Rhapsody In Blue
George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue
And Other Concert Favorites
The International Philharmonic Orchestra
TOPS L1536
From the back cover: George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue, from its very inception, has been something of a musical rarity. It is probably the one outstanding example of a work created by a true musical genius that has found extreme favor with both those whose preference is jazz, as well as the listener who leans more readily to music considered to be in the standard classical vein.
Who could have dreamed that such tremendous heights of musical accomplishment would one day be reached by a poor youngster from New York's lower east side, who, until he was ten years old had not the slightest training in music. Here was a boy predestined for genius, it would seem, aided by a tremendous love for music and a really burning ambition to become a composer of excellence.
His was a woefully short span of life he was not yet 39 when he died in Hollywood, California, July 11, 1937.
His graduation from the ranks of Tin Pan Alley tunesmiths came on February 12, 1924. when Rhapsody In Blue was initially performed by Paul Whiteman's orchestra at a jazz concert in Aeolian Hall in New York City. For all its wealth of magnificent creativity here was a work written in a fantastically short time.
About it, Gershwin himself wrote: "There had been so much talk about the limitations of jazz... Jazz, they said, had to be in strict time. It had to cling to dance rhythms. I resolved, if possible, to kill that misconception... I had no set plan, no structure. The Rhapsody, you see, began as a purpose, not a plan. I worked out a few themes, but just at this time I had to appear in Boston for the premiere of "Sweet Little Devil." It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattly-bang... (I frequently hear music in the very heart of noise), that I suddenly heard - even saw on paper - the complete construction of the Rhapsody from beginning to end. No new themes came to me, but I worked on the thematic material already in my mind, and tried to conceive the composition as a whole... By the time I reached Boston, I had the definite plot of the piece, as distinguished from its actual substance."
George Gershwin was essentially a man of simplicity whose greatest happiness was found in his work. He was one of America's greatest composers, having bestowed upon the world a legacy of American music for which people will gratefully sing his praises in centuries yet to come.
Who could have dreamed that such tremendous heights of musical accomplishment would one day be reached by a poor youngster from New York's lower east side, who, until he was ten years old had not the slightest training in music. Here was a boy predestined for genius, it would seem, aided by a tremendous love for music and a really burning ambition to become a composer of excellence.
His was a woefully short span of life he was not yet 39 when he died in Hollywood, California, July 11, 1937.
His graduation from the ranks of Tin Pan Alley tunesmiths came on February 12, 1924. when Rhapsody In Blue was initially performed by Paul Whiteman's orchestra at a jazz concert in Aeolian Hall in New York City. For all its wealth of magnificent creativity here was a work written in a fantastically short time.
About it, Gershwin himself wrote: "There had been so much talk about the limitations of jazz... Jazz, they said, had to be in strict time. It had to cling to dance rhythms. I resolved, if possible, to kill that misconception... I had no set plan, no structure. The Rhapsody, you see, began as a purpose, not a plan. I worked out a few themes, but just at this time I had to appear in Boston for the premiere of "Sweet Little Devil." It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattly-bang... (I frequently hear music in the very heart of noise), that I suddenly heard - even saw on paper - the complete construction of the Rhapsody from beginning to end. No new themes came to me, but I worked on the thematic material already in my mind, and tried to conceive the composition as a whole... By the time I reached Boston, I had the definite plot of the piece, as distinguished from its actual substance."
George Gershwin was essentially a man of simplicity whose greatest happiness was found in his work. He was one of America's greatest composers, having bestowed upon the world a legacy of American music for which people will gratefully sing his praises in centuries yet to come.
Rhapsody In Blue
Grieg Concerto
Selections From Firefly 1 & 2
Flight Of The Bumble Bee
Concert Waltz In D Major
Sospan Fach
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