The Great Gatsby

This is a program that harkens back to the Golden Age of film, as well as the rich musical jazz traditions of the early 20th Century – often these two worlds overlapped. The centerpiece of this program is Florence Price’s Piano Concerto, a single movement work rooted in jazz, full of both great melodies and rhythmic drive. John Harbison’s Gatsby is a foxtrot, full of wit and clever orchestration – a tongue and cheek homage of the lost 20’s era.

E.W. Korngold, Aaron Copland, and George Gershwin were major composers of film and Broadway in the 1930’s and 40’s.  Each of these works delve into various musical languages to nicely round out this program.