George Gershwin
The great musical border crosser of the 20th century, George Gershwin excelled in the fields of concert music and popular song alike. The son of Jewish immigrants from Russia, he was born Jacob Gershvin in Brooklyn on September 26, 1898. His father ran a great variety of small businesses, and George, in the words of The New Grove Dictionary of Music, "excelled at street sports." He also studied the piano and was introduced to the European classics by his teacher Charles Hambitzer.
Gershwin immersed himself in popular music after dropping out of school in 1914 and getting a job as a salesman for the music publisher Remick. He was influenced by ragtime and stride piano music, and as a songwriter enjoyed his first hit in 1920 with "Swanee," recorded by the leading vocalist of the time, Al Jolson. Gershwin and his brother Ira became one of the great creative teams in the history of music, each attuned to the considerable subtleties of which the other was capable. Their 1924 musical Lady, Be Good gained wide familiarity thanks to its hit song, "Fascinating Rhythm." George Gershwin also wrote works for the concert hall: Rhapsody in Blue (1924), best known in an orchestration by Ferde Grofé; the Piano Concerto in F of 1925; and 1928's An American in Paris have been audience favorites since their respective premieres. Probably Gershwin's most famous work was the uncategorizable Porgy and Bess; "folk opera" was an early attempt at description. Set among Black residents of Charleston, South Carolina, Porgy and Bess includes the song "Summertime," heavily recorded by both popular and classical artists.
Gershwin continued to write popular songs and musicals; 1930 brought the successful show Girl Crazy and its catchy yet strikingly complex hit number "I Got Rhythm." The 1932 show Of Thee I Sing was especially notable for its crackling political satire. Gershwin went to Hollywood in 1936 to write for the RKO film studio. In early 1937 he began to complain of headaches, but doctors chalked his symptoms up to stress. In reality he was suffering from a brain tumor; he died on July 11, 1937.
The question of Gershwin's status as a classical composer is a live and productive one. Some observers have pointed out the strong resemblances between his popular and concert idioms, and it is certainly true that for all his studies of the classics over the years, Gershwin rarely wrestled with the problem of large-scale form, which one might regard as classical music's most definitive quest. His concert pieces consist of sequences of great melodies -- perhaps expected in a piece called a "rhapsody" but less impressive for music aspiring to the status of "concerto" or even "tone poem," as An American in Paris was classified. Yet it was not only the American public that loved Gershwin's concert works. They were widely performed in Europe, where they shaped the jazz inflections that began to creep into the music of such composers as Maurice Ravel. Even the proponents of the difficult 12-tone system admired Gershwin's music: Gershwin hobnobbed with Alban Berg in Paris and played tennis with Arnold Schoenberg in Hollywood. "It seems to me beyond doubt that Gershwin was an innovator," Schoenberg wrote, and perhaps history will judge Gershwin as the first harbinger of a new music neither classical nor popular, drawing techniques from many sources and forms of musical knowledge. Who could ask for anything more?
© TiVo Staff /TiVo
Artisti simili
-
Gershwin (Red Classics)
Classica - Pubblicato da Cobra Entertainment LLC il 4 ago 2017
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Gershwin joue Gershwin (Mono Version)
Generi vari - Pubblicato da BNF Collection il 1 gen 1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Gershwin Plays Gershwin: The Piano Rolls
George Gershwin, Artis Wodehouse
Pop - Pubblicato da Nonesuch il 1 gen 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Rhapsody in Blue (Original 1927 Recording)
Jazz - Pubblicato da Van Up Records il 26 ott 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue; An American in Paris
Classica - Pubblicato da Past Classics il 1 gen 1960
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bess You Is My Woman Now (from Porgy and Bess)
Massimo Zuccaroli, Rutsuki Mano
Classica - Pubblicato da Diaframma Edizioni Musicali il 28 lug 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Crazy For You (Original London Cast Recording)
Colonne sonore - Pubblicato da First Night Records il 11 ott 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A short guide to George Gershwin
Classica - Pubblicato da UME - Global Clearing House il 6 lug 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Porgy and Bess Selection
Classica - Pubblicato da Digital Music Group, Inc. il 8 feb 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
American Classical Music
George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland
Classica - Pubblicato da UME - Global Clearing House il 9 ott 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Relaxed Holidays
Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein
Classica - Pubblicato da UME - Global Clearing House il 5 dic 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gershwin At the Piano - Kickin' the Clouds Away (George Gershwin - Lionel Monckton - Howard Talbot)
Classica - Pubblicato da Klavier il 1 gen 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Essential Collection (Digitally Remastered)
Jazz - Pubblicato da AVID Entertainment il 18 set 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Piano Rolls, Volume Two
Classica - Pubblicato da Nonesuch il 15 set 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Great Melodies
Jazz - Pubblicato da Plaza Mayor Company, Ltd. il 1 gen 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Standards & Gems
Classica - Pubblicato da Nonesuch - Warner Records il 13 set 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Salut D'Amour
Classica - Pubblicato da Sleeveless Records il 1 giu 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rhapsody In Blue - Gershwin, Rachmaninov, Debussy And More
Classica - Pubblicato da 2015 Sleeveless Records il 1 dic 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gershwin: That Certain Feeling
Classica - Pubblicato da Lyrichord il 20 mar 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
An American In Paris
Jazz - Pubblicato da AVID Entertainment il 6 mar 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo