances and his other commitments, Gershwin had no time to write out the solo passages, which he played from memory (and, great improviser that he was, probably embellished considerably). Gershwin's understanding with Whiteman was that he would nod when his solos were over and the next orchestral portion was to begin. The concert was long and tedious, with Gershwin's piece nearly at the end. While critical reaction was mixed, the audience was thrilled and the work was recognized immediately as something new and excitingly different.

Even now, with the vantage of retrospect, the Rhapsody in Blue eludes convenient classification. Is it classical music with pop elements, or jazz with serious pretensions? Just what type of musical creature is the Rhapsody in Blue? From the very outset, commentators have struggled to describe it. Gershwin had declared his intention as breaking down misconceptions about the limitations of jazz. But such terminology is confusing – this wasn't the same spontaneously improvised “jazz” that his contemporaries Louis Armstrong, Jellyroll Morton and Bix Biederbecke were creating. Rather, it was a mainstream version filtered into dance arrangements that stretched conventional rules with a novel edge of some harmonic flights, rhythmic variation and emphatic playing. Whiteman's claim to have been “The King of Jazz” must have gotten a good sneer from real jazz musicians. Far more cogent is John Struble's observation that Gershwin approached all music as a songwriter. His strength was as one of the great instinctive melodists of all time. Although he did receive some formal musical training, his abiding weakness was structure.

Thus, notwithstanding a great love for the piece, Leonard Bernstein disparaged the Rhapsody in Blue as “not a composition at all [but] a string of … terrific tunes … stuck together with a thin paste of flour and water.” Arthur Schwartz agreed, calling the development and transitions “more intuition than tuition.” All Gershwin's works discount traditional development and proceed linearly from one event to the next. The appealing result, as Alex North observed, is a natural, sincere expression which, as James Lyons noted, manifests the confidence and nervous energy of the “Roaring Twenties.” Perhaps the most reliable measure of the Rhapsody's originality is that it had no direct descendants. Indeed, subsequent attempts to meld pop and serious music always seem awkward. Yet, its fame and impact inspired many serious composers, including Ravel, Stravinsky and Milhaud, to explore jazz and stirred countless pop composers to dabble in classical forms. But all of this lay well in the future, a future which Gershwin, who died at age 38 of a brain tumor, would not live to see. In the meantime, the months following the Whiteman premiere saw many more performances, including two at Carnegie Hall.

And then for the young and daring composer came a terrific break – the opportunity to record his sensation for Victor, or at least as much of it as could fit onto a 2-sided 12-inch record. The session took place on June 10 and featured the same Whiteman players who had been at Aeolian Hall, including Gershwin himself at the piano. Although the second half is heavily cut, the performance captured that day fully regenerates the exhilaration that elated the first audience. The pacing is brisk and at times even frantic, the dynamics extreme, the playing biting, tense and driven. There is not a bit of the gushy romanticism heard on so many bloated modern interpretations of the piece (in part because they use Grofé's later full orchestration). Even the shrill, brassy, lean orchestration seems an ideal match for the sonic limitations of the acoustic process, a purely mechanical recording system in which musical vibrations were gathered by a horn and engraved by a stylus directly on a wax master. This is an ideal realization – brash and arrogant, just the impression we would expect from the young composer who had turned the world on its head by daring to synthesize “jazz” and the classics.

The opening glissando is lumpy, but effectively sets the aural stage for the spontaneity to come. Gershwin's solos are so free-flowing as to sound as if they truly did arise on the spot. The band responds with biting sarcasm, as if to mock the pretension of a formal concert setting. The entire performance has a rousing impromptu tone, as if to proclaim the passionate commitment of the original ensemble infusing the score with the very breath of creation. The sheer sincerity of the record is simply overwhelming. It's currently on budget Naxos CD 120510 and BMG 62376. Gershwin himself left us two other performances. A comparably abridged 1927 remake with Whiteman's band (but not Whiteman himself, who stormed out of the session after arguing with Gershwin over tempo) used the new electrical recording process of microphones and amplifiers (also on BMG 62376) and comes close but doesn't quite recapture the fresh authority of the original.

A full-length 1925 piano roll (Nonesuch 79287) thickens the texture to sketch in the orchestral parts (even though it may have “cheated” a bit by extending Gershwin's own considerable virtuosity through extra hand-punched holes). Of other performances, the most compelling have no pretense of manicured refinement, but follow Gershwin's own cue of free-wheeling impulse. We remember Oscar Levant primarily as an insufferable character in the MGM musicals The Band Wagon and An American in Paris (in which he whimsically dreams that he and multiple clones play the finale of Gershwin's Concerto in F). More significant than his acting, though, was his dedicated service as a Gershwin aide and accompanist. Thus, Levant's brisk and highly personal 1945 reading of the Rhapsody with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra (CBS 42574) is second only to Gershwin's in authenticity. When first released on LP, the album bore the “CL” prefix used for pop albums rather than the “ML” classical prefix, a clear recognition of its crossover appeal.

Another striking performance comes from a most unlikely source – that straight-laced classicist, Arturo Toscanini . During World War II, Toscanini pushed the performance of American music as a patriotic gesture. While he had no feeling for the pop language that infuses Gershwin's work, to his credit he made no attempt to mimic an alien style. Rather, he approached Gershwin with the same fierce severity as any other classical piece, tearing into the accompaniment with dramatic gusto while yielding to idiomatic solos by a young and intrepid Earl Wild. (Benny Goodman, a celebrity recruited to play the opening clarinet solo, muffs a disastrous climactic note.) The 1942 broadcast (on Hunt CD 534) is vivid and committed, a fascinating if perverse contrast to the usual readings. The elements missing from Toscanini's rigorous interpretation attest that the essence of Gershwin lay well beyond the limits of serious music alone.

Of the dozens of modern versions, Leonard Bernstein , conducting the Columbia Symphony Orchestra from the keyboard, manages to capture much of the lean vigor and jaunty attitude of Gershwin's original and has been constantly around in various incarnations since its release in 1959 (currently on Sony CD 42264 or 63086, each paired appropriately with Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite). (Bernstein's sharply articulated 1983 remake is with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, with which he had given his first professional performance of the Rhapsody in 1944 – DG 410025.) Pianist/conductor Morton Gould, who worked with Gershwin, adds lots of personal inflection to his spirited 1955 account (BMG 62376). More conventional are the fine remake by Earl Wild with the vastly underrated Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops (BMG 68796 or 68109) and the sassy outing by Jerome Lowenthal with the Utah Symphony under Maurice Abravanel (Vanguard 10017).

The leisurely, lyrical and well-balanced reading by Jeffrey Siegel, with Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, permits the work's wry humor and playfulness to emerge gently (and is a superb bargain on Vox CDX-5007). Ready for more Gershwin? Encouraged by the success of the Rhapsody in Blue, Gershwin produced an even more ambitious crossover work the next year. His Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra, a full-blown three-movement concerto, was traditional in title and form, but jazzy in all its details. Its melodies were bluesy, its harmonies extended, its rhythms sharp, and its orchestration (by Gershwin himself this time) blazing. The opening phrase alone is a knockout, boldly proclaiming what lies ahead: four tympani strokes, a cymbal clash, a bass drum thud, and snare drum roll, all repeated, which leads directly into a Charleston motif – truly a concerto for people who hate concertos! My favorite realization of the Concerto in F is the extroverted account with Earl Wild at the keyboard and Arthur Fiedler conducting the Boston Pops.

Gould's and Levant's performances have fine, distinctive solo work, but the latter's accompaniment by Andre Kostelanetz is pretty colorless. The Siegal/Slatkin reading is dry, witty and subtle. Each is packaged with the Rhapsody in Blue performances already noted (except for the Gould, which is only available on the original LP coupling of LM-2017). Next from the “serious” Gershwin came An American in Paris (1928), a delightful musical souvenir of a European trip. Early in the days of the LP, its breezy tone and length marked it as a natural flip-side companion to the Rhapsody in Blue, and it has been so coupled ever since. Indeed, each of the above Bernstein, Fiedler and Slatkin readings of the Rhapsody in Blue is associated with equally fine performances of An American in Paris. But there is one standout reading that preceded LPs, played in February, 1929 by the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra led by Nathaniel Shilkret (Pearl 9483 or RCA 63276).

This was the first recording of a complete Gershwin work (both the acoustic and electric Whiteman versions of the Rhapsody in Blue having been abridged) and features Gershwin playing the brief celesta passage near the middle. (Apparently, his participation was unplanned, and was necessitated when it was realized, only once the session began, that the producer had forgotten to hire a celesta player.) The authenticity of this performance is assured, though, not only from Gershwin's unexpected presence, but by Shilkret's use of the actual taxi horns that Gershwin brought back with him from Paris and which inspired the introductory “walking” section. Over the next few years, Gershwin produced some lesser pieces, including a disappointing sequel (the Second Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra, a quarter-hour of meandering, empty sequencing without a shred of memorable melody), the rhumba-flavored Cuban Overture and the self-descriptive ‘I Got Rhythm’ Variations for Piano and Orchestra. And then came the last and most ambitious of Gershwin's classical works – Porgy and Bess, a collaboration with his lyricist brother Ira and playwright Du Bose Heyward.

Launched in 1935 as grand opera, its story of poverty, drugs and racism set in a Charleston waterfront slum was hardly the stuff of operatic tradition, and its main characters of a crippled beggar, a drug pusher and a fugitive woman were hardly apt to gain the identification of typical opera audiences. The reception of this realistic brew was mixed, and its success came eventually only in subsequent revivals which Gershwin did not live to enjoy. Gershwin supervised a set of eight selections shortly after the New York opening (on BMG 63276). Its authority is compromised somewhat by substituting for the original leads white Metropolitan Opera stars Lawrence Tibbett and Helen Jepson, but they sing superbly, only barely sounding strained with the dialect (although Jepson can't avoid rolling her &#8220r's” in the grand European manner). Several complete recordings are available, including the pioneering set produced by Goddard Lieberson for Columbia in 1953 (Sony Heritage 63322).

There's a wide choice among excerpts, including an arrangement by Morton Gould (on BMG 63276) and Catfish Row, Gershwin's own orchestral suite (included in the Slatkin Vox set), which would become Gershwin's last serious work. But Porgy and Bess has been enjoyed more for its parts than as a whole. Many of its arias and set pieces have taken flight as popular songs, including “A Woman Is a Sometime Thing,” “I Got Plenty o' Nuttin',” “Bess, You Is My Woman Now” and “It Ain't Necesssarily So.” One in particular, the ravishingly beautiful first act curtain-raiser, “Summertime,” has been interpreted by artists as diverse as Miles Davis and Janis Joplin. This was the serious side of Gershwin. His other, popular, side has been popular indeed, perpetuated by the intense interest which jazz musicians have taken in his daring harmonic structures and exquisitely-wrought melodies, which have provided a wealth of material for improvisation.

Gershwin himself can be heard in splendid if confined fox-trot versions of eight show tunes, together with his Three Preludes (on Naxos 120510) and in realizations of two dozen piano rolls (on Nonesuch 79287 and 79370). A marvelous collection of lighter pieces is played authoritatively by pianist William Bolcom (coupled with Gershwin songs by Bolcom and Joan Morris on Nonesuch CD 79151). More unusual arrangements range from violinist Jascha Heifetz to the Canadian Brass. But no matter how much you hear in other hands and in more recent times, the most startling performance of them all remains that first crack at the Rhapsody in Blue. Never again would coalesce the heady thrill of creating something new and wonderful, the first marvel of acceptance by the world of serious music that the tunesmith kid from Brooklyn had joined on his own terms, and the awesome faith that the most distant artistic horizons were now his to conquer.

The compilations of historical Gershwin recordings can be confusing, so here's a quick summary: Historic Gershwin Recordings (BMG 63276, 2 CDs priced as one) – a wonderful collection, with three Rhapsodies in Blue (both the 1924 and 1927 Gershwin/Whiteman versions and the 1955 Gould), two Americans in Paris (the 1929 Shilkret and a bracing 1949 Bernstein), and the 1935 Gershwin-supervised Porgy and Bess excerpts. There's also Gould's fine half-hour Porgy and Bess orchestral suite. My only quibble is that the transfer of the acoustic Rhapsody is quite bass-deficient, although the amount of detail extracted through computer processing is remarkable.

Gershwin Plays Gershwin (Naxos 120510, budget-priced) – the 1924 Gershwin/Whiteman Rhapsody (but in a blurry transfer that perhaps better than the clean BMG one above conveys the solid sound of an acoustical record played on the actual equipment of the time), Gershwin's own 1931 broadcast of his Second Rhapsody, plus Gershwin at the keyboard playing his Preludes and eleven songs. Levant Plays Gershwin (CBS 42514, mid-priced) – Levant's fine recordings of the Rhapsody, Second Rhapsody, Piano Concerto, ‘I Got Rhythm’ Variations and Preludes. Toscanini Conducts Gershwin (Hunt CD 534) – the Rhapsody is fascinating, but a 1943 broadcast of An American in Paris is similar to, but far less well recorded than, his 1945 studio account (on RCA 60307) and his 1944 broadcast of the Piano Concerto stifles Oscar Levant with a deadly dull and wooden accompaniment.

The Complete Gershwin (Vox 5007, super-budget 2-CD set) – I'm cheating a bit, since these are late-1960s stereo recordings, and thus not really historical, but you can't find a finer set at anywhere near this price of all the above pieces plus the Cuban Overture and Catfish Row, all played wonderfully by Jeffrey Siegal, pianist, and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin. As the composer himself would have said (through his lyricist brother Ira): “Who could ask for anything more?” Enjoy! Copyright 2003 by Peter Gutmann George Gershwin - Biography - IMDb George Gershwin Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Trivia (21) | Personal Quotes (19) Overview (4) 5' 10½" (1.79 m) Mini Bio (1) He was born Jacob Gershowitz, 26 September 1898, in Brooklyn, New York, of Russian-Jewish immigrants. As a boy he could play popular and classical works on his brother Ira's piano by ear.

In 1913 he quit school to study music and began composing for Tin Pan Alley; by 1919 he had his first hit "Swanee" and his first Broadway show "La, La, Lucille." In less than three weeks in 1924 he composed "Rhapsody in Blue," originally for Paul Whiteman's relatively small swing band and later orchestrated by Ferde Grofé. "Concerto in F" followed the next year, and his musical success "Oh, Kay!" (which included "Someone to Watch Over Me") the year after that. Success continued: "Funny Face" (1927), the tone poem "American in Paris" (1928), "Girl Crazy" (1929), "Of Thee I Sing" (1931 the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize), and the first true American opera: "Porgy and Bess" (1935). He moved to Hollywood were his songs were performed by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. In 1937 he fell in love with Paulette Goddard, then married to Charlie Chaplin.

He was heartbroken that she would not leave her husband for him. When he fell ill, that June, it was written off as stress. A month later he died of a brain tumor, five hours after a failed surgical attempt to remove it. Funerals were hold in both Hollywood and New York. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu> Trivia (21) Younger brother of lyricist Ira Gershwin . Pictured on an 8¢ US commemorative postage stamp in the American Arts series, issued 28 February 1973. His "Porgy and Bess" was the first American opera ever performed at La Scala Opera House, in Milan, Italy. His "Rhapsody in Blue" was hugely successful at its premiere, coming at the end of a reportedly extremely dull concert. He was the first composer to successfully use jazz elements in works written for the concert hall. His "Porgy and Bess" was the first nearly all-black opera to be performed in the Soviet Union.

His "Porgy and Bess", is still, as of 2003, the most beloved American opera ever written, and the most famous, despite what dissenting critics have said about it over the years. The first two truly complete recordings of Gershwin's opera "Porgy and Bess" won back-to-back Grammy Awards for Best Opera Recording--in 1976 (for Decca/London's studio recording conducted by Lorin Maazel) and in 1977 (for RCA Victor's recording of the critically acclaimed and highly successful Houston Opera stage production, in which the opera was restored to completeness after playing onstage in a slightly abridged version). The 1989 complete recording, however, often praised as the best so far, did not win a Grammy. He is considered by some to be the greatest American composer of the twentieth century. Although Gershwin completed only four songs for his score for the film The Goldwyn Follies (1938) at the time of his premature death, three of them are considered among his best, "Love Walked In," "Love Is Here to Stay," and "I Was Doing Alright".

Vernon Duke completed the songs for the film, which was neither a critical or popular success. His satirical musical, "Of Thee I Sing", which lampooned the U.S. Presidency, the Vice Presidency, and the entire impeachment process, was never filmed by Hollywood because it was considered too much of a political hot potato. It was, however, produced as a television special in a very toned-down and altered version, in 1972. Some of his stage musicals, such as "Oh, Kay!" and "Tip-Toes", were made into silent pictures ( Oh Kay! (1928), Tiptoes (1927)), but never re-made in the sound era. "Tip-Toes" was staged on television as a Christmas season episode of the British anthology The Jazz Age (1968) in 1968. Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. Portrayed by Robert Alda in the somewhat fictionalized biopic Rhapsody in Blue (1945). Was allergic to champagne.

He and his brother Ira Gershwin were awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 7083 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California. Won the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the musical "Of Thee I Sing" collaborating with George S. Kaufman , Morrie Ryskind , and Ira Gershwin . The Hollywood house that he lived in was later owned by José Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney . Ira Gershwin and his musical, "Porgy and Bess", at the Court Theatre in Chicago, Illinois was nominated for the 2011 Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for Musical Production (Large). Gershwin was only 25-years-old when he composed his enduring masterpiece "Rhapsody in Blue" (1924). Personal Quotes (19) Why should I limit myself to only one woman when I can have as many women as I want? Life is a lot like jazz. It's best when you improvise. True music must repeat the thoughts and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today.

[after completing "Porgy and Bess"] I think the music is so marvelous, I don't believe I wrote it. [to George Kaufman, who had expressed severe reservations about 'Of Thee I Sing'] George, you don't like to be sentimental. You hate love, and so forth. But the people believe that the President of the United states, even though he's going to be impeached, is not going to give up the girl he loves. [on Jerome Kern, 1916] He was the first composer who made me conscious that popular music was of inferior quality, and that musical-comedy music was made of better material. I followed Kern's work and studied each song that he composed. I paid him the tribute of frank imitation, and many things I wrote at that time sounded as though he had written them himself. American popular music, since its origin, has been steadily gaining in originality. Today it may truly lay claim to being the most vital of contemporary music. Unfortunately however, most songs die at an early age and are soon completely forgotten by the selfsame public that once sang them with great gusto.

The reason for this is that they are sung and played too much when they are alive, and cannot stand the strain of their very popularity. This is especially true since the invention of the phonograph, and moreso since the widespread conquest of the radio. Sheet music, as ordinarily printed for mass sales, is arranged with an eye for simplicity. The publishers cannot be blamed for getting out simplified versions of songs, since the majority of the purchasers of popular music are little girls with little hands, who have not progressed very far in their study of the piano. To play American popular music most effectively, one must guard against the natural tendency to make too frequent use of the sustaining pedal. Our study of the great romantic composers has trained us in the method of the legato, whereas our popular music asks for staccato effects, for almost a stencilled style. The rhythms of American popular music are more or less brittle; they should be made to snap, and at times to crackle. The more sharply the music is played, the more effective it sounds. Not many composers have ideas. Far more of them know how to use strange instruments which do not require ideas.

Composing at the piano is not a good practice, But I started that way and it has become a habit..The actual composition must be done in the brain. In composing, we combine what we know of music with what we feel. I see a piece of music in the form of a design. With a melody, one can take in the whole design in one look. With a larger composition, like a concerto, it is necessary to take it piece by piece and then construct it so much longer. [on composing 'Rhapsody in Blue'] There had been so much chatter about the limitations of jazz, not to speak of the manifest misunderstandings of its function. Jazz, they said, had to be in strict time. It had to cling to dance rhythms. I resolved, if possible, to kill that misconception with one sturdy blow. Inspired by this aim, I set to work composing with unwonted rapidity. No set plan was in my mind - no structure to which my music would conform. The rhapsody, as you see, began as a purpose, not a plan.. I tried to conceive the composition as a whole.

I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America - of our vast melting-pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our blues, our metropolitan madness. [on his mother] She's what the mammy writers write about, and what the mammy singers sing about. But they don't mean it, and I do Because 'Porgy and Bess' deals with Negro life in America, it brings to the operatic form elements that have never before appeared in opera, and I have adapted my method to utilize the drama, the humor, the superstition, the religious fervor, the dancing and the irrepressible high spirits of the race. If, in doing this, I have created a new form which combines opera with theater, this new form has come quite naturally out of the material. 'Porgy and Bess' is a folk tale. Its people naturally would sing folk music. When I first began work on the music I decided against the use of original folk material because I wanted the music to be all of one piece. Therefore I wrote my own spirituals and folk songs.

But they are still folk music - and therefore, being in operatic form, 'Porgy and Bess' becomes an opera. [on 'Porgy and Bess'] Though of course I will try to keep my own style moving in the opera, the Negro flavor will be predominant throughout. I'd like to point out that Negro music is the prototype of jazz. All modern jazz is built up on the rhythms and melodic turns and twists which came directly from Africa. Even the rumba. The European boys have small ideas but they sure know how to dress 'em up. [on 'An American in Paris'] This new piece, really a rhapsodic ballet, is written very freely and is the most modern music I've yet attempted. My purpose here is to portray the impressions of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city, listens to the various street noises, and absorbs the French atmosphere. As in my other orchestral compositions, I've not endeavored to present any definite scenes. The rhapsody is programmatic only in a general impressionistic way, so that the individual listener can read into the music such episodes as his imagination pictures for him. See also

Question: Who composed "Rhapsody in Blue"?
Answer: George Gershwin