Continue the journey…
We suggest works to explore after Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F
Six years after the premiere of his Piano Concerto, Gershwin and his brother Ira were invited to write music for a film called Delicious. The resulting score included an eight-minute sequence for piano and orchestra – initially called ‘New York Rhapsody’ or, in reference to the sound of hammering that begins it, ‘Rhapsody in Rivets’ – that accompanied an urban montage. Gershwin later doubled the sequence in length and published it as his Second Rhapsody. (Freddy Kempf (piano), Bergen PO; BIS BISSACD1940)
Ferde Grofé is best known today for arranging Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue for large-scale orchestra, then going in the other direction with the Piano Concerto, reducing the composer’s orchestral score to a 23-piece jazz band version. He began his own Piano Concerto in 1931, but didn’t complete it until 27 years later. It’s a lush, Romantic affair, with little Gershwinlike jazzy moments poking through here and there. (Jesus Maria Sanroma (piano), Rochester Philharmonic; Everest 4803306644)
Like Grofé, William Grant Still was hired as an arranger in the late 1920s by bandleader Paul Whiteman. While much of Grant Still’s own music reflects his roots – not least the Afroamerican Symphony – his Kaintuck for piano and orchestra was inspired by a train journey through Kentucky in 1935. As the piano chuffs along at speed, its journey is punctuated by bluesy strings and jazzy brass. (Richard Fields (piano), Cincinnati Philharmonia; Centaur CRC2331)
Copland’s Piano Concerto, a contemporary of Gershwin’s (see p119), opens with the sort of broad orchestral landscape that the composer would make his own. It finds its jazz feet in the second movement, where all manner of solo instruments join in a riot of ragtime and blues. Its first audiences may have hated it, but it is well worth investigating. (Xiayin Wang (piano), RSNO; Chandos CHSA5128)
Finally, there’s Bernstein’s ‘Age of Anxiety’ Symphony No. 2, a piano concerto in all but name. Based on an Auden poem depicting a night in wartime New York, much of the music is restrained and reflective – until, that is, the Masque section towards the end, when the mood lifts, and pianist and orchestra are let loose to paint the town red. (Marc-andré Hamelin (piano), Ulster Orchestra; Hyperion CDA67170)
Grofé’s Concerto is a lush, Romantic a air, with jazzy moments poking through