Piano Magic

Donald Macleod focuses on George Gershwin's early life and love of the piano.

When he was a child, Gershwin's mother Rose, aspiring to upward-mobility, decided the family needed a piano, and that her Ira would learn to play it. But it was the hoisting up and in through the window of the family’s Lower East Side apartment, of a second-hand upright, bought on the instalment plan, which, literally, opened a window on a new world for Ira’s younger brother George. From his beginnings as a song plugger and jobbing accompanist to his own performances of his own concert works, the piano is at the centre of Gershwin's life and music.

Summertime
The Glyndebourne Chorus
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Simon Rattle, conductor

That Certain Feeling
Joanna MacGregor Piano

Three Preludes
Yo-Yo Ma, cello

Piano Concerto in F
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Andre Previn, conductor

Has Anyone Seen Joe
Barbara Hendricks, soprano
Katia & Marielle Labeque, pianos

Produced in Cardiff by Martin Williams