Fascinating to reflect that the whole thing was essentially run up in a couple of weeks, and that Gershwin had been planning something rather less ambitious until the concert promoter bigged it up on the playbill. And that Stravinsky, Souza and assorted other greats were at the premiere. At which Gershwin ad-libbed much of the piano part because he hadn't really finished it yet.
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
A nicely balanced documentary, informative in so many ways. In fact the only salient point that it really missed was that Gershwin's Jewish background was crucial to his empathy toward black American music in the 1920s. Few other ethnic groups had had such personal experience of what it felt like to be a discriminated-against minority. As was also the case much later, when Jewish producers "broke" the blues to a wider American public. But hey, that's another story.
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif)
Good stuff, anyway. The prog ends in a full performance of the work. Enjoy.
BJ