George Gershwin, Three Preludes

When George Gershwin was born in America, in 1898, the great northern country was beginning to emerge as a powerful and expansionist power. It had just taken Spain's last possessions in the Caribbean and the Philippines and was on its way to becoming the great imperialist power of the twentieth century. The country was settling territorially, and at the same time, thousands of emigrants were approaching North America due to the shock wave of the Industrial Revolution in the European continent.

Coming from St. Petersburg, the Gershovitz family arrived in the promised land in the second half of the 19th century, and soon after, in an understandable desire for integration, they Americanized their last name by changing it to Gershwin. His children will be George and Ira, the first one would be a musician and pianist, and the later, lyricist of his younger brother's songs.

Three Preludes

George Gershwin (1898 - 1937)

The three short pieces known as Preludes – which should be understood as a unique work – were released in 1926, a year after the premiere of the Piano Concerto. They immediately became an indisputable success, because they perfectly fit with the "simultaneistic" atmosphere that proclaimed the integration of jazz with serious music, a task that, in the opinion of his contemporaries, George Gershwin was the one in a position to carry out. This had been outright illustrated with his 1924 Rhapsody in blue.

The rendition is by Krystian Zimerman. Each of these three preludes does not last more than two minutes. In the video, the rest are applause between prelude and prelude. The second prelude, a slow and melancholic melody, allows a blues to act as an adage in this little masterpiece of which, incidentally, transcriptions have been made for orchestra, one of them, emerged from Arnold Schönberg's invention.

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