Shall We Dance?

Approaching winter with jaunty steps, we’ll hear Gershwin’s light yet sophisticated music for a dance sequence, Hoctor’s Ballet, from the Hollywood movie, Shall We Dance?. This comedy romance about an American ballet dancer posing as a Russian starred Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Fancy Free is the first of a series of wildly successful collaborations between the legendary choreographer Jerome Robbins and the young composer Leonard Bernstein. Four rimshots on the snare-drum introduce us to three sailors, in town on shore leave, where they are greeted by the rhythms and energy of Jazz Age New York.

Then in the company of NZTrio’s beloved pianist, Somi Kim, we’ll sashay through Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. From the unforgettable clarinet slide at the beginning, the Rhapsody bowls along, piano and orchestra trading themes that are sometimes strutting and brash, sometimes sweetly, bluesily nostalgic, and sometimes purely playful. Gershwin called it “… a musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our national pep, of our blues, our metropolitan madness.”

Such an American concert would not be complete without some Duke Ellington. Choreographer Alvin Ailey asked Ellington for a work that “… was to follow the course of a stream through various stages: through a meander, a falls, a whirlpool, and then gurgling rapids.” Ellington studied all the water music he could find, from Handel to Debussy, and responded with The River – eight movements ranging in style from delicately classical to swaggeringly big-band.