DSSO Masterworks V: Gershwin & Rachmaninoff

The Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra presents the music of George Gershwin, William Grant Still and Sergei Rachmaninoff. What do they have in common? They were almost neighbors. All three lived in Hollywood in the 1930s and 40s, working on some of their greatest music.

Gershwin compiled his suite from Porgy and Bess there called Catfish Row. William Grant Still’s masterful Afro-American Symphony was written just a few years prior to that. Both compositions incorporate a banjo into the classical symphony orchestra and burst with life and energy. Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.3 premiered in New York City in 1909. With its fiendishly difficult technique and its lush melodic writing, the concerto is one of the great achievements of the repertoire.

Bill Bastian presents a pre-concert prelude talk at 6:10 p.m. to the left of the main lobby in the harbor side arena walkway.