Rhapsody in Blue: Performances and Recordings in the 1920s. Part The United States. By Albert Haim Overture. Paul Whiteman about

On September 19, 1924, Whiteman and his orchestra left Pennsylvania Station for their transcontinental tour that lasted for nearly eight months, with a few visits to New York City during that period. The band gave about 200 concerts in nearly two thirds of the states. The program was similar to that for the February 12, 1924 Aeolian Hall concert and included Rhapsody in Blue in every appearance. The piano soloist for the performances of the Rhapsody was Harry Perella, but on two occasions George Gershwin himself was the pianist: the November 27, 1924 concert in Philadelphia’s Academy of Music and the December 4, 1924 concert in Boston’s Symphony Hall. There is one fascinating bit of information associated with the August 10, 1924 Whiteman concert in the Garden Pier Theater in Atlantic City. Ben Bernie switches from his role as band leader to that of music critic and provides an analysis of the Whiteman concert. From the August 14, 1924 issue of Variety, here is a comment relevant to the present article “George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was the piece de resistance. The number has created a sensation in even the high-brow musical circles. Paul Whiteman deserves great credit for bringing to the attention of the public this undisputed masterpiece of the new and modern school.”

The appearances of Whiteman’s orchestra in the towns it visited in its transcontinental tour were extensively advertised in the local newspapers. Here is an ad for the concert on February 4, 1925 at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Brownwood, Texas..

Figure 8. Ad in in the Brownwood (Texas) Bulletin of February 3, 1925.

Figure 9. Announcement of Whiteman Concert in the December 9, 1925

For the rest of the 1920s, Paul Whiteman and his orchestra would play Rhapsody in Blue on several occasions. By the end of the 1920s, Whiteman’s orchestra had played Rhapsody in Blue more than a thousand times.