George Gershwin’s Second Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra was composed in 1931, nearly a decade after the phenomenal success of Rhapsody in Blue.

In 1930, Gershwin, together with his brother Ira, was invited to go to Hollywood to provide the music for the film Delicious. After completing work on most of the film’s songs and “The Melting Pot” sequence, George began sketching music to accompany an extended visual montage, where a character wanders the streets of New York. The initial title of this sequence was Manhattan Rhapsody, and renamed during the course of the film’s production to New York Rhapsody, then to Rhapsody in Rivets, and finally settling on Second Rhapsody. Gershwin completed the sketch just before returning to New York in late February 1931.

In New York, Gershwin began working on a full score of the Second Rhapsody on March 14, 1931, and completed the score on May 23. He was proud of this work, and commented: “In many respects, such as orchestration and form, it is the best thing I have written.”

The Second Rhapsody opens with a percussive, jazz-inflected piano solo, soon joined by the orchestra in a bustling, urban soundscape. The music evokes the energy and dynamism of a city under construction, with blues-tinged trumpet themes, syncopated rhythms, and bold harmonic shifts.