Moshe Rosen Club Shalom
The Worlds of Rhapsody in Blue: George Gershwin and the Making of an American Classic.
Culminating in a triumphant performance of the work itself, this solo piano recital celebrates the diverse styles that came together to form Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in 1924.
The program begins with an exploration of the European styles of late romanticism, impressionism, and primitivism, and moves to American music in the years immediately preceding the composition of the Rhapsody focusing on ragtime, jazz, novelty piano, and, of course, the blues. The recital powerfully demonstrates the genius of Gershwin, who was able to take the disparate stylistic strands of his culture and effortlessly weave them into an integrated masterpiece, long regarded as the ultimate musical expression of the Jazz Age.
Works by Rachmaninoff, Debussy, De Falla, W. C. Handy, James P. Johnson, Artie Matthews, Zez Confrey, and of course Gershwin himself. What emerges is a deepened understanding of, and appreciation for, Gershwin’s creative process and the culture in which he lived.
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