On the occasion of the concert on Friday, December 8, and Saturday, December 9, the Nice Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of its musical director György G. Ráth, takes the audience to the United States with a program entirely dedicated to George Gershwin.
An American composer born in Brooklyn in 1898 to Jewish parents from Russia who fled the pogroms, Gershwin, whose real name was Jacob Gershowitz, died at the age of 39 in Los Angeles. Jazz has drawn a wealth of standards from the work of this musician trained in the classical tradition.
When he burst onto the New York music scene in the aftermath of World War I, there was a call for a distinctly American music, modern and rooted in the classical tradition.
Gershwin would be a composer reflective of his country, embodying a convergence of experiences, and a crossroads of styles and cultures. His blend of influences—blues, jazz, symphonic, and film music—created a new alchemy of harmonies and sounds.
On the stage of the Nice Opera, the program’s tone will be set by the dazzling Cuban Overture, where the “exotic” percussion evokes a Caribbean atmosphere. Then, with Rhapsody in Blue, the audience will enjoy one of the most performed works in the world, which was an immediate success upon its premiere in 1924 in New York.
As for the young Hungarian pianist József Balog, he will showcase the full extent of his talent with the Concerto in F.
This concert will conclude in style with the celebrated An American in Paris.
