The concert was the UAE premiere of the original 1924 orchestration of the piece, which was scored for a jazz big band, strings and solo piano. The concert also showcased other Gershwin songs, with vocal performances from Sinead Keane and Cara Jane Roberts.  The program included several old favourites, including: Strike Up The Band, Fascinating Rhythm and Summertime from “Porgy and Bess”. Our thanks go to everyone who attended and supported this tremendous event.

Abu Dhabi Big Band present Rhapsody in Blue

The Abu Dhabi Big Band are proud to present a charity performance of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue on November 2, at Brighton College, Abu Dhabi.

Entry is by free registration here

The concert will feature the world-renowned concert pianist Yanni Potamousis alongside the acclaimed musicians of the Abu Dhabi Big Band. Andy Berryman, former principal trombone of the Hallé Orchestra, will feature as Guest Conductor at the performance.

The concert will be the UAE premiere of the original 1924 orchestration of the piece, which was scored for a jazz big band, strings and solo piano. The concert will also showcase other Gershwin songs and Big Band classics, along with vocal performances from Sinead Keane and Cara Jane Roberts. The program includes several old favourites, including: Strike Up The Band, S’wonderful and Summertime, from Porgy and Bess.

History

After the success of an experimental classical-jazz concert in November 1923, band leader Paul Whiteman decided to attempt something more ambitious. He asked Gershwin to contribute a concerto-like piece for an all-jazz concert he would give in Aeolian Hall in February 1924. Since there were only five weeks left, Gershwin hastily set about composing a piece, and on the train journey to Boston, the ideas of Rhapsody in Blue came to his mind:

It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang, that is so often so stimulating to a composer – I frequently hear music in the very heart of the noise… And there I suddenly heard, and 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. I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our metropolitan madness. By the time I reached Boston I had a definite plot of the piece, as distinguished from its actual substance.

Gershwin began his work on January 7 as dated on the original manuscript for two pianos. The piece was titled “American Rhapsody” during composition. The title Rhapsody in Blue was suggested by Ira Gershwin after his visit to a gallery exhibition of James McNeill Whistler paintings, which bear titles such as Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket and Arrangement in Grey and Black (better known as Whistler’s Mother). After a few weeks, Gershwin finished his composition and passed the score to Whiteman’s arranger Ferde Grofé, who orchestrated the piece, finishing it on February 4, only eight days before the premiere.

Premiere

Rhapsody in Blue premiered in an afternoon concert on February 12, 1924, held by Paul Whiteman and his band Palais Royal Orchestra, entitled An Experiment in Modern Music, which took place in Aeolian Hall in New York City. Many important and influential composers of the time such as John Phillip Sousa and Sergei Rachmaninoff were present. The event has since become historic specifically because of its premiere of the Rhapsody.

The Rhapsody was performed by Whiteman’s band, with an added section of string players, and George Gershwin on piano. Gershwin decided to keep his options open as to when Whiteman would bring in the orchestra and he did not write out one of the pages for solo piano, with only the words “Wait for nod” scrawled by Grofé on the band score. Gershwin improvised some of what he was playing. As he did not write out the piano part until after the performance, we do not know exactly how the original Rhapsody sounded.

The opening clarinet glissando came into being during rehearsal when; “…as a joke on Gershwin, [Ross] Gorman (Whiteman’s virtuoso clarinettist) played the opening measure with a noticeable glissando, adding what he considered a humorous touch to the passage. Reacting favourably to Gorman’s whimsy, Gershwin asked him to perform the opening measure that way at the concert and to add as much of a ‘wail’ as possible.”

The piece was a huge success, and remains popular to this day. By the end of 1927, Whiteman’s band had played the Rhapsody eighty-four times, and its recording sold a million copies. Whiteman later adopted the piece as his band’s theme song, and opened his radio programs with the slogan “Everything new but the Rhapsody in Blue”.

Other Repertoire

The Concert by the Abu Dhabi Big Band will feature several other Gershwin classics including:

1. Strike Up The Band – Instrumental
2. S’wonderful – instrumental
3. Bidin’ My Time – instrumental
4. Embraceable You – instrumental/vocal
5. Fascinating Rhythm – female vocal/instrumental
6. Summertime – female vocal
7. The Man I Love – female vocal
8. How Long Has This Been Going On? – female vocal
9. Nice Work If You Can Get It – female vocal
10. But Not For me – female vocal
11. They Can’t Take That Away From Me – male or female vocal
12. A Foggy Day – male vocal

Several well-known local singers will be invited to perform these vocal numbers.