“You Are My Rhapsody in Blue” with the New Jersey Festival Orchestra

It may seem like Gershwin is the man of the hour on Broadway with “An American in Paris,” but here’s a way to get your Gershwin fix much closer to home.

This weekend, New Jersey Festival Orchestra, under the direction of David Wroe, will present their season-opening concert “You Are My Rhapsody in Blue” with pianist Michael Fennelly and with the Harmonium Choral Society. You’ll have two chances to catch the concert: on Saturday, October 10 at 7:00 p.m. at the Presbyterian Church in Westfield, NJ and on Sunday, October 11 at 3:00 p.m. at Drew University in Madison, NJ.

As you might guess from the concert’s title, New Jersey Festival Orchestra’s first concert of the season contains one of Gershwin’s most popular works, “Rhapsody in Blue.” But there’s something a little different about this “Rhapsody in Blue.” I’ll give you a hint: this piece is why the Harmonium Choral Society is on the concert. I know what you’re thinking: “Wow, this isn’t my grandfather’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue!’” I had similar thoughts when I first heard about this program, but after speaking with pianist Michael Fennelly, I’ll tell you that you and I are only partially right in that thinking.

But first, a little background on “Rhapsody in Blue.” Like Gershwin’s other iconic work, “Porgy and Bess,” “Rhapsody in Blue” has its feet in several genres, and can be found on highbrow concert programs, pops concerts, jazz performances and, of course, TV commercials.

So our journey begins in 1924, when the Jazz Age was blossoming here in America. That year, Paul Whiteman and his jazz band planned a concert appropriately entitled “An Experiment in Modern Music” and Whiteman asked George Gershwin to contribute a concerto-like piece for the concert. At first, Gershwin declined, saying that he wouldn’t have time to properly compose a piece. But when Whiteman and Gershwin got wind that another composer was planning to steal the idea of an experimental concert like theirs, Gershwin got to work and composed “Rhapsody in Blue” in less than five weeks! The composition came to him on a train ride to Boston.

He later said: “It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang, that is so often stimulating to a composer – I frequently hear music in the very heart of the noise…. And there I suddenly heard, and even say on paper – the complete construction of the Rhapsody, from beginning to end… I heard it as a sort of music kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting post, of our unduplicated national pep, of our metropolitan madness.”

(I’ll admit that I do most of my writing on the train ride to and from my regular job in New York City. There’s something really cool about writing this story about Gershwin’s train inspiration while actually riding a train myself. Though working on a train is about the only comparison that should be made between my work and that of George Gershwin!) As I said earlier, Whiteman’s concert was meant to be an experiment. By that, he meant that the concert was to combine the classical and jazz styles, providing “a stepping stone which will make it very simple for the masses to understand, and therefore, enjoy symphony and opera.” Hmmm… Whiteman sounds like my kind of guy.

So the concert took place in early February 1924 in New York City, with George Gershwin at the piano for his world premiere and “Rhapsody” was a big hit.

But while we might expect works under the classical umbrella to be etched in stone, remember that “Rhapsody” is also a jazz work. Gershwin continued to play around with the work, which brings us to why it’s particularly interested on this concert by New Jersey Festival Orchestra: It sings! (Literally.)

Yup, you read right. For this “Rhapsody in Blue” performance, you not only get an orchestra and piano soloist, but you get a chorus! The choral component was created by the piano soloist, Michael Fennelly.

In speaking with me for this piece, Fennelly told me that he had heard a recording of the work with Gershwin and Whitemen (the conductor and impetus behind that first concert) that has some choral oohs and aahs in the background. Fennelly says that Gershwin had wanted to include a choral component, but was only able to create sketches before his premature death. It’s absolutely amazing, said Fennelly, that no composer has since built on those sketches to complete the choral component as Gershwin had wanted.

Until now, that is.

Fennelly, a composer as well as a pianist, has taken these choral sketches and completed them, including writing lyrics to go along with it. Using Gershwin’s style and time period as inspiration, Fennelly has created lyrics that tell a love story of a guy and girl. “It took me a year or two to write the words – that was the hardest part!” Fennelly said.

“People have been performing ‘Rhapsody’ in a strict way, like Beethoven,” Fennelly told me. “But I want people to understand that Gershwin isn’t set in stone – every version that Gershwin himself recorded sounded different.” “Rhapsody” was created as a piece of innovative experimentation, and it’s really exciting to see that experimentation live on.

This spectacular “Rhapsody in Blue” is not the only piece on the program, of course. Also included on the program are Brahms’ “Academic Festival Overture” and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5.

The “Academic Festival Overture” was written by Johannes Brahms in the summer of 1880 as a sort of thank you note to the University of Breslau (now University of Wroctaw) in Poland for granting the composer an honorary doctorate. Brahms had intended to write a simple (actual) thank you letter, but they requested a well-orchestrated symphonic work that shouldn’t be “too uniformly thick” – and so he complied with the “Academic Festival Overture.” (Remember THAT the next time you are tempted to balk over the necessity of writing a thank you letter to your great-uncle Aloysius for the birthday present he sent to you!)

The “Overture” takes the form of a mini-symphony, in four continuous movements. And while some might think that all classical music is formal and stuffy (but not you, dear reader, since I’m sure you know better by now!), the “Overture” is pretty far from that mark. Brahms wasn’t a fan of formal gatherings, ceremonies or music that had to be written to serve a purpose other than the music itself.

On top of that, Brahms was kind of stubborn and maybe a little subversive, and he described the work as “a very jolly potpourri of student songs à la Suppé.” (He was referring to the composer, Franz von Suppé who was known for frothy overtures and operettas. And by “student songs” Brahms really meant drinking songs. Who would have guessed that college life here today isn’t much different than it was in Poland 150 years ago?!)

So while the university may have hoped to receive a composition in praise of the grand academic institution, Brahms delivered a well-crafted work in praise of, ahem, student extra-curricular activities. Despite the fact that Brahms seems to have thumbed his nose at the academics who were bestowing on him the honorary doctorate, the “Overture” was well-received at the time and has been a standard in the symphonic repertoire ever since. Though I’m sure the university officials at the time wish they had been a little more specific in their instructions for the composition…

Also on the program is Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, which was composed in 1888, towards the end of the composer’s life and 10 years after his Symphony No. 4. (In that interim, he composed several operas, so I have nothing to complain about, being an opera person!) Tchaikovsky was a notoriously insecure and conflicted composer and when he began this work, he was worried that his muse was exhausted.

"I am dreadfully anxious to prove not only to others, but also to myself, that I am not yet played out as a composer," he said at the time. At times he struggled with the process of composing this work, but found satisfaction in the end, admitting that “it seems to me that I have not blundered, that it has turned out well.” (Allow me to translate Tchaikovsky-speak. For him, this is the equivalent of saying “Holy crap! I rocked it!”)

In addition to proving that he was not tapped out as a composer, Symphony No. 5 may have been the work that galvanized and reinvigorated Tchaikovsky to some of his latest and greatest works. Before he even finished the symphony, he began the fantasy overture “Hamlet,” and just a few weeks later he started composing a little ballet music that you might know: “Sleeping Beauty.”

This weekend, New Jersey Festival Orchestra takes audiences on a dramatic musical journey with three life-affirming works. From the boisterous student drinking songs of the “Academic Festival Orchestra” to the world premiere of a new choral edition of “Rhapsody in Blue,” to the epic and triumphant majesty of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, you’ll leave the concert invigorated and inspired. And I bet that Brahms, Gershwin and Tchaikovsky wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Details

New Jersey Festival Orchestra, conducted by David Wroe, with pianist Michael Fennelly and the Harmonium Choral Society, present “You Are My Rhapsody in Blue” on Saturday, October 10 at 7:00 p.m. at The Presbyterian Church, 140 Mountain Ave, Westfield, NJ 07090. The concert will also be presented on Sunday, October 11 at 3:00 p.m. at the Concert Hall at the Dorothy Young Center for the Performing Arts, Drew University, Madison, NJ 07940.

Those attending the Westfield concert are invited to attend a free pre-concert lecture by Michael Rosin 45 minutes prior to the performance in the Presbyterian Church Chapel.

Are you a Jersey Arts Member? (A better question might be: “why wouldn’t you be?”) For the “You Are My Rhapsody in Blue” concerts, Members are entitled to a buy-one-get-one-free offer for seats in sections A, B and C. Online, use discount code “DJA.” You’re welcome.