{"id":50154,"date":"2024-12-03T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-03T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ec770e5e-044c-4f47-be63-d7c2358cd1e3"},"modified":"2024-12-03T11:09:20","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T10:09:20","slug":"the-7-greatest-piano-concertos-inspired-by-jazz","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/the-7-greatest-piano-concertos-inspired-by-jazz\/","title":{"rendered":"The 7 greatest piano concertos inspired by jazz"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 03 December 2024 at 09:30 AM<\/p>

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Read on to discover the best piano concertos inspired by jazz, as chosen by pianist Frank Dupree…<\/strong><\/p>

What is jazz music?<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul>
George Gershwin \u2013 Rhapsody in Blue\/<\/em>Piano Concerto in F<\/h2> Gershwin<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Rhapsody in Blue<\/a><\/strong><\/em> is the reason I fell in love with jazz. I played it for the first time when I was 13, and I still remember the feeling of those blue notes in my fingers: part sweet, part cheeky. Gershwin was the first person to bring the worlds of jazz and classical music together, and Rhapsody in Blue<\/em> is one of his best-known pieces. But I see it as a rehearsal for his Piano Concerto in F, another jazz-infused work which he wrote a year later, and which I think is an even better piece: more symphonic, clearer in form and altogether wiser.\u00a0<\/p>

<\/div> <figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> Frank Dupreee performs Gershwin’s Concerto in F <\/figcaption> <\/figure> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/six-best-works-george-gershwin\">6 of the best works by George Gershwin<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Maurice Ravel \u2013 Piano Concerto in G<\/h2> <p>In the late 1920s, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/maurice-ravel\">Ravel<\/a><\/strong> spent four months in the US, where he met Gershwin, heard his <em>Rhapsody in Blue<\/em> and also heard Duke Ellington in concert. Then he returned to France and composed the Piano Concerto in G. With its French harmonies and Spanish-influenced melodies, it is characteristic of Ravel, but with many jazz elements. In fact, the harmonies of impressionistic music and those more commonly associated with jazz are very similar in terms of their richness, so they complement each other well. It\u2019s French music with a little more rhythm than usual.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/greatest-piano-concertos-all-time\">The greatest piano concertos of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Nikolai Kapustin \u2013 Piano Concerto No. 2<\/h2> <p>Kapustin grew up in the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and composed jazz at a time when even saying the word \u2018jazz\u2019 on the street was prohibited. But he had access to a radio and transcribed the jazz he heard on it, weaving its soundworld into his compositions. In his Piano Concerto No. 2, that jazz influence is obvious: it sounds like Oscar Peterson might have played with an <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/what-instruments-make-up-an-orchestra\">orchestra<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 but three times more difficult.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/best-ukrainian-composers-of-all-time\">12 best Ukrainian composers of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>More of the best piano concertos inspired by jazz…<\/strong><\/h3> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Leonard Bernstein \u2013 Symphony No. 2, \u2018The\u00a0Age\u00a0of\u00a0Anxiety\u2019<\/h2> <p>When WH Auden wrote the 1947 poem that inspired this piece, he summed up the psychology of a generation living through the Second World War: attempting to live a normal life with constant interruptions by anxiety-inducing broadcasts from the radio. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/leonard-bernstein\">Bernstein<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s piece for solo piano and orchestra hops between crazy jazz outbursts and something much darker and scarier. It really captures the mindset of someone who is desperately struggling, and failing, to forget the present.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/guide-bernstein-s-age-anxiety-symphony\">A guide to ‘The Age of Anxiety’ Symphony<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\"> <div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Krystian Zimerman and Leonard Bernstein play Bernstein Symphony #2 (The Age of Anxiety)\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Q-aU2Se1RHw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/> <\/div> <figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> Krystian Zimerman and Leonard Bernstein perform ‘The Age of Anxiety’ <\/figcaption> <\/figure> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Dana Suesse \u2013 Concerto for Combo and Orchestra<\/h2> <p>Although we\u2019re now trying to recognise female composers, we still haven\u2019t really discovered the American composer Dana Suesse. Although she was often referred to as \u2018the Gershwin girl\u2019 and wrote in a style that was reminiscent of Gershwin, who was ten years her senior, hers was a distinctive approach to blending the worlds of classical and jazz: very structured. Sometimes she even includes a fugue!<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/the-7-greatest-piano-concertos-by-female-composers\">The 7 greatest pianos concertos by female composers<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Duke Ellington \u2013 <em>New World A-Comin\u2019<\/em><\/h2> <p>While many pieces on this list were written by classically trained composers, it\u2019s fascinating to hear a fusion of classical and jazz from a real jazz musician. Duke Ellington composed so many jazz songs and played with his jazz band for decades. But later in life he became very interested in classical music, as shown in his jazz versions of <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/the-nutcracker\">The Nutcracker<\/a><\/strong><\/em> and <em>Peer Gynt<\/em>. In<em> New World A-Comin\u2019<\/em> he draws on blues and spiritual gospel. This is old-school jazz.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/best-jazz-band-leaders-of-all-time\">Best jazz band leaders of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>More of the best piano concertos inspired by jazz…<\/strong><\/h3> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">John Adams \u2013 <em>Century Rolls<\/em><\/h2> <p>Taking inspiration from the 1920s player piano, this piece takes us on a white-knuckle ride through a century of music. You hear jazz, yes, but also the likes of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/sergey-rachmaninov\">Rachmaninov<\/a><\/strong> and Paderewski. What binds it together is <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/john-adams\">John Adams<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s minimalist style: circling rhythmical passages, like the repetitive motion of piano rolls. You feel like you\u2019re on a train going through a tunnel of shifting colours. There is no right turn, no left: only straight ahead. And it\u2019s\u00a0exhilarating.<\/p> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Who is Frank Dupree?<\/h2> <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Frank Dupree has chosen his top piano concertos inspired by jazz… but who is he?<\/strong><\/h3> <p>Born in Rastatt, Germany, pianist Frank Dupree is a devotee of new music and has collaborated with contemporary composers such as P\u00e9ter E\u00f6tv\u00f6s and Wolfgang Rihm. He is also passionate about music that treads the boundary between classical and jazz \u2013 in addition to the piano, he plays jazz percussion, and has championed the music of Nikolai Kapustin, a composer who blends classical structures with jazz harmonies and rhythms. On 18 and 19 December he performs Kapustin\u2019s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the London Symphony Orchestra at the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.barbican.org.uk\/whats-on\/2024\/event\/london-symphony-orchestrasir-antonio-pappano-7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Barbican<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/20-greatest-pianists-all-time\">20 greatest pianists of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Published: Tuesday, 03 December 2024 at 09:30 AM Read on to discover the best piano concertos inspired by jazz, as chosen by pianist Frank Dupree… What is jazz music? George Gershwin \u2013 Rhapsody in Blue\/Piano Concerto in F Gershwin\u2019s Rhapsody in Blue is the reason I fell in love with jazz. I played it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":50155,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/the-7-greatest-piano-concertos-inspired-by-jazz.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/the-7-greatest-piano-concertos-inspired-by-jazz-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/the-7-greatest-piano-concertos-inspired-by-jazz-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/the-7-greatest-piano-concertos-inspired-by-jazz-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/the-7-greatest-piano-concertos-inspired-by-jazz-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/the-7-greatest-piano-concertos-inspired-by-jazz.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/the-7-greatest-piano-concertos-inspired-by-jazz.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Tuesday, 03 December 2024 at 09:30 AM Read on to discover the best piano concertos inspired by jazz, as chosen by pianist Frank Dupree… What is jazz music? George Gershwin \u2013 Rhapsody in Blue\/Piano Concerto in F Gershwin\u2019s Rhapsody in Blue is the reason I fell in love with jazz. I played it…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/50154"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}