Rhapsody in Blue
George Gershwin  / Arr. Ferde Grofé

[1924]

Already successful as a Broadway composer and songwriter by his early 20s, George Gershwin had an aching desire to compose and perform “big compositions” for the concert hall. When his friend, the dance band leader Paul Whiteman, called him in January of 1924 asking for an extended work for Symphonic piano and dance orchestra, he quickly set to work on his “American Rhapsody.” Working furiously to finish the piece for Whiteman’s February concert at Aeolian Hall in Manhattan, Gershwin delivered the score with only days to spare.

In the early 1920s, American composers were beginning to wonder what a decidedly American music would sound like. For many, American music had resided too long in the shadows of European tradition. Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was his attempt to answer this question, resulting in a work unlike anything yet composed for the American concert hall—featuring blue notes, jazzy syncopation, sliding pitches, and melodies that recall Gershwin’s career as a writer of popular music. While there are many catchy themes, they often take unexpected turns into new material before reprising familiar melodies.

In the spirit of America 250, the North Carolina Symphony celebrates Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue—a work where ambition and invention unite popular song, jazz, and the full power of the orchestra. Gershwin reshapes classical traditions into a distinctly American sound that continues to inspire and resonate across generations.

Gershwin himself considered the work a “musical kaleidoscope of America” capturing the essence of urban American life with all its bustle, blues, and cosmopolitan flair. The virtuosic piano part, which often requires rapid leaps, deft finger work, and a nuanced sense of timing and touch, was performed for the premiere by the composer himself. Rhapsody in Blue was an immediate success: as critic Deems Taylor put it, Gershwin had created “something that had not hitherto been said in music.”

Solo piano; two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, two alto saxophones, tenor saxophone, three horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, strings