To me, nothing paints a better picture of NYC during the 1920’s (or even still today) than Rhapsody in Blue, which established George Gershwin as a “serious” composer and not just a tin pan alley song writer. In it he fused elements of classical music with the music of the jazz age and elevated jazz to a completely new and more serious art form.
But it was actually thanks to another composer, Ferde Grofé who first took Gershwin’s piece for two pianos (Rhapsody in Blue) and arranged it to be played by a full jazz orchestra and later arranged it as the full symphonic arrangement that most of us are familiar with today.
And speaking of Ferde Grofé; another one of my favorite American classical compositions of the 20th century:
Ferde Grofé: Grand Canyon Suite
Ferde Grofé (1892--1972) was an American composer, arranger and pianist. During the 1920s and 1930s, he went by the name Ferdie Grofé.
Today, Grofé remains most famous for his Grand Canyon Suite (1931), a work regarded highly enough to be recorded for RCA Victor with the NBC Symphony conducted by Arturo Toscanini (in Carnegie Hall in 1945, with the composer present). The earlier Mississippi Suite is also occasionally performed and recorded. Grofé conducted the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in his Grand Canyon Suite and his piano concerto (with pianist Jesús Maria Sanromá) for Everest Records in 1960; the recording was digitally remastered and issued on CD in 1997. In 1958, Walt Disney released a live-action short subject based on the suite and using its music. The thirty-minute Technicolor film, entitled Grand Canyon, used no actors or dialogue, simply shots of the Grand Canyon itself and several animals around the area, all shown with Grofe's music accompanying the visuals. The short won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Subject, and was shown as a featurette accompanying Disney's 1959 Sleeping Beauty.
(00:00) 1. Sunrise
(06:39) 2. Painted Desert
(11:51) 3. On the Trail
(19:52) 4. Sunset
(25:44) 5. Cloudburst
I prefer the very first recording of Rhapsody in Blue, made in 1924. That’s Gershwin himself playing the piano!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Okcn34E1RY