Celebrating an American Anthem: 'Rhapsody in Blue'

Crowds pour out of the film Buehne Wien in Berlin's Kurfuerstendamm following an afternoon showing of the story of George Gershwin's life, Rhapsody in Blue, on May 9, 1948.

Classical pianist Lara Downes previews a free outdoor concert in which she'll perform a new arrangement of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," which turns 100 this year.

On Saturday, July 27 at 6 p.m., WNYC and St. Ann’s Warehouse will present Rhapsody for This Land: The American Odyssey in Music, a free concert in Brooklyn Bridge Park that celebrates a century of hope, protest and change as expressed through American music.

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WNYC is celebrating its centennial with live events, audio programming, public art, a city-wide storytelling initiative and partnerships with other New York institutions. Visit wnyc.org/100 to learn more about how you can join the celebration of WNYC’s first — and next — 100 years.

[MUSIC- Lara Downes: Rhapsody in Blue]

Brian Lehrer: No, that's not The Brian Lehrer Show theme music. That's Lara Downes' re-imagining George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. By now, you've probably heard that WNYC is celebrating its centennial this year. Well, it's also the centennial of that groundbreaking piece of music. Here's why I tell you about something cool to add to your calendar, a celebration of both these centennials.

Next Saturday, July 27th, at 6:00 PM, WNYC and St. Ann's Warehouse will present Rhapsody for This Land, the American Odyssey in Music, a free concert in Brooklyn Bridge Park that celebrates a century of hope, protest, and change, as expressed through American music. We'll also broadcast it live on the station next Saturday, at 6:00. It'll be anchored by classical pianist Lara Downes, one of the best-known classical pianists of her generation, performing Rhapsody in Blue, reimagined.

There will also be performances by Christian McBride, Rosanne Cash, Arturo O'Farrill, and others. We are so privileged to have Lara Downes, pianist, arts activist, and host of NPR's Amplify with us now. Lara, welcome back to WNYC, so great to have you with us.

Lara Downes: Good morning, Brian. It's great to be here.

Brian Lehrer: Do you want to introduce Gershwin and Rhapsody in Blue? Maybe it needs no introduction, but what made the composer and the composition so groundbreaking and so relevant 100 years ago?

Lara Downes: I guess it depends if you fly United Airlines. If you do, then you know the piece. 100 years ago, he wrote this piece for a concert that was called an Experiment in Modern Music. It was just that, it was an experiment in blending something that was brand new in the American consciousness, and American ears and hearts at the time, which was the language of jazz with a European symphonic sound. A lot of people were trying to do it, and Gershwin did it really well.

Actually, I love the account of that first concert in February of 1924. It was kind of a bad concert. It was a long concert, and there was all this music that was getting a little boring, people were just getting restless, and then Gershwin comes on stage and starts that piece with that iconic glissando, and I feel like everything changed. Everything changed in that room, in this country, and in the world of American music.

Brian Lehrer: Why do you think it's lasted as an American anthem for 100 years, other than it's being used in that United Airlines commercial?

Lara Downes: I really think it has a lot to do with Gershwin's intention, and I have to admit that I didn't know-- I play this piece all the time, I didn't know as much as I should have, about Gershwin's intention and Gershwin's environment, until I started thinking about this piece in the context of its 100 years. In 1924, a lot of very bad stuff was happening in the country, specifically relating to immigration and the shutting down thereof.

Gershwin was a first-generation American, and he wrote this piece with what he called a vision of the musical kaleidoscope of America and the melting pot. He's celebrating this country into which he's been born, with this boundless promise, except he's doing it in an environment where that promise is really being threatened. I think, along with the great tunes, the excitement, the exuberance, and the experimentation, there is something really personal, genuine, and heartfelt, that lasts.

I think that stuff lasts. I think it lasts in the music of Bach, Beethoven, and Gershwin, and that's what we feel.

Brian Lehrer: The St. Louis Public Library put it this way, "Conceived as a musical portrait of the American people, Gershwin sought to capture the country's energy and diversity. In fact, he had originally planned to call the work American Rhapsody," from the St. Louis Public Library. I guess that gets at the genius of Gershwin, to do that musically, huh?

Lara Downes: It does, and also, there's something else that's important to me, as an American artist of mixed background. I think that that moment too, in American music, was really a time when people were coming together, of different races, of different backgrounds. The country was changing so fast, and people were having the opportunity to move around and encounter each other.

I think that was Gershwin's-- that was his environment and his motivation as well, just to have your ears open, to be listening, to be listening to other Americans. That's what's folded into this piece, and that's pretty significant in our time.

Brian Lehrer: Again, listeners, on Saturday of next weekend, July 27th, 6:00 PM, WNYC and St. Ann's Warehouse will present Rhapsody for This Land: The American Odyssey in Music, a free concert in Brooklyn Bridge Park, and broadcast on the station. Lara, what's in store for that occasion?

Lara Downes: You mentioned all the incredible artists who are part of this. These are all people who are deeply committed to using American music as a voice for good, for the best of what we can be, and the best of our history. You'll hear music from lots-- well, lots of things. Sam Cooke, A Change is Going to Come, an anthem in the 1960s, for progress and change.

Arturo O'Farrill is writing a brand new piece, it'll be a world premiere, on this concert, that uses oud and klezmer, and really focuses on all of the potential for music to heal division and conflict around the world. It's just a celebration, I think, of the role that music can play, and has always played, in speaking to the times we live in, and arguing for making things better.

Brian Lehrer: I love Arturo, by the way. He comes on the show sometimes.

Lara Downes: He says hi.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, good. Hi. When we did the WNYC re-imagining, a reenactment of the very first 1924 broadcast on the station, last week, you may know he was the house band for that, in the green space. He did all these incredible arrangements of various pieces of music that were contemporary at that time. He's just so versatile, and also, he is a great guest.

Lara Downes: I was there, that was a terrific evening.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, we have time for just a few phone calls, maybe, for Lara Downes, the renowned classical pianist who you can hear at that free concert coming up next Saturday. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Call or text, if you want to say anything or ask anything about Rhapsody in Blue, or if you've never had one of the world's great pianists over for dinner and always had a question that you wanted to ask, now's your opportunity. 212-433-9692.

What does it take to reimagine such an iconic piece of music that may be known to people in one particular format?

Lara Downes: I always think that centenaries are interesting opportunities to really reflect. Again, going back to Gershwin's thought about the musical kaleidoscope, what I've done together with the Puerto Rican composer, Edmar Colón, is to go back to his original piano score. He never wrote the orchestration in 1924. That was done by Ferde Grofé. We just started from scratch, from his original piano score, and imagined what he would be hearing in America today.

The melting pot of today, which is so much deeper and richer than it was in 1924. Everyone from all over the world has come here in the last 100 years. There's a strong element of Afro-Cuban percussion, there are sounds from Latin America, from Asia, really, just the whole world folded into this piece that you already know. It expands it. Well, I think Gershwin would love it. It's very different. Then, it's also so familiar.

I think it's a really beautiful way to just celebrate him, to honor, again, his inspiration and his intention, and to acknowledge the way the world changes.

Brian Lehrer: Couple of texts coming in. Listener writes, "His Jewish klezmer roots informed his music." Another one writes, and I don't know if this is true, maybe you can confirm it, "He wrote it in Florida, but there's nothing more New York than Rhapsody in Blue."

Lara Downes: I agree there's nothing more New York than Rhapsody in Blue. There's a great origin story, which is perhaps a little bit apocryphal. He did write it in a big hurry. Yes, on the klezmer roots, his roots were in Jewish music. Of course, he grew up in Brooklyn and that was his foundational sound. It's so New York. I'm so thrilled that we get to play this piece, really, in his footsteps, under the Brooklyn Bridge, for the people of New York, in this free concert. I can't think of any better way to celebrate this.

Brian Lehrer: There are so many interpretations. Listener writes, "A suggestion for your listening pleasure, the great P. Kennedy plays Rhapsody in Blue on the ukulele." Coincidentally, I went to see Béla Fleck in concert last year, and there, he was playing Rhapsody in Blue on the banjo. Ethan, in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Ethan.

Ethan: Hey. How are you? I'm curious. I heard this story. I'm a musician and I just heard this story, that went like this. Apparently, he was tapped to do this commission, and he turned it down. At some point, the person who tapped him called him up, and said, "All right, are you ready?" He said, "Wait, I turned you down." He said, "Well, I can't not have you now, you're on the program." He did it in something like a week, on record time. I wondered if there was any truth to that story, or if she knew.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you. Do you know that story, Lara, or whether it's true?

Lara Downes: Yes, that's the story I was referencing, and there's even this part about Ira Gershwin coming into a pool hall where they were hanging out one afternoon, with this newspaper that says that George Gershwin is about to premiere this piano concerto, and he hasn't written it yet. No, he had to do it in a hurry, and that's where the musical kaleidoscope quote comes from.

He writes about getting the inspiration for the piece while he is riding the train, and it's about the rattly bang of the train, jog-- what's the word? Jogging this piece, this melody, out of him.

That's where he comes up with this idea about the melting-pot and the musical kaleidoscope, and what he wants this piece to say. I do think that there's something to be said for doing things fast. Leonard Bernstein always said, "You need two things to accomplish great things-- A plan, and not quite enough time." I think you hear that. That energy of doing something in a hurry is also there in this music.

Brian Lehrer: Sounds like my life getting ready for the show every day. Listeners, we're going to go out by listening to another snippet from Lara Downes' Rhapsody in Blue, reimagined. First, I'll just tell you again that on Saturday, July 27th, a week from this Saturday, at 6:00 PM, WNYC and St. Ann's Warehouse will present Rhapsody for This Land: The American Odyssey in Music, a free concert in Brooklyn Bridge Park that celebrates a century of hope, protest, and change, as expressed through American music.

Tickets and more info on our website, @stannswarehouse.org without periods, apostrophes, or anything, stannswarehouse.org. We will also be airing the concert live on the station next Saturday, at 6:00 PM. Lara Downes, what an honor to have you come on for a few minutes and preview with us. Thank you very, very much.

Lara Downes: Same. Thank you so much, Brian. Great to talk to you.

[MUSIC - Lara Downes: Rhapsody in Blue]

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