Gershwin plays Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue

[pinto]

[elleng]

1. THANK YOU!

[erronis]

2. Thanks for putting this up on DU - we need more culture here

I got a copy of Paul Whiteman's recordings (Birth of the Blues) early in my life and fell in love with Gershwin. Later when I had reasons to travel I would relish matching the cacophony/musicality of Paris with Gershwin's adroit interpretations. Now I have St. Germaine.

[unblock]

3. i sometimes read sheet music to really listen to a piece; this one is amazing.

there are a few parts in there that, looking at the sheet music, i couldn't believe were humanly possible with only two hands.

yet there it is....

i have a longer version on cd, recreated from piano rolls from an actual gershwin performance. i think it's around 12 minutes.

every once in a while i fumble through bits of it. i'll never come close to being able to play like that, but one can dream...

[pinto]

5. Go for it.

[pinto]

7. I love the trombone (?) bottom. It's basically clarinet & piano, but it all comes together.

All the horns and accompaniments, as well. Love it. A signature piece of music. Think New York in that day - traffic, taxi cabs, horns, hopes and dreams, failures, accomplishments. That's some of what I hear.

[hollysmom]

4. I have the album and love it.

The story was that Gershwin made piano rolls and his playing is preserved in that way. They orchestrated around the rolls for the recording.

Oops. see that it was posted above me. should read all posts before replying.

[Rod Beauvex]

6. Is that video of zombie Gershwin still on YouTube?

The one from 1949? XD

[Loudly]

8. Ninety years old this year.

Surprising how the original version sounds so much like a kazoo band.

But arranged for a full philharmonic orchestra it's enough to make you weep.

[GTurck]

9. Then and now...

the comparison is stark. George Gershwin, Irving Berlin and others from the 1910's to the 1940's and Milley Cyrus, Taylor Swift now. Has anybody heard a good singer with a good song written in this century to rival earlier creations? We live in a cultural desert right now.

[sdfernando]

12. Yep..think back to that time.

No internet, no television, no hi-fidelity recording, radio was king as was live performance, almost every household had a piano and people learned to play them. So a lot more people were actually taught music and music theory rather than just banging out a few chords on an electric guitar.

[grilled onions]

10. Music That Inspires Creativity

I picture future play writes writing their first endeavor to this masterpiece, a designer in the garment industry, engineer of the next skyscraper, or simply someone bedridden,a student of music an elderly couple remembering when music was music. We may be in a musical desert when it comes to this kind of music, but thankfully we have the works of Gershwin,Cole Porter etc on line and for sale for future generations to appreciate.

[monmouth3]

11. Wow, now that is the way to start a week. Thank you Pinto, just beautiful..n/t