Gershwin introduces and plays his Variations on I Got Rhythm

Audio recorded during a "Music by Gershwin" live radio broadcast on 30 April 1934 (studio orchestra conducted by Louis Katzman). The video portion is a random collection of stills and movies of Gershwin.
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[@polara01]

That run at 6 minutes 41 seconds sounds like he's playing the harp it is incredible what an amazing young man he was and what a terrible loss to the world as he was taken from us so early in his life. I guess the Lord was short a composer in his Rhythm Section that day I'm sure we will hear him again hopefully when we all get there...

[@gertrudlehmann4869]

That's such a nice comment! Thank you.

[@LegendaryMrIncredible69]

6:41

[@violamateo-on8pc]

It breaks my heart to think that GG left us at such a young age. What he might have accomplished and contributed to the world of music had he lived another 40 or 50 years is, of course, the stuff of fantasy. But it's a wonderful fantasy to have!

[@moow950]

George Gershwin was a musical genius!

[@crazyorganist1609]

Of that there is no doubt

[@Dylonely42]

May he rest in peace. This composer was one of the best who ever lived…

[@DanielRobertspiano]

This is fantastic! It´s always great when we get to listen to the composer too.

[@moow950]

George Gershwin was a genius!!!

[@Dylonely42]

Of course he was.

[@andrewbarrett1537]

That run at 6:41 is 50 years ahead of its time! ! !

[@paulparoma]

A music lover, are you?

[@andrewbarrett1537]

@@paulparoma I play a little bit: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mprHY2CwjtWofbs

[@andrewbarrett1537]

@@paulparoma *I listened again... it's very 'Jetsons'-esque, so I'll go with 20 years ahead of its time instead. Still very cool.

[@emmagregory5298]

I got chills listening to this

[@andrewbarrett1537]

"...on the theory that you shouldn't let one hand know what the other one is doing." HA!

[@scarbo2229]

At that time, probably everyone understood the allusion.

[@valerka.dolhikh]

I am so proud to be born in the same city as Gershwin - in Odesa, Ukraine! I truly adore his art = performing his Rhapsody in Blue wuth the symphony orchestra as I was 15 truly changed my life as a musician! Also when I compose my own music - I often come to him for the inspiration

[@nathanielsilver6752]

George's father and mother were from Russia, but George was born in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn.

[@valerka.dolhikh]

@@nathanielsilver6752 yes, you`re right, i somehow confused that his grandfather was from Odesa. Here`s Quote from Wikipedia "Gershwin was of Jewish ancestry. His grandfather, Jakov Gershowitz, was born in Odessa, russian Empire (now Ukraine)" later he moved to st petersburg

[@marthawoodworth]

Sheer beauty.

[@joybroyles7788]

Listening to his music makes me want to dance and play it at the same time. I feel like I am floating and I get chills.

[@charleswinokoor6023]

A real treat.

[@danilovega9083]

Thanks a lot for this wonderful video! It is very easy to tell he was really a happy man. Well, I should say "s'wonderful" about this video (and, of course, "s'marvelous, awful nice, paradise" too). Greetings from Chile.

[@kyleethekelt]

Thank you so much for this. The value of hearing a great composer explain and then play his music is a priceless treat. What would Beethoven have told us had he been able?

[@petertaylor3600]

Probably to go to blazes!

[@windingroad9678]

2022 and I'm in love.

[@MrGer2295]

Remembering GEORGE GERSHWIN, who died on this day in 1937.

[@JonFrumTheFirst]

Gershwin had obviously been taking composition lessons - the 'upside down' thing is a classic tool for varying a melody.

[@randysills4418]

He studied in Paris with the eminent Nadia Boulanger. I believe he also met Stravinsky and Ravel, two famous composers, when there...

[@rebekahabelman678]

@@randysills4418 Nadia Boulanger famously refused to accept Gershwin as a student, saying it would stifle his creativity. Ravel also said the same. However, Gershwin was a famous autodidact and spent almost all of his life studying - including composition.

[@SCRIABINIST]

@@randysills4418 He also met Schoenberg and Berg, the two which he both greatly admired.

[@jerrytheracecardriver1100]

FANTASTIC! I have never heard any recordings of Gershwin himself playing or speaking. thank you for uploading!

[@brianfileman]

This was his first ever recording of Rhapsody in Blue (1924). Small jazz ‘orchestra’/band. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jKmxk3SqibKNjsUsi=thuxE1KthwZw4N9v

[@dlsofsetx]

I always wondered if Gershwin's voice was ever recorded.Thanks for posting.

[@benjaminperez2326]

I just adore George.

[@reu193]

Thanks for preserving this broadcast. It's incredible listining direct words from the composer's voice explaining how he made his music. P.S. that shot at 6:27 of Gershwin playing tennis made me laugh for some reason, I mean, it's like a situation that anyone could be in, but at the same time it's what I least expected to see on video xD

[@scj6693]

Oh, Jack. I love it every time you upload more of George’s work.

[@flylooper]

WOW! I haven't ever seen these movie clips. Terrific!! What make Gershin so special is his aiblity to take simple melodic or rhymic figures and make really great music with it. Look at "I Got Rhythm": Just a simple, pentatonic, four note phrase and Gershwin makes into musical gold! Most is his music is of the same construction.

[@heathercharlton7570]

Fabulous footage - thank you so much for posting

[@jamesten]

I remember taking the "Music by Gershwin" radio transcriptions out of the library when I was in high school. It opened up a new dimension of the composer for me. I so wished I could have heard him talking in person. All the biographies notwithstanding I still kind of wonder what he was like.

[@arturolpc3593]

Gran influencia en Jazz y la música americana. LAmento que haya uerto tan joven. Un músico admirable.

[@jankonecny8154]

He was undoubtedly real musical genius!

[@emilyhutjes]

Thank you Jack, I had never seen this video before.

[@AllenPMinton]

I loved this video. Thank you so much for posting!

[@newjazzunderground]

Masterful

[@paulkelly2701]

My childhood hero. I was able to perform the Rhapsody in Blue, slightly cut, at 12. I never mastered this, though.

[@blathermore]

Hey, George! America actually had the beginning of a real culture for a while.....blessings!

[@petertaylor3600]

Extraordinarily long fingers, which have been commented on elsewhere. How could they miss?

[@user-qj4dx4fc3n]

Love it, although the version on this performance is missing that really interesting "Chinese" moment in the middle, which I've always found so ecstatic.

[@Dylonely42]

An Internet gem.

[@brucekuehn4031]

I wonder, has anyone found this score or tried to recreate it and make a new recording?

[@randysills4418]

There are many recordings of this composition, Bruce...

[@percyvolnar8010]

If gershwin were still alive, he would have been responsible for almost all of the super mario music.

[@denisebremridge8329]

Reminds me of my Mum at the piano in the 1950s 😆

[@andrewbarrett1537]

If that's true, your Mum must have been truly brilliant. Her name wasn't Patricia Rossborough was it?

[@Dylonely42]

5:59

[@marinomarinelli1398]

Grande, sommo Gershwin: con H. James il più grande contributo dato dagli Stati Uniti alla Kulturgeschichte!

[@Dylonely42]

1:18

[@johnwright291]

Oh well at least he wasn't another member of the 27 club.

[@williamhasselbach1037]

He sounds like Pete Smith.

[@THEPETERC1]

Ferde Grofe orchestration?

[@Dylonely42]

No, why ?

[@THEPETERC1]

Grofe did the orchestration on the symphonic version of Rhapsody in Blue.

[@Dylonely42]

@@THEPETERC1 The "symphonic version" is actually the original one. F. Grofé only orchestrated this piece because Gershwin wasn’t experimented enough but after all, every pieces of music he composed (from the piano concerto) was orchestrated by him. He was a genius composer who had an outstanding writing for voices, piano and orchestra. Porgy and Bess is his ultimate masterpiece who involves the finest orchestration of the great composer.