Gershwin’s Piano Concerto

Live at the BBC Proms: the BBC Symphony Orchestra conductor James Gaffigan plays Wynton Marsalis and Barber, and, with soloist Yeol Eum Son, Gershwin's charismatic Piano Concerto.

Presented by Georgia Mann, live from the Royal Albert Hall, London.

Wynton Marsalis: Concerto for Orchestra (BBC co-commission: UK premiere)

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Interval: Georgia Mann talks to broadcaster and writer Emily MacGregor about George Gershwin, his uniquely American sound, and America's evolving musical culture, as the United States marks its 250th anniversary.

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George Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F major
Samuel Barber: Symphony No. 1 in One movement

Yeol Eum Son (piano)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
James Gaffigan (conductor)

James Gaffigan and the BBC Symphony Orchestra mark the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence with 100 years of American music. South Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son joins the orchestra for Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F major – its Charleston rhythms and songful slow movement capturing the energy of 20th-century New York. Samuel Barber’s rarely heard Symphony No. 1 in One Movement marries the lyrical intensity of the composer’s beloved Adagio with taut structural drama. The concert opens with the UK premiere of contemporary jazz great Wynton Marsalis’s mercurial, kaleidoscopic Concerto for Orchestra.