Pro Musica’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ highlights American music

With all the gifts opened, and the New Year pending, it may be time for some American tunes.

Santa Fe Pro Musica will present “Rhapsody in Blue” in a program of American music at Santa Fe’s Lensic Performing Arts Center on Thursday, Dec. 29.

“We have such a big dose of baroque music at the Loretto Chapel,” music director and conductor Thomas O’Connor said, “so I really felt like it was time to do something different.”

George Gershwin straddled the worlds of jazz and classical music.

“While he was a great composer in terms of harmony and melodies, he wasn’t a great orchestrator,” O’Connor said.

The composer penned a two-piano score of a jazz concerto he called “American Rhapsody” and gave it to jazz band leader Paul Whiteman’s arranger, Ferde Grofé. It was Grofé who brought it to life, O’Connor said.

Gershwin’s brother, Ira, disliked the title, thinking the music deserved something more poetic. He took inspiration from his favorite artist, James McNeill Whistler, who gave his paintings descriptive titles like “Arrangement in Gray and Black.”

“There’s nothing like ‘Rhapsody in Blue’,” O’Connor said. “It’s very seductive, very jazzy, very, very sexy.”

Guest pianist Melissa Marse will join the orchestra on “Rhapsody.”

The musicians also will perform contemporary American composer Michael Daugherty’s romping “Flamingo.”

“This was inspired by a trip he took with his parents as a child from Iowa to Florida,” O’Connor said. “This was the era of pink flamingos as lawn ornaments.”

Two tambourine players play the roles of the birds.

“While they were on the trip, the news came on that Marilyn Monroe had died,” O’Connor continued. “It made a huge impact on him.”

A sighing bassoon navigates a slow, melancholy section.

Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” borrows from the old Shaker hymn ‘Simple Gifts” to create a dance for the choreographer Martha Graham.

“She had called the dance ‘Appalachian Spring,’” O’Connor said. “He was fascinated with folk music, and he had a collection of Shaker hymns. ‘Simple Gifts’ stuck in his brain, and it became central to it.”

On a more somber note, “Adagio for Strings” was Samuel Barber’s sole string quartet. Written in 1936, it is recognized for its use at memorial services, including those for Princess Diana and the funerals of Albert Einstein and Princess Grace of Monaco. Broadcasters aired it at the announcement of the deaths of both Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy.

“People love the piece,” O’Connor said. “It touches an emotional chord. There’s something about Barber and Copland. They codified a style of writing that is recognized as American.”