André de Ridder conducts the second of three concerts in the NZSO’s Immerse Festival 2023 performed over three consecutive days in Wellington’s Michael Fowler Centre.
This programme features George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue performed by Australian pianist Simon Tedeschi, and legendary jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis’ acclaimed Blues Symphony plus a work by Bryce Dessner.
André de Ridder Photo: Marco Borggreve
Programme
BRYCE DESSNER: Mari
GERSHWIN: Rhapsody in Blue
WYNTON MARSALIS: Blues Symphony
Bryce Dessner is famous for being the frontman for the Grammy Award-winning band The National, but he’s also developed a reputation as an orchestral composer following years of study at Yale in flute and classical guitar.
Mari by Bryce Dessner was written for and dedicated to the conductor Semyon Bychkov who is Dessner’s neighbour on the Basque coast of France, and is named after the Basque goddess of the forest.
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra/André de Ridder
Pianist Simon Tedeschi Photo: Keith Saunders
Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue came to the composer quickly while he was riding a rattling train to Boston. “I heard it”, he said “as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot of our unduplicated national pep, of our metropolitan madness.”
Incredibly Gershwin learned of the commission by reading a newspaper article alleging that he, George Gershwin, was writing a “jazz concerto” for orchestra. Gershwin had actually declined the offer because he didn’t have time to write it but after the article, he found himself publicly committed to creating a “jazz concerto” in just five weeks.
Written for Paul Whiteman’s band - one of the most popular dance bands of the 1920s – it was an instant hit. And more than 100 years later it still thrills!
Simon Tedeschi (piano), New Zealand Symphony Orchestra/André de Ridder
Wynton Marsalis Photo: Eric Delmar, via Wikimedia Commons
Wynton Marsalis celebrates the power of the 12-bar blues in his ‘Blues Symphony’.
It’s an epic seven movement work that evokes the jazz age and embraces the blues, one of America’s greatest cultural inventions. As Wynton Marsalis says, “The blues helps you remember back before the troubles on hand and in mind ,and they carry you on the wings of angels to a timeless higher ground.”
Blues Symphony is rooted in the 12-bar blues and travels the continuum of some of the great American music – Blues, Ragtime, Jazz, Country and more. The symphony’s movements are each infused with different influences including ragtime stomp, a habanera rhythm, Latin dance styles, and even a nod to Rhapsody in Blue.
Buckle up for a sonic journey through America’s revolutionary era, the early beginnings of jazz in New Orleans, and even a big city soundscape that serves as a nod to the Great Migration.
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra/André de Ridder
Producer: David McCaw
Sound Engineer: Darryl Stack
Recorded 29 July 2023 at the Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington by RNZ Concert
