George Gershwin

The celebration of his 125th birthday and the 100th anniversary of Rhapsody in Blue is a double occasion to reflect once again on a singular biography that began in precarious New York circumstances and gloriously realized the "American dream" of fame, success and fortune - and on the equally unique musical pluralism that Gershwin achieved in his short life. His elegantly striking songs from Broadway musicals provided generations of jazz and pop musicians with standards; his increasingly complex pieces for the concert hall and opera house were the result of irresistible lure from the "serious" districts and became hybrids of "lowbrow" and "highbrow", "symphonic jazz", with which he wanted to be taken seriously by his authoritative contemporaries.

As a composer of the 20th century whose symphonic and operatic music moves between blue note, double counterpoint, bitonality and Tristan chord, whose influences of Debussy, Stravinsky, ragtime and the Viennese School are processed into his own sound and played worldwide, he is certainly entitled to it. The fact that Gershwin's relationship with Schönberg and Berg was more complex than is generally assumed is just as much a topic as his "Jewishness", the discussions about Porgy and Bess and his friendship with painters and musicians.

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