Enter the jazz age – the Paris of Josephine Baker and Picasso, the New York of Dorothy Parker and Irving Berlin, the smooth sound of the clarinet, the smoky trumpet.
Mix it all up with folk mythology, authentic jazz, and real Parisian taxi horns and you get the heady impression of music at its most vital.
The 1920s were an amazing era of cross-fertilisation and mutual inspiration: as Gershwin was putting the concert hall into jazz with his Rhapsody in Blue, Darius Milhaud on the other side of the Atlantic was capturing the chaos and steamy vitality of Harlem for the ballet theatre.
Where did the bold experiments take us? Duke Ellington, Leonard Bernstein and John Adams complete the itinerary: New York, Paris, and the world!
ADAMS The Chairman Dances – Foxtrot for orchestra
MILHAUD The Creation of the World
GERSHWIN An American in Paris
BERNSTEIN Prelude, Fugue and Riffs
GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue
ELLINGTON Harlem
Kristjan Järvi conductor
Michael Kieran Harvey piano
Francesco Celata clarinet