who here enjoys listening to George Gershwin?
i really like rasphody in blue and how it goes through many movements throughout the piece

well, you really should hear "Rasphody in Blue", great one-probably the best

Yeah, love rhapsody but its hard to pull of that sax (it is a saxophone isn't it?) glissando at the beginning with out it sounding like you've just stamped on a kitten.

Great guys...  Now all day I'm going to be singing to my self:

I love New York in June
How about you?

I love a Gershwin tune
How about you?

and so on... 

The gliss is played on a clarinet, but clarinettists usually double on sax, so it's pretty close!

The piano concerto is great fun - the last movement sounds like the sort of music you'd hear in Tom and Jerry!

Hey Doug,
I agree about the songs - but Gershwin's 'only successful' venture into classical music was originally written for piano and jazz band, and orchestrated by Ferde Grofe for the 'traditional' symphony orchestra. What about the later piano concerto mentioned above, Second Rhapsody, Cuban Overture, An American In Paris? Not much of a 'classical' portfolio I agree, but the concerto and American In Paris are pretty much core repertoire these days.

Then there's his masterpiece; the opera 'Porgy and Bess' which has influenced whole generations of American composers up t modern times, like Andre Previn's 'Streetcar Named Desire' of a few years ago.

Er, apparently.

Y'know, I don't disagree with you about musicals and operas - after all, is 'Die Fledermaus' an opera or a musical? Because it was written by Johann Strauss II, it's an opera but because Hammerstein was writing for the Broadway stage, 'Carousel' is a musical. Hmm.

It's a matter of perpective, I suppose. A composer called Krenek wrote a German theatre-piece called 'Jonny spielt auf' ('Johnny plays') in the mid-20th century which was conscioulsy not opera, but not musical either. Kurt Weill's theatre pieces also aren't operas, but why are they so different to Wagner?

Don't get me started!

Yeh, Gershwin's 'unknown' pieces were attempts in the 'classical' style, but then, much of Anton Bruckner's early symphonies are little known, but are still what would be called 'classical'.

The derivation of the word 'classical' is a whole different subject! Ultimately, we each like what we like - doesn't matter what it's called. I enjoy film music (the 20th century's big contribution to serious music) but it doesn't have to be classified as anything for it to be enjoyable.