Studio Concert: Gershwin & Bernstein

BBC Maida Vale Studios, London
Maida Vale One, Delaware Road, London
United Kingdom
02085761227

Joshua Weilerstein conductor
Martin Roscoe piano
BBC Symphony Orchestra

Conductor Joshua Weilerstein conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a feast of all-American works from the twentieth century. The overture for Barber’s first work for orchestra, The School for a Scandal, reflecting Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s comic play, opens the concert with a flourish. Premiered in 1933, the work won Barber a Bearns Prize from Columbia University as well as instant national recognition.

Two giants of the American stage also feature here. Pianist Martin Roscoe joins the orchestra for Gershwin’s playful and melodious Piano Concerto, which was published just a year after Rhapsody in Blue, in 1925. The inimitable dances from Bernstein’s 1957 Broadway hit West Side Story complete the programme in style, broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.


Samuel Barber : The School for Scandal – Overture
George Gershwin : Piano Concerto
Leonard Bernstein : West Side Story - Symphonic Dances