George Gershwin (1898-1937)

Virtually no composer before or since bridged the popular, jazz and classical worlds as remarkably and adeptly as Gershwin - and more than eight decades on, Gershwin's music continues to inspire music across the musical spectrum.

This week, Donald Macleod presents an overview of some of the composer's most brilliant works from both the concert stage and the world of musicals - showing off his extraordinary gift for melody, and discussing his often-overlooked originality and daring as a so-called 'serious' composer. He also presents a series of numbers from Gershwin's voluminous songbook, in performances and arrangements by artists as diverse as George Martin, Andre Previn, Ella Fitzgerald, Meat Loaf and the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson - amongst many others - and a number of a 'lost' and rarely-heard works.

Monday's episode presents the story of the young George and Ira's progress from New York's Jewish Lower East Side to the glamour and starry lights of Broadway. As well as selection of Gershwin's earliest published works, Donald Macleod presents extended excerpts from the composer's long-forgotten early blues-inspired opera 'Blue Monday'..

George Gershwin's progress from Tin Pan Alley song plugger to Broadway sensation.

Donald Macleod presents the piece in its rarely-heard original orchestration for jazz band and solo piano, with a solo part performed by none other than George Gershwin himself - reproduced in a pioneering recording through the medium of piano roll.

He also looks at the love of Gershwin's life, the composer and lyricist Kay Swift - and presents two very different arrangements of the Gershwins' hit song 's Wonderful' by Sarah Vaughan and Andre Previn and David Finck.

Donald Macleod explores the story of George Gershwin's iconic Rhapsody In Blue.

Donald Macleod presents a little-heard excerpt from the original cast recording, as well as a real rarity: the 'Dream Sequence' from the Hollywood film Delicious, a vestige of George and Ira Gershwin's unhappy experiences in California. He also showcases the work's sibling from the concert hall: the composer's 'Second Rhapsody' for piano and orchestra, also written for the film.

Donald Macleod presents Gershwin's rare Gilbert and Sullivan pastiche Primrose.

In advance of tomorrow's extended excerpt from Act 2 of the composer's masterpiece, 'Porgy and Bess', Donald Macleod also tells the story of the opera's genesis, and introduces the rarely-heard orchestral suite 'Catfish Row', drawn from its darkest and most profound musical material.

Donald Macleod introduces excerpts from George and Ira Gershwin's Of Thee I Sing.

We also hear arguably the two finest works of Gershwin's final years - the dazzling 'Variations on 'I Got Rhythm' for piano and orchestra - performed in an archive recording by the composer's great friend Oscar Levant - and two complete scenes from Gershwin's operatic masterpiece, 'Porgy and Bess'.

Donald Macleod explores the poignant story of George Gershwin's unhappy last months.

A life cut short, George Gershwin died in 1937 of a brain tumour at the age of just 38. Yet this isn't a story of what might have been. Gershwin's musical legacy stands as one of admirable achievement. He wrote a string of twelve Broadway musicals, orchestral music and an opera. He penned some of the most recorded tunes in the popular song catalogue of all time. We'll hear many of them across the week, in classic versions made by some of the twentieth century's legendary voices, including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Louis Armstrong, Fred Astaire and Judy Garland. Outside the sphere of popular music, Gershwin's orchestral music won plenty of public support although his critical reception was mixed. Nonetheless among his supporters were significant figures in the classical world such as the New York Philharmonic's Walter Damrosch.

Despite the breadth of his appeal, his professional standing and his wealth, Gershwin remained a man who never felt truly confident in his own musical knowledge, perhaps because his musical education had been limited by circumstance. He was born in 1898 in New York, the second son of Jewish immigrant parents, Morris and Rose Gershowitz. As a child George excelled on roller-skates rather than school-work. Leaving altogether at the age of 14 he was pounding away on a piano in Tin Pan Alley for 10 hours a day. Success came early though when he persuaded Al Jolson to record his song 'Swanee'. The two million records it sold made George a comfortable pile, and from there on, as they say, 'the rest is history'.

As a song plugger on Tin Pan Alley Gershwin was introduced to Fred and his sister Adele, going on a few years later to produce a Broadway musical for them, 'Lady Be Good' and establishing himself as concert pianist, taking five curtain calls at the premiere of his jazz concerto 'Rhapsody in Blue'.

That Certain Feeling

George Gershwin, piano

Oh Lady Be Good

The Oscar Peterson Trio

Lullaby

Brodsky Quartet

George Gershwin, piano roll

Members of the Columbia Jazz Band

Michael Tilson-Thomas, conductor

Fascinating Rhythm (Lady be Good)

John Pizzarelli, Jeff White

Lara Teeter, Dick Trevor

Ann Morrison, Susie Trevor

Cast Ensemble,

Orchestra conducted by Eric Stern

I'd Rather Charleston (Lady Be Good)

Orchestra conducted by Eric Stern.

Donald Macleod on how Gershwin drew in the crowds on Broadway and in the concert hall.

A life cut short, George Gershwin died in 1937 of a brain tumour at the age of just 38. Yet this isn't a story of what might have been. Gershwin's musical legacy stands as one of admirable achievement. He wrote a string of twelve Broadway musicals, orchestral music and an opera. He penned some of the most recorded tunes in the popular song catalogue of all time. We'll hear many of them across the week, in classic versions made by some of the twentieth century's legendary voices, including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Louis Armstrong, Fred Astaire and Judy Garland. Outside the sphere of popular music, Gershwin's orchestral music won plenty of public support although his critical reception was mixed. Nonetheless among his supporters were significant figures in the classical world such as the New York Philharmonic's Walter Damrosch.

Despite the breadth of his appeal, his professional standing and his wealth, Gershwin remained a man who never felt truly confident in his own musical knowledge, perhaps because his musical education had been limited by circumstance. He was born in 1898 in New York, the second son of Jewish immigrant parents, Morris and Rose Gershowitz. As a child George excelled on roller-skates rather than school-work. Leaving altogether at the age of 14 he was pounding away on a piano in Tin Pan Alley for 10 hours a day. Success came early though when he persuaded Al Jolson to record his song 'Swanee'. The two million records it sold made George a comfortable pile, and from there on, as they say, 'the rest is history'.

Building on the success garnered with 'Lady Be Good' Gershwin and his lyricist partner, brother Ira, had three more shows opening on Broadway and a further three in London. As if that wasn't enough, after a short break in Europe, Gershwin returned with sketches for a new concerto, which naturally enough would feature himself as the pianist for the premiere at Carnegie Hall.

Someone To Watch Over Me (Oh, Kay!)

Dawn Upshaw, Kay

Orchestra of St. Luke's

Eric Stern, conductor

Overture (Tip-Toes)

The New Princess Theater Orchestra

John McGlinn, conductor

Piano Concerto in F

Xiayin Wang, piano

Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Peter OUndjian, conductor

Maybe; Clap Yo Hands; Do, Do, Do (Oh, Kay!)

Patrick Cassidy, Larry Potter

Kurt Ollmann, Jimmy Winter

Ensemble

Eric Stern, conductor.

How Gershwin enjoyed good business in the theatre as well as playing the piano in concerts

A life cut short, George Gershwin died in 1937 of a brain tumour at the age of just 38. Yet this isn't a story of what might have been. Gershwin's musical legacy stands as one of admirable achievement. He wrote a string of twelve Broadway musicals, orchestral music and an opera. He penned some of the most recorded tunes in the popular song catalogue of all time. We'll hear many of them across the week, in classic versions made by some of the twentieth century's legendary voices, including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Louis Armstrong, Fred Astaire and Judy Garland. Outside the sphere of popular music, Gershwin's orchestral music won plenty of public support although his critical reception was mixed. Nonetheless among his supporters were significant figures in the classical world such as the New York Philharmonic's Walter Damrosch.

Despite the breadth of his appeal, his professional standing and his wealth, Gershwin remained a man who never felt truly confident in his own musical knowledge, perhaps because his musical education had been limited by circumstance. He was born in 1898 in New York, the second son of Jewish immigrant parents, Morris and Rose Gershowitz. As a child George excelled on roller-skates rather than school-work. Leaving altogether at the age of 14 he was pounding away on a piano in Tin Pan Alley for 10 hours a day. Success came early though when he persuaded Al Jolson to record his song 'Swanee'. The two million records it sold made George a comfortable pile, and from there on, as they say, 'the rest is history'.

Following a meeting in Atlantic City with the producer Edgar Selwyn, Gershwin and his lyricist writing brother Ira, are invited to work on a satire on war written by George S. Kaufman, the man behind the Marx Brothers production of The Cocoanuts. What came out of the collaboration was 'Strike Up The Band' a musical unlike anything the Gershwins had ever written before.

Oh This Is Such A Lovely War (Strike up the Band, Act 2)

Chorus and orchestra conducted by John Mauceri

I've Got A Crush on You (Strike Up The Band, rev. 1930)

Ellis Larkins, piano

Wintergreen For President ...Of Thee I Sing (Of Thee I Sing, Act 1)

Paige O'Hara, Diana Devereaux

Maureen McGovern, Mary Turner

Louise Eideken, Miss Benson

Larry Kert, John P. Wintergreen

Merwin Goldsmith, Louis Lippmann

George Dvorsky, Sam Jenkins

New York Choral Artists

Orchestra of St. Luke's

Michael Tilson-Thomas, conductor

An American In Paris

Leonard Bernstein, conductor

The Man I Love

Hal Mooney and his Orchestra.

How Gershwin moved in an entirely new direction, creating his own brand of musical satire.

A life cut short, George Gershwin died in 1937 of a brain tumour at the age of just 38. Yet this isn't a story of what might have been. Gershwin's musical legacy stands as one of admirable achievement. He wrote a string of twelve Broadway musicals, orchestral music and an opera. He penned some of the most recorded tunes in the popular song catalogue of all time. We'll hear many of them across the week, in classic versions made by some of the twentieth century's legendary voices, including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Louis Armstrong, Fred Astaire and Judy Garland. Outside the sphere of popular music, Gershwin's orchestral music won plenty of public support although his critical reception was mixed. Nonetheless among his supporters were significant figures in the classical world such as the New York Philharmonic's Walter Damrosch.

Despite the breadth of his appeal, his professional standing and his wealth, Gershwin remained a man who never felt truly confident in his own musical knowledge, perhaps because his musical education had been limited by circumstance. He was born in 1898 in New York, the second son of Jewish immigrant parents, Morris and Rose Gershowitz. As a child George excelled on roller-skates rather than school-work. Leaving altogether at the age of 14 he was pounding away on a piano in Tin Pan Alley for 10 hours a day. Success came early though when he persuaded Al Jolson to record his song 'Swanee'. The two million records it sold made George a comfortable pile, and from there on, as they say, 'the rest is history'.

Signed up by RKO pictures, Gershwin moved to the West Coast in 1936. In typical workaholic fashion he immediately set to work, producing simultaneously music for the Astaire vehicle 'Shall We Dance?' and another picture with Astaire 'A Damsel in Distress'. Gershwin was happy to embrace the lifestyle, enjoying a hectic social calendar full of dinners and parties at the homes of producers, stars and songwriters. Arnold Schoenberg was a neighbour, and soon came round on a regular basis to play tennis with him. Even so, Gershwin began to get restless, and there was talk of making a return to Broadway, a string quartet, a symphony or even a ballet.

Promenade (Shall We Dance?) - arr. Sol Berkewitz, adaptation by Paul Rosenbloom and John Fullam

John Fulham, clarinet

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchsetra

JoAnn Falletta, conductor

Suite from A Damsel in Distress

The New Princess Theater Orchestra

John McGlinn, conductor

Shall We Dance? (Shall We Dance?) - arr. & orch. Herbert Spense, Fud Livingstone, Robert Russell Bennett

The RKO Radio Studio Orchestra

Nathaniel Shilkret, conductor

Second Rhapsody

Howard Shelley, piano

Philharmonia Orchestra

Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductor

Arr. & Orch. Sy Oliver, Axel Stordahl

I Got Rhythm (Girl Crazy)

Mickey Rooney

Six Hits and a Miss

The Music Maids

Hall Hopper

Trudy Erwin

Bobbie Canvin

Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra

Cuban Overture

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

James Judd, conductor

S Wonderful (Funny Face)

Audrey Hepburn

Orchestra conducted by Adolph Deutsch.

How Gershwin discovered writing music for Hollywood films could be a frustrating business.

A life cut short, George Gershwin died in 1937 of a brain tumour at the age of just 38. Yet this isn't a story of what might have been. Gershwin's musical legacy stands as one of admirable achievement. He wrote a string of twelve Broadway musicals, orchestral music and an opera. He penned some of the most recorded tunes in the popular song catalogue of all time. We'll hear many of them across the week, in classic versions made by some of the twentieth century's legendary voices, including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Louis Armstrong, Fred Astaire and Judy Garland. Outside the sphere of popular music, Gershwin's orchestral music won plenty of public support although his critical reception was mixed. Nonetheless among his supporters were significant figures in the classical world such as the New York Philharmonic's Walter Damrosch.

Despite the breadth of his appeal, his professional standing and his wealth, Gershwin remained a man who never felt truly confident in his own musical knowledge, perhaps because his musical education had been limited by circumstance. He was born in 1898 in New York, the second son of Jewish immigrant parents, Morris and Rose Gershowitz. As a child George excelled on roller-skates rather than school-work. Leaving altogether at the age of 14 he was pounding away on a piano in Tin Pan Alley for 10 hours a day. Success came early though when he persuaded Al Jolson to record his song 'Swanee'. The two million records it sold made George a comfortable pile, and from there on, as they say, 'the rest is history'.

Together George and Ira Gershwin wrote a string of twelve Broadway musicals, beginning with Lady Be Good in 1924 and culminating in 1933 with Let 'Em Eat Cake. They wrote for Hollywood films and had a string of hits that have all gone on to stand on their own. They worked together right up to the end of George Gershwin's life.

A Foggy Day

Let's Call The Whole Thing Off

Harry Connick, vocal and piano

Benjamin Jonah Wolfe, bass

Jeff 'Tain' Watts, drums

I Was Doing Alright

The Lorelei ... Isn't It A Pity (Pardon My English)

William Katt, Golo

John Collum, commissioner Bauer

Arnetia Walker, Gita

Michelle Nicastro, Ilse Bauer

Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Eric Stern

Porgy and Bess (Excerpt from Act 2)

Damon Evans, tenor, Sportin Life

Gregg Baker, baritone, Crown

Cynthia Hamon, soprano, Bess

The Glyndebourne Chorus

The London Philharmonic

Simon Rattle, conductor

Aren't You Kind of Glad We Did

Nelson Riddle, conductor and arranger.

Donald Macleod on how George Gershwin worked with his regular lyricist and brother Ira.

When he was a child, Gershwin's mother Rose, aspiring to upward-mobility, decided the family needed a piano, and that her Ira would learn to play it. But it was the hoisting up and in through the window of the family's Lower East Side apartment, of a second-hand upright, bought on the instalment plan, which, literally, opened a window on a new world for Ira's younger brother George. From his beginnings as a song plugger and jobbing accompanist to his own performances of his own concert works, the piano is at the centre of Gershwin's life and music.

Summertime

The Glyndebourne Chorus

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Simon Rattle, conductor

That Certain Feeling

Joanna MacGregor Piano

Three Preludes

Yo-Yo Ma, cello

Piano Concerto in F

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Andre Previn, conductor

Has Anyone Seen Joe

Barbara Hendricks, soprano

Katia & Marielle Labeque, pianos

Produced in Cardiff by Martin Williams

The Real American Folk Song

The Kings Singers

George Shearing, piano

Neil Swainson, bass

Fascinating Rhythm

Ella Fitzgerald

Nelson Riddle and his Orchestra

Embraceable You

Herbie Hancock, piano

I Got Rhythm

Stephane Grappelli, violin

Django Reinhardt, guitar

I Got Rhythm Variations

Wayne Marshall, piano

Summertime

Miles Davis, trumptet

Gil Evans, arranger

Someone to Watch Over Me

Blossom Dearie, piano

Rhapsody in Blue

Benjamin Grosvenor, piano

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

James Judd, conductor

Produced in Cardiff by Martin Williams

Second Rhapsody

Prague Philharmonia

Andrew Von Oeyen, piano

Emmanuel Villaume, conductor

American in Paris

Cleveland Orchestra

Ricardo Chailly, conductor

Strike Up the Band Overture

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor

Cuban Overture

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

James Judd, conductor

Produced in Cardiff by Martin Williams

My Man's Gone Now

Jascha Heifetz, violin

Emanuel Bay, piano

I Got Plenty of Nothin

Cleveland Orchestra & Chorus

Lorin Maazel, conductor

Bess, You Is My Woman Now

Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin

Andre Previn, piano

It Aint Necessarily So

Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald

I Loves You Porgy

Keith Jarrett, piano

Catfish Row Suite

Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra

Leonard Slatkin, conductor

Produced in Cardiff by Martin Williams

Gershwin started working as a musician and songwriter in his teenage years and became one of the defining voices of a new America in the swinging 20s and the glory days of Hollywood in the 1930s.

This was a period when American writers, artists, advertisers, architects and film-makers were inviting audiences to see, hear and think about the world in ways that they never had before - in ways that made sense of, or at least gave them a way of looking at, the modern world.

Gershwin was one of these trailblazing modernists in part because of his effort to make music commensurate with the idea of American as a ‘melting pot' - and his bridging the outmoded gulf between high and low culture.

Rhapsody in Blue

Jean Yves Thibaudet, piano

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Marin Alsop, conductor

Let's Call the Whole Thing Off

Sarah Vaughan

Hal Mooney, piano

Swanee

Frank Braley, piano

Our Love is Here to Stay

Nigel Kennedy, violin

Lullaby

Cleveland Orchestra

Riccardo Chailly, conductor

Somebody Loves Me

Kiri Te Kanawa, soprano

Suite from Blue Monday (arr. Jeanneau)

Katia Labeque and Marielle Labeque (pianos)

Donald Macleod explores the early life of George Gershwin.

The cover of Time Magazine for the 20th of July 1925 consists of a photograph of George Gershwin. It's a head and shoulders shot of the suave young composer, a few weeks short of his 27th birthday. It's a testament to Gershwin's status and popularity: the first American-born musician ever to be accorded that honour. The caption beneath Gershwin's photo on the cover of Time is: `He Rhapsodises Blues`. Today, Donald takes us through the years after his huge success with Rhapsody in Blue.

A Foggy Day

Frank Sinatra

Overture from Primrose

New Princess Theatre Orchestra

John McGlinn, conductor

George Gershwin's Songbook No.4: Fascinating Rhythm

Michael Endres, piano

Yehudi Menuhin & Stephane Grappelli, violins

Piano Concerto in F

London Symphony Orchestra

Andre Previn, conductor

Three Preludes (arr Heifetz)

No. 1 in B-Flat Major

Matthew Trussler, violin

Wayne Marshall, piano

No. 2 in C# minor

Herbie Hancock, piano

No. 3in E-Flat minor

Evgeny Kissin, piano

Britten Sinfonia

Scott Stroman, conductor

Alison Balsom, trumpet

Donald Macleod explores the years after Gershwin's huge success with Rhapsody in Blue.

After an earlier visit to Paris, in 1926, Gershwin sent a thank-you note embellished with two musical quotations: one was a short section from Rhapsody in Blue; the other was labelled 'An American Paris'. A couple of years later, when he began to work on what was to be an `orchestral ballet` with that title, he returned to that little fragment and the challenge of evoking the experience of an American visitor in the French capital.

S'Wonderful

Frank Braley, piano

The Man I Love (arr. Percy Grainger)

Isata Kanneh-Mason, piano

Nice Work If You Can Get It

London Symphony Orchestra

John Williams, conductor

Joshua Bell, violin

How Long Has This Been Going On

Keith Jarrett, piano

Gary Peacock, double bass

Jack DeJohnette, drums

Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra

Antal Dorati, conductor

Andre Previn, conductor

Donald Macleod explores George Gershwin's time in Paris in the spring of 1928.

In the spring of 1930, it was announced that Fox Studios had signed George Gershwin for a large sum of money for to provide the music for a film called Delicious.

Sound in films was still relatively new and Gershwin was sceptical. At first he enjoyed the Californian sunshine, but he quickly tired of the endless `picture talk` and all the distraction while trying to work in his bungalow at Fox's Movietone City. He gave it up and worked from his home in Beverly Hills, relaxing by swimming, hiking and playing tennis and golf.

It was a lucrative exercise for Gershwin, but not a good time to experience Hollywood. But he did use his time fruitfully. As he told a friend: `nearly everybody comes back from California with a western tan and a pocketful of motion picture money. I decided to come back with both these things and a serious composition.`

But Not For Me

Benny Goodman Trio

Blah Blah Blah

Lukas Huisman, piano

Embraceable You

Andre Previn, piano

David Finck, double bass

Second Rhapsody

Los Angeles Philharmonic

Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor

I Got Rhythm

Ethel Merman

Variations on I Got Rhythm

St Louis Symphony Orchestra

Leonard Slatkin, conductor

Jeffrey Siegel, piano

Rhapsody in Blue

Glen Miller and his Orchestra

Donald Macleod tells the story of George Gershwin's first experience of Hollywood.

In 1926 friends gave George Gershwin a copy of a novel called Porgy by DuBose Heyward. It was set among the labourers and stevedores of Charleston, South Carolina. Gershwin sat up all night reading Porgy and in the morning wrote to Heyward to suggest they develop it into an opera together.

It would be almost ten years before that work came to the stage. But when it did, in the shape of Porgy and Bess - the story of the inhabitants of Catfish Row and the love affair between the beggar, Porgy, and a young prostitute, Bess - it became Gershwin's final great work, lauded by many as the First Great American Opera.

They Can't Take that Away From Me

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

Jasbo Brown Blues

Richard Rodney Bennett, piano

Summertime

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Simon Rattle, conductor

Glyndebourne Chorus

Harolyn Blackwell, soprano

It Ain't Necessarily So (arr. Heifetz)

Randall Goosby, violin

Zhu Wang, piano

Bess, You is my Woman Now

Charles Lloyd, alto sax

Jason Moran, piano

Catfish Row Suite

Gewandhausorchester Leipzig

Riccardo Chailly, conductor

Stefano Bollani, piano

Rhapsody in Blue

George Gershwin, piano roll recording

Donald Macleod focuses on the origins and evolution of Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess.