THE STORY BEHIND: Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F

On April 9, Bramwell Tovey and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra will present American Classics with pianist Jon Kimura Parker.

THE STORY BEHIND: Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F

Title: Piano Concerto in F major
Composer: George Gershwin (1898-1937)
Last time performed by the Rhode Island Philharmonic: Last performed May 11, 2002 with Larry Rachleff conducting and soloist Jeffrey Siegel. In addition to a solo piano, this piece is scored for two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion and strings.

The Story:

Many persons had thought that the Rhapsody [in Blue] was only a happy accident. Well, I went out, for one thing, to show them that there was plenty more where that had come from.” That was Gershwin’s retrospective on the birth of his Concerto in F, commissioned by the New York Symphony Society in the wake of the Rhapsody in Blue’s 1924 triumph. In July 1925, George Gershwin set to work on the concerto. It was the largest and most complex work for the concert stage he had yet undertaken and the first work he scored entirely by himself. (Ferde Grofé had orchestrated the first version of the Rhapsody). Gershwin completed the first two movements during the summer. By late September, the third movement was finished, and Gershwin orchestrated the work during October and early November. The concerto’s premiere took place on December 3, 1925 with the composer at the piano and Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Symphony. Further performances were immediately given in Washington, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.
       
Diversified audiences received the work with great enthusiasm, though the critics’ opinions were mixed. At the extreme, some critics considered the concerto to be trite, unschooled, and less original than the Rhapsody. Others felt that Gershwin had written an “interesting” adaptation of contemporary popular dances “without their banality.” A few critics were excited over the work, and one declared that Gershwin “alone of all those writing the music of today . . . expresses us.”
       
It is clear from the beginning that the Concerto in F will be a work dominated by rhythm, mood, and atmosphere. The first movement contains a broad variety of themes. Gershwin wrote that this movement “employs the Charleston rhythm. It is quick and pulsating, representing the young, enthusiastic spirit of American life.”
       
Of the slow movement, which for many listeners is the high point of the work, Gershwin noted that it “has a poetic nocturnal atmosphere which has come to be referred to as the American blues, but in a purer form than that in which they [blues] are usually treated.” The movement is cast in three large sections with a lively, rhythmic center section. The rhapsodic piano solo cadenza is particularly arresting.
       
Gershwin described the final movement as “an orgy of rhythms, starting violently and keeping the same pace throughout.” Through the compelling mood of the movement, Gershwin alludes to and transforms themes from previous movements. Toward the end, the first movement’s second theme is given a formal reprise. This cyclic appearance is a gesture common to both the American musical theater and orchestral concert music — the two main arenas of Gershwin’s brilliant career.

Program Notes by Dr. Michael Fink © 2022 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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