Rhapsody In Blue By George Gershwin: Concert Review

On June 3, 1976, conductor Leonard Bernstein led the New York Philharmonic at the Royal Albert Hall located in London, England. They performed “Rhapsody In Blue” by George Gershwin. The solos in this piece were performed by Leonard Bernstein (conductor/pianist) and Stanley Drucker (clarinetist). The piece was originally written for one oboe, solo piano, seven saxophones of different types, two french horns, one banjo, one tuba, two trombones, one bass drum, cymbals, gong, one snare drum, glockenspiel, celesta, one triangle, one banjo, along with strings.

The original composer of the selection is George Gershwin (1898-1937). Gershwin had a very successful career in composing and began his career at only 14 years old. First he was a song plugger, then he eventually grew to write his own pieces. The first composition he was noticed for was a piece called “Swanee” in 1919. After this, he teamed with his brother and began writing and multiple works that became very popular. He continued to write many classical pieces that gained high popularity along with continuing to write musical theatre pieces with his brother. Unfortunately, he died at the very young age of 38 due to a brain tumor, though his music will always be alive.

“Rhapsody In Blue” is a jazz concerto that was originally written in 1924 by George Gershwin. Over time, the piece modernized music by combining jazz and classical music for the very first time. It was commissioned by Paul Whiteman in January of 1924 and premiered only five weeks later in February. This debut show brought the piece to fame and has been performed many times by many different groups and is still widely popular to this day.

“Rhapsody In Blue” written by George Gershwin (1898-1937) was debuted on February 12, 1924 at the Aeolian Hall in New York. In total, the program is about 17 minutes long. The genre of the song is Orchestral Jazz with the style being Jazz Concerto and the form being Rhapsody. The conductor of this particular concert, Leonard Bernstein, exemplified his talent in this piece by playing the solo piano part and conducting, switching when needed. Bernstein truly put a lot of thought and character into how he performed and conducted the piece and is often highly remarked for this particular piece. The tempo of the piece could be described as moderate, but at times speeds up and slows down. The piece features many crescendos and decrescendos, tempo changes, and times where the music was at noticeably different volumes. There are many instruments playing throughout the piece including piano, violins, clarinets, trumpets, saxophones, etc. I would describe the character of this piece to be energetic with certain parts being aggressive and few parts being slow and calm.

Personally, I believe this piece is iconic and I found listening to this piece to be very entertaining. My favorite parts were most definitely listening to the changes in speed and hearing the dynamics, specifically the crescendos along with watching Bernstein play and conduct. I found Bernstein quite mesmerizing as it must have been quite the challenge to be able to play the piano at a very fast pace, then quickly switch to composing all while doing so with great detail and personality. Though I did enjoy the piece, there was one part that I found slightly mundane which was the ending. I believe that it could have presented itself with more personality, though that could have just been true to the original ending that Gershwin wrote, but overall the piece was very entertaining and enjoyable.Isabella Lusk