GERSHWIN RHAPSODY IN BLUE [EXTENDED]
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the creation of Rhapsody in Blue in 2024, Paul Lay explores the multiple aspects of this innovative piece. He offers to perform the 1942 version, with symphony orchestra and his jazz trio (piano, double bass and drums), adding three Gershwin pieces arranged and orchestrated for this specific instrumentation (Summertime, Nice work if you can get it, It ain't necessarily so).
Premiered on March 2023 at Radio France, the solo piano version was enthusiastically received by audiences and critics.
“Paul Lay offers a Rhapsody in Blue in a piano solo version, a very original arrangement that takes us on a rollercoaster, from familiar themes to virtuoso piano, sequences of pure piano stride and free piano [...]. At the end of this bold and superb exploration of a historic masterpiece, the audience - including press critics - lets out their joy of having experienced such an adventure!”
Live recorded by France Musique, the trio version was premiered at La Folle Journée de Nantes on January 2024.
PROGRAM AVAILABLE IN DIFFERENT FORMATS
Solo piano
Trio piano/double bass/drum
Octet (trio + brass)
Symphonic (the instrumentation can be adapted to the orchestra)
“ When he created his Rhapsody in Blue, George Gershwin was the first composer to combine jazz and classical music in an original concert work. By using the sounds and rhythms of the jazz bands of the 1920s and incorporating them into his writing, he broke down the barriers between jazz and symphonic music.
The premiere took place on February 12, 1924 at the Aeolian Hall in New York, conducted by Paul Whiteman; George Gershwin played the solo piano part. This first version of the work reveals the composer’s ambition: to transpose the spirit of jazz into his writing in order to make «great music», as Maurice Ravel, a friend and great admirer of Gershwin, would do in several of his compositions. Yet Gershwin’s work is typically American in its unique sound and its willingness to merge opposite cultural traditions.
Ferde Goffré arranged three versions of Rhapsody in Blue for the composer. The 1924 version features brass and percussion. A second version appeared in 1926, and a third in 1942 - the latter having become, in a way, the official version.”
— Paul Lay