I never knew what gave him the vision to compose this work….until now……this is
from the TCA online group:
"It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang, that is so
often so stimulating to a composer—I frequently hear music in the very heart of
the noise.... And there I suddenly heard, and even saw on paper—the complete
construction of the Rhapsody, from beginning to end. No new themes came to me,
but I worked on the thematic material already in my mind and 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
metropolitan madness. By the time I reached Boston I had a definite plot of the
piece…."
George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue was premiered by Paul Whiteman and his
Palais Royal Orchestra in New York City on this date in 1924, with the composer
at the piano. Whiteman had commissioned the piece for a concert which he titled
An Experiment in Modern Music.
Gershwin's "jazz concerto", which he originally titled American Rhapsody, was
hastily written during a three-week period beginning January 5. He improvised
portions of the solo, and did not write out a piano part until after the
premiere. During a rehearsal, clarinetist Ross Gorman played the opening
cadenza with a loud glissando as a joke on the composer. Gershwin liked the
effect and asked Gorman to perform it that way at the concert "with as much of
a 'wail' as possible".
By the end of 1927, Whiteman's band had performed the Rhapsody 84 times and
made a recording that sold over a million copies. Rhapsody in Blue established
Gershwin's reputation as a serious composer, and it has been a staple of
concert repertoire ever since.
Here, the inimitable Leonard Bernstein performs Rhapsody in Blue and directs
the New York Philharmonic from the keyboard. Turn the sound up and imagine a
busy urban rail terminal during the era of steam and steel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO4Tbdpjg3E ;
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO4Tbdpjg3E>
Enjoy,
Peter
