One of the defining musical voices of 20th-century America, George Gershwin combined popular song and classical music with unprecedented fluency. Raised in Brooklyn, Gershwin left school to work in New York’s Tin Pan Alley, where he honed his instinctive talent for melody and rhythm while soaking in the sounds of jazz, blues, and Broadway. His ambition reached far beyond the dance hall, however. Through famous works like Rhapsody in Blue (1924), Gershwin created a distinctly American symphonic language, bringing modern elements such as syncopation and blues scales into the hallowed halls of Western European orchestral music.

Written following his travels to France in the late 1920s, An American in Paris vividly illustrates Gershwin’s aspirations. During his time in Paris from 1926 to 1927, the composer plunged headlong into the city’s artistic life, studying informally with Maurice Ravel and Nadia Boulanger (both of whom famously declined to teach him, lest they dull his innate talent). Premiered by the New York Philharmonic in 1928, An American in Paris is more a sonic postcard than a literal travelogue. Merging French-inflected orchestral writing with Tin Pan Alley style, Gershwin paints an affectionate, slightly ironic portrait of an American encountering Parisian sophistication while battling occasional homesickness. The work unfolds in episodic scenes, from swaggering promenades and blues-infused reflections to the jazzy energy of the streets, including the unmistakable sounds of taxi horns.