.jpg?w=1)
Details
GERSHWIN, George. Concerto (in F). Composed for Piano and Orchestra transcribed for two pianos (four hands). New York: Harms Inc., 1927.
2o (355 x 265mm.). 67pp. (Title and second leaf dog-eared at upper corner). Original publisher's printed gray wrappers. (Covers worn, two corners defective, spine renewed with white cloth).
FIRST EDITION of the original two-piano version of Gershwin's First Piano Concerto. PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED IN INK on the blank portion of the titlepage: For Mabel & Bob--[Schirmer] Love & this Concerto. George Gershwin Jan. 1928." Following the success of his Rhapsody in Blue, premiered in 1924 under Walter Damrosch, Gershwin was commissioned to compose a piano concerto for the same orchestra, the New York Symphony, and began work in July 1925. Originally entitled the New York Concerto, the third movement (which the composer termed "an orgy of rhythm") was completed by late September. While the orchestration of the Rhapsody in Blue had been the work of Ferde Grofe (1892-1972), Gershwin himself undertook the orchestration of the new concerto, completing it on November 10, 1925. Like the Rhapsody, the Concerto was pervasively jazz-influenced, although its composer attempted to cast much of the material into a traditional classical structure. The new concerto was premiered at Carnegie Hall under Damrosch on Christmas Day, 1925, with Gershwin at the piano. The Schirmers, to whom the score was inscribed, were close friends of the Gershwins (see, in this connection, lot 127).
2o (355 x 265mm.). 67pp. (Title and second leaf dog-eared at upper corner). Original publisher's printed gray wrappers. (Covers worn, two corners defective, spine renewed with white cloth).
FIRST EDITION of the original two-piano version of Gershwin's First Piano Concerto. PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED IN INK on the blank portion of the titlepage: For Mabel & Bob--[Schirmer] Love & this Concerto. George Gershwin Jan. 1928." Following the success of his Rhapsody in Blue, premiered in 1924 under Walter Damrosch, Gershwin was commissioned to compose a piano concerto for the same orchestra, the New York Symphony, and began work in July 1925. Originally entitled the New York Concerto, the third movement (which the composer termed "an orgy of rhythm") was completed by late September. While the orchestration of the Rhapsody in Blue had been the work of Ferde Grofe (1892-1972), Gershwin himself undertook the orchestration of the new concerto, completing it on November 10, 1925. Like the Rhapsody, the Concerto was pervasively jazz-influenced, although its composer attempted to cast much of the material into a traditional classical structure. The new concerto was premiered at Carnegie Hall under Damrosch on Christmas Day, 1925, with Gershwin at the piano. The Schirmers, to whom the score was inscribed, were close friends of the Gershwins (see, in this connection, lot 127).