George Gershwin (1898-1937) is considered a very special island in the history of classical music. In 2024, it will be exactly 100 years since he composed his most famous work, the short piano concerto Rhapsody in Blue (the title of which is often mistakenly translated literally as ‘blue’ rhapsody). This masterpiece not only turned the life of the barely 26-year-old composer upside down, but the entire musical world as it was known at the time.
But where does the power of Gershwin’s music lie? What is it that makes him truly American? How did this work influence the rest of the composer’s life and what were its repercussions in music history? Are we really talking about ‘just’ symphonic jazz, or is there a much more complex content to grasp? These and many other similar questions will be answered by the chamber ensemble of the Budafok Dohnányi Orchestra, the BDO Chamber Music Workshop, in a concert where we will get familiarised with the composer’s world through the most important pieces of Gershwin’s oeuvre. The BDO Chamber Music Workshop is an ensemble formed by musical artists of Budafok Dohnányi Orchestra, which, thanks to its unique composition, is able to present each work in a new, distinctly characteristic instrumentation, thus embodying both the intimacy of the chamber music tradition and the grandiosity of the large orchestra sound.
