Variations on 'I Got Rhythm'

In early 1934 George Gershwin toured North America as a piano soloist, with a 30-member orchestra backing him. A new work was specially written for the tour, showcasing Gershwin’s dazzling keyboard talents—the Variations on “I Got Rhythm”, based on a hit song from his 1930 musical Girl Crazy. The Variations start with a clarinet voicing the song’s four-note opening theme, prompting an introductory swirl of activity from the orchestra. The melody is then played through on solo piano, before the variations themselves begin. Variation 1 is, in Gershwin’s own description, “a very complicated rhythmic pattern played by the piano”. A woozy, slow waltz episode ensues, followed by “a Chinese variation” imitating out-of-tune flutes. A variation “in which the left hand plays the melody upside down” provides a link to the big-band-style finale, flecked with fizzing jazz riffs and brilliant cascades of chording from the piano.