An exploration of Gershwin's concerto in F and his cadenzas

Abstract

It is unusual for an important piece such as George Gershwin’s Concerto in F to have remained so overlooked by classical pianists. Discussions among my colleagues revealed that not only was the piece rarely heard in concerts of classical music, performers generally preferred to learn other concertos over the Concerto in F. Furthermore, there has not been extensive research focusing solely on George Gershwin's Concerto in F and comparing it to other works in the same genre. The only book to analyze this concerto exclusively and in depth was written in German by Clemens Kühn. The amount of sources regarding the concerto being thus extremely limited, I hope, through this research, to provide more information and insights on the piece, and to stimulate more interest for musicians to perform it in the future.

I will first explore the biographical and stylistic contexts of this piece, followed by the musical connections between Gershwin’s concerto and Ravel’s; then, thorough analyses of the work and of its cadenzas will be presented. Lastly, after studying the cadenzas and the Concerto in F as a whole, I am no longer satisfied with the current practice of playing the cadenzas strictly as written, and chose to compose an alternative cadenza for the second movement. The new cadenza is included at the end of this document.