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Soul Music: Series 18: Rhapsody in Blue

Rhapsody in Blue

Series 18

BBC Radio 4 - Soul Music, Series 18, Rhapsody in Blue

Soul Music examines Gershwin's 'experiment in modern music', 90 years after its premiere.

The lasting impact of George Gershwin's 1924 'Rhapsody in Blue', from movies to dance music. With Moby. From April 2014.

"I'm convinced it's the best thing ever written and recorded in the history of things written and recorded" - Moby.

Rhapsody in Blue was premiered on February 12, 1924, in New York's Aeolian Hall. 

Through its use at the opening of Woody Allen's 'Manhattan' it’s become synonymous with the city that inspired its creation. 

But for people around the world, George Gershwin's "experiment in modern music" has become imbued with the most personal of memories.

LA based screenwriter Charles Peacock reflects on how this piece has become entwined with his life and how, on an evening at the Hollywood Bowl this music "healed him". When Adela Galasiu was growing up in communist Romania, Rhapsody in Blue represented "life itself, as seen through the eyes of an optimist". 

For world speed champion Gina Campbell, the opening of that piece will forever remind her of the roar of the Bluebird's ignition as it flew through the "glass like stillness of the water" and brings back the memories of her father, the legendary Donald Campbell - it was played at his funeral when he was finally laid to rest decades after his fatal record attempt on Coniston Lake.

Featuring interviews with:

Professor of Music, Howard Pollock
Musician, Moby 

Producer: Nicola Humphries

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2014.

Soul Music: Series 18

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