After dropping out of school at age 15, Gershwin earned an income by making piano rolls for player pianos and by playing in New York nightclubs. His most important job in this period was his stint as a song plugger, demonstrating sheet music for the Jerome Remick music-publishing company. In an era when sheet-music sales determined the popularity of a song, song pluggers such as Gershwin worked long hours pounding out tunes on the piano for potential customers. While still in his teens, Gershwin was known as one of the most talented pianists in the New York area and worked as an accompanist for popular singers and as a rehearsal pianist for Broadway musicals.

In 1919 entertainer Al Jolson performed the Gershwin song Swanee in the musical Sinbad; it became an enormous success, selling more than two million recordings and a million copies of sheet music, and making Gershwin an overnight celebrity. That same year, La, La Lucille, the first show for which Gershwin composed the entire score, premiered. Also in 1919, Gershwin composed his first “serious” work, the Lullaby for string quartet. Ira Gershwin published the work several years after George’s death, and it has gone on to become a favorite with string quartets and with symphony orchestras. For the remainder of his career, Gershwin devoted himself to both popular songs and orchestral compositions. His Broadway shows from the 1920s and 1930s featured numerous songs that became standards.

His lyricist for nearly all these tunes was his older brother, Ira, whose glib, witty lyrics—often punctuated with slang, puns, and wordplay—received nearly as much acclaim as George’s compositions. So facile was George’s musical imagination that quality songs were often composed within a few minutes of improvisation; other times, he dipped into his notebooks of song sketches that he accumulated over time. Ira would then spend a week or more fitting words to the tune, polishing each line until he was satisfied.

Rhapsody in Blue caught the public’s fancy and opened a new era in American music. In 1926 Gershwin read Porgy , DuBose Heyward’s novel of the South Carolina Gullah culture, and immediately recognized it as a perfect vehicle for a “folk opera” using blues and jazz. Porgy and Bess was Gershwin’s most ambitious undertaking, integrating unforgettable songs with a dramatic story.

George Gershwin was at the height of his career in 1937. It was in Hollywood, while working on the score of The Goldwyn Follies, that George Gershwin died of a brain tumor. He was not quite 39 years old. Ira Gershwin, so devastated that he could not work for more than a year after George’s death, became the keeper of his brother’s legacy. In later years, he supervised the release of several unpublished Gershwin compositions, including several works for piano,

Gershwin’s music remains a subject of debate among prominent international conductors, composers, and music scholars, some of whom find his works for orchestra to be naively structured, little more than catchy melodies strung together by the barest of musical links. Nevertheless, he ranks (along with Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers) as one of the four greatest composers for the American musical theatre, as well as the only popular composer of the 20th century to have made a significant and lasting dent in the classical music world. His orchestral works, now performed by most of the world’s prestigious symphony orchestras, have attained a status for which Gershwin longed during his lifetime.

Apparently, Gershwin had completely forgotten about the concert, and four days later he began writing down what would become Rhapsody in Blue. 

Controversial from the start, Rhapsody in Blue challenged notions about the divide between classical and popular music. Its relatively free-form structure flew in the face of symphonic traditions, and perhaps most importantly, it combined freshness and originality with an irresistible accessibility. In keeping with the practice of Broadway composers of the time, Gershwin wrote the piece in short score form for two pianos (one representing the soloist and the other the band). It was then arranged by Ferde Grofé, a composer and orchestrator who often arranged music for Paul Whiteman’s ensemble. Gershwin also originally wrote the famous opening clarinet glissando as a scale. It took its unforgettable final form when the band’s clarinetist Ross Gorman played it that way in rehearsal, possibly as a joke. The name of the piece, too, was originally An American Rhapsody. Rhapsody in Blue was suggested by George’s brother, Ira.

Since Gershwin’s untimely death at age 38, his most famous composition has rarely been heard in the original form that thrilled listeners at the premiere. Even during his life, early recordings invariably cut the work down drastically so that it would fit on two sides of a record. As early as 1926, Grofé reorchestrated the work for a more standard theater orchestra ensemble, but his 1942 version for full orchestra has become the standard. Tonight’s version is an arrangement by Maestro Sergio Bušlje.

Nikolai Kapustin was born on 22 November 1937 in the small city of Horlivka, situated in the Donetsk province of Eastern Ukraine. He initially took piano lessons from the violinist Ivanovich Vinnichenko, who was hired to teach Kapustin’s sister. But he quickly realized Kapustin’s talent as a pianist. Kapustin then studied at the Moscow Music College, in the class of Avrelian Grigoryevich Rubakh, a student of Felix Blumenfeld, who had also taught Vladimir Horovitz and Simon Barere. 

Kapustin was not merely interested in becoming a pianist. He was drawn to improvisation and composition. He composed his first piano sonata at age 13 in a traditional classical style. The “Post-Stalin Thaw” accorded greater freedom to many aspects of Russian life, and jazz became a symbol of freedom. Kapustin remembered, “in the 50’s it [jazz] was completely prohibited, and there were articles in our magazines that said it was typical capitalist culture, so we had to throw it away.”

During his studies at the Moscow Music College, Kapustin got acquainted with Louis Armstrong, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and Nat King Cole on the radio station “Voice of America.” It inspired Kapustin to start performing as a jazz pianist, and he organized a Jazz Quintet that appeared in one of the most exclusive Moscow restaurants. Eventually, the performance of that band was broadcast on the “Voice of America” as well. Graduating from the Moscow Music College in 1956, Kapustin entered the Moscow Conservatory, having been accepted into the class of legendary pianist Alexander Goldenweiser. Kapustin had trained to become a virtuoso performer, and he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory with the performance of Bartók’s second piano concerto.

However, he eventually rejected the idea of becoming a traveling virtuoso and appeared as the pianist in Oleg Lundstrem’s Symphony Orchestra of Light Music. Kapustin mentioned in an interview, “Eleven years of work with Lundstrem became my Second Conservatory as it involved a large amount of arranging and performing.” In the 1960s, Kapustin attempted to interpret the traditions of George Gershwin and Duke Ellington, fusing them with Russian piano music. In the 1970s he focused on a style based on a mix of elements of jazz and rock, European formal music and non-European folklore.

In 1976, he composed tonight’s work, Concert Rhapsody for piano and orchestra. This work demonstrates Kapustin’s masterly fusion of jazz and classical styles. It is classical in form but has the same feel as improvised jazz. This exuberant work for piano and orchestra has been described as exhibiting frenzied energy, infectious rhythms, and beautiful melodies. Kapustin regarded himself as a composer rather than a jazz musician. “I was never a jazz musician. I never tried to be a real jazz pianist, but I had to do it because of the composing. I’m not interested in improvisation – and what is a jazz musician without improvisation? All my improvisations are written, of course.” An unassuming man and composer, Kapustin died on in 2020 in Moscow at the age of 82. (From Interlude, by George Predota, July 14, 2020)

In 1931 Ellington left the Cotton Club and began a series of extended tours that would continue for the rest of his life. For Ellington, the big band was not simply made up of five reeds, four trumpets, three trombones, drums, a bass, and a piano; it was made up of individuals. Where other composers had concerned themselves with creating a sound that unified the many instruments into one voice, Ellington believed in letting the dissonant voices of each musician play against each other. He wrote music that capitalized on the particular style and skills of his soloists. As a result, his soloists stayed with him for extended periods. Among the best members of his band were Jimmy Blanton, Johnny Hodges, Cootie Williams, and Harry Carney (who was in the band for nearly every one of its forty-seven years).

In 1939, Billy Strayhorn joined the band as an arranger, composer, and sometimes pianist. The two worked well together, continuing in the tradition that Ellington had built. Strayhorn’s contribution to Ellington’s achievements at the time were significant, and even some of their most popular tunes, such as “Take The A Train”, were written by Strayhorn. In 1943, when his was the first black swing band to perform at Carnegie Hall, he introduced his monumental  Black, Brown and Beige  - a musical history of African Americans. Ellington’s music championed the cause of African Americans. "Social protest and pride in the history of the Negro have been the most significant themes in what we've done," he once said. Many of his works testify to this: B lack Beauty, Deep South Suite, My People, Liberian Suite, La plus belle africaine . 

Though Ellington continued to compose and perform regularly throughout the 1940s and 1950s, the public demand for big-band music had faded. It was not until 1956, with a triumphant performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, that Ellington re-emerged as an important voice in contemporary music. For most of his time as a composer and bandleader, Ellington underplayed his role as a pianist. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s he began performing with several of the other great musicians and composers of the time, making albums that included Duke Ellington and John Coltrane (1962), Money Jungle (1962, with Max Roach and Charles Mingus), and Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins.

Among the younger generations, Ellington was both a symbol of the traditional modes of jazz music and the finest example of how to transcend those modes. The beauty and energy of earlier pieces such as “Mood Indigo” remained alive even in the final years of his life. In May 1974, Ellington died of lung cancer in New York City. In his more than 50 years as a professional musician, Ellington had been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters, awarded a Doctor of Music degree from Yale University, given the Medal of Freedom, and, most importantly, built the foundations from which much of the best American music consequently grew.

Anitra's Dance from Peer Gynt

Peer   Gynt  Suite No. 1, Op. 46 , by Norwegian composer, Edvard Grieg, was originally written for the 1876 premiere of Henrik Ibsen’s play  Peer Gynt . Anitra’s Dance  was written for a scene that takes place in Morocco. Anitra, daughter of a Bedouin chief, steals Peer Gynt’s money after he attempts to seduce her. About the time Ellington and Strayhorn composed The Nutcracker Suite in 1960, they re-wrote and recorded Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite . The Royal Swedish Academy of Music cited copyright infringement and Ellington withdrew the album, but he continued to perform the suite. Anitra’s Dance features big-band riffs and short, jazzy solos from the winds.

Jeep’s Blues

Written by Ellington and his star saxophonist Johnny Hodges, this was first recorded for Vocalion in 1938, a small group record released under Hodges’ name. Hodges led off with a brief solo on soprano sax, followed by the growling muted trumpet of Cootie Williams, Harry Carney’s mellow baritone sax, Lawrence Brown’s soulful trombone, while Ellington did not solo at all. It was a hit on Harlem jukeboxes and included as a part of a broadcast concert at the Apollo Theater the following year. By the time it was recorded again at the famous 1956 Newport Jazz Festival concert, Hodges had long since abandoned the soprano sax, sticking exclusively to alto sax. It took a while to catch on as a regular feature in Ellington’s band book, but once it did, the song remained until the end of the pianist’s career, even after Hodges’ death in 1970.

All Too Soon

Written by Carl Sigman and Duke Ellington, this classic Ellington ballad was written for a solo piano followed by a melody played by a cup-muted trombone. It was recorded in 1940 by Ellington’s band. Tonight’s version has been arranged by Maestro Bušlje for a tenor saxophone solo by David Brown.

Star-Crossed Lovers

Duke Ellington created a milestone in the relationship between jazz and Shakespeare with his 1957 jazz suite  Such Sweet Thunder . Eleven songs are linked to Shakespearean characters like Othello and Lady Macbeth, and the final number is a tribute to Shakespeare himself. Star-Crossed Lovers is part of this suite, and the beautiful melody line is given to Juliet (Romeo and Juliet) and portrayed by Johnny Hodges’ alto saxophone.

In 1946, Piazzolla formed his own tango orchestra, but after only four years, he decided to concentrate on classical music, composing for chamber ensembles and symphonic groups. In 1954, on a scholarship from the French government, he studied in Paris under Nadia Boulanger, the mentor of Aaron Copland and Philip Glass. She recognized Piazzolla’s talent and urged him to go back to composing tangos. He returned to New York but stayed only two years before finding himself again in Buenos Aires. There, he put together his famed Quintet – bandoneón, violin, piano, guitar, and double bass. The Quintet traveled all over the world, bringing the influence of jazz and contemporary “classical” music to the traditional tango. As Piazzolla himself said, “It may not be tango, but it mirrors the spirit of our city and of today’s porteño”.

Piazzolla's nuevo (new) tango was not well received in Argentina but gained great recognition throughout the rest of the world, and during the 1960's Piazzolla toured widely, producing some of his best music. This was just the beginning of a very successful, prolific, and creative music career. Resolved to update the tango, Piazzolla succeeded in shocking tango traditionalists by infusing his tangos with the harmonic language he had learned in Paris, -- Bartok, Schoenberg, and Messiaen--, with the rhythms influenced by Stravinsky and jazz, in addition to melodic innovations that many saw as severing tango from its roots. During his lifetime, Piazzolla composed over 100 works.

Le Grand Tango

Le Grand Tango is a single-movement piece for cello and piano that Piazzolla composed in 1982 for Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who did not play it until 1990. It is said that when Rostropovich received the score, he didn’t know who Piazzolla was. He had never heard of him, so he put the music aside for many years. Ultimately, Rostropovich recorded the piece in 1996. Le Grand Tango is arranged in three distinctive sections. The first, Tempo di Tango , combines dominate rhythms with modern dissonances and song-like melodies. The second section ( libero e cantabile) is a melodic dialogue between the cello and the piano. The third section ( giocoso) presents a fiery rhythmic tour de force for the cello and orchestra, charging to a conclusion with challenging double-stops and glissandos. Tonight’s version has been arranged by Maestro Bušlje for violin, instead of cello, and orchestra.

Oblivion

Oblivion was composed in 1982, originally for bandoneón, piano and bass, but its growing success over the years inspired many reprises for piano solo, clarinet, orchestra, and even a spoken version. The piece was commissioned and featured in the 1984 film Enrico IV (“Henry IV”) by Marco Bellocchio. Adapted from the eponymous theatrical piece by Luigi Pirandello, the plot tells the story of a man who, after losing conscience, thinks he is the famous king. The piece became popular from the film and lives to this day through concert performances. Piazzola elicits an atmospheric and haunting ambience in his composition, evoking the image of oblivion.