SUPPORT YOUR SYMPHONY

Wayne Marshall plays and conducts three symphonies by George Gershwin on June 9, 11 and 12; photo by James Holt.

George Gershwin 
Concerto in F 
BORN: September 26, 1898, in Brooklyn, NYC 
DIED: July 11, 1937, Los Angeles, California  
COMPOSED: July–November, 1925 
PREMIERED: Premiered at Carnegie Hall, New York, on December 3, 1925, with the New York Symphony, with conductor Walter Damrosch and Gershwin on piano. 

What to Listen For: 

• Thematic variations of the Allegro's main theme
• Return of the Allegro's main theme and Adagio's main theme in the Allegro agitato  
• Use of jazz harmonies and blues scales 

George Gershwin didn’t just straddle the worlds of popular and classical music; he flourished within them. Based in the New York City music scene, he developed a skill set that was topically alert and distinct yet malleable. This malleability was useful not only in musical theater and popular song, but also classical music. Despite his untimely death in 1937, Gershwin joined American contemporaries like William Grant Still (who also cut his teach in musical theater), Aaron Copeland, Florence Price and others in bringing classical, folk and popular idioms into innovative conversation.   

Although Gershwin wrote several works for piano and orchestra, the Concerto in F is his only composition that (semi) adhered to the concerto form in title and content. It was born out of his always growing creative interests and desire to show the true breadth of his skills to audiences and critics. “Many persons had thought that the Rhapsody was only a happy accident,” he wrote. “I went out to show them that there was plenty more where that came from. I made up my mind to compose a piece of 'absolute' music. The Rhapsody, as its title implied, was a blues impression. The Concerto would be unrelated to any program. And that is exactly how I wrote it. I learned a great deal from that experience. Particularly in the handling of the instruments in combination.” 

The Allegro is split into three sections. The first is built on a solemn melody first heard in the solo part. The cantabile section is rhapsodic and virtuosic, suddenly shifting to the dark and pokey scherzando section, leading up to the main theme’s return and a rousing conclusion. While the first movement leaned more into the modernisms of jazz and harmonies,  Adagio — Andante con moto leans more into the blues roots of jazz, present in the brass slides and solos, heightened lyricism, gorgeous melodies, and use of call and response texture.  The Allegro agitato is quick and agitated. It is also cyclical as melodies from the previous movement make their appearance in new contexts: the melody from the second movement makes a surprise appearance and the first movement’s main theme makes a majestic, bombastic return, leading to an exuberant conclusion. 
 

Second Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra 
COMPOSED: March–May, 1931 
PREMIERED: January 29, 1932, in Boston Symphony Hall by Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Serge Koussevitzky, with Gershwin on piano 

What to Listen For: 

• Thematic variation  
• Call and response texture (between soloist and orchestra and between orchestra sections)  
• Soloist supporting the orchestra 

The Second Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra — also known as Rhapsody in Rivets — is not nearly as popular or well known as its older relative, Rhapsody in Blue. The work began as part of George and Ira Gershwin’s score for the film Delicious and received a second life as a concert work. Only recently has this contribution to the piano repertoire started to gain more traction, aided by Michael Tilson Thomas reintroducing Gershwin’s original orchestration to audiences in 1985. 

Second Rhapsody opens with a brief introduction by solo piano, leading up to the entrance of the orchestra, which passes around the main theme and enters a call and response with the soloist. This theme reemerges in different contexts and ranges, which, in addition to sequential repetition, draws upon one of the central components of African American music making: thematic variation (where familiar themes are made new through rhythmic and/or textual changes) and repetition to build tension and expectation.  

The work is dominated by rhapsodic moments not only for the soloist but also in the orchestra, most evident in a lyrical middle section full of romantic peaks and phrasing in the strings as well as the solo part. The orchestra takes center stage in the final section via an intense, expressive segment that moves between hints of a swift finale and a rhapsodic return to the romanticism of before. And then the final section really starts, led by the harmonic skewed-ness and rhythmic articulation of the pianist, all of it brought to a rousing close, its texture a nod to Rhapsody in Blue’s end with modernist dissonance thrown in.  

Although Second Rhapsody features Gershwin’s characteristic jazz and classical harmonic and rhythmic synthesis, its character and content diverge in some stark and interesting ways. First, the lack of melodic earworms. Even with the use of a main theme, it seems almost secondary to the exploratory use of motivic fragments and timbral coloring that predominant the piece. Second Rhapsody brings together lush lyricism, modernist experimentalism and impressionistic expression. It is Gershwin exploring and moving outside the boundaries of his own style, an example of how stylistically malleable and experimental he truly was.
 

An American in Paris  
COMPOSED: Spring 1928 
PREMIERED: December 13, 1928, at NYC's Carnegie Hall, with Conductor Walter Damrosch and the New York Philharmonic 

What to Listen For: 

• The car horns! 
• New melodies = new section  
• Return of the romantic main theme in new contexts  
• Shifts between highly lyrical vs. highly articulated sections 

If there is one city that loomed larger than life in the consciousness of early to mid-20th century America, it was Paris. That was a city of culture; of love; of magic; of possibility; of inspiration. Be they writers like James Baldwin looking for a place to write and live a little more freely, or dancers like Josephine Baker who took the Parisian dance and film scenes by storm, Paris was a place to hone one’s craft, and for several major American cultural figures of the early-mid 20th century, to make a career and thus a home.   

Gershwin didn’t make Paris his home. But he did visit it in 1926 and 1928; and the sights, sounds, smells and experiences inspired one of his best known and most performed works for orchestra (and saxophones, and celesta, and automobile horns): An American in Paris. It would go on to inspire (in theme, in soundtrack, and in content) the 1951 film of the same name starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, and the imaginations of many listeners, whether Paris was home, a former vacation spot or a place to visit one day. 

An American in Paris is melodically distinct and episodic. A tone poem of stunning evocation, it opens with a jaunty theme interspersed with car horns and tinkling percussion. The excitement and organized chaos of the busy street builds and builds until it reaches its apex and has only one place to go: down. Maybe the American has found a quiet alley, a section of the city that doesn’t attract too many tourists; a solo oboe leads the lyricism back to the excitement and verve of the city, segueing into arguably the most famous episode of the entire work: a romantic, sensuous melody growing in intensity and texture, moving from solo trumpet to a full orchestral texture. More episodes follow, adventurous, mischievous and eager to see more of what makes Paris so special. The final segment is a mad dash to the return of the work’s main theme and its emotional heart: the romantic theme of the middle section. And so the piece ends, an expression of one man’s wonderful, enchanting experience in a city that is part magic and myth and all creative inspiration. 

© A. Kori Hill 2022