George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” — on two guitars

George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” — on two guitars February 11, 2016

 

Gershwin, only three and a half months before his very premature death
George Gershwin, on 28 March 1937
He died of a brain tumor on 11 July 1937, at the age of 38.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain)

 

Thanks to Chrystine Heward Reynolds for bringing these absolutely wonderful — and stunningly impressive — sixteen minutes to my attention:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB-j_pvidq4

 

When The Donald and Bolshie Bernie and Clinton Inc. begin to bring me down, it’s nice to remember that there are whole worlds out there beyond politics.

 

And may they ever remain so.

 

But this particular case also reminds me that far too many human lives and far too many remarkable talents have been, and continue to be, taken away far too early. One can argue about the question of life after death, but I simply can’t understand anybody failing to see how desirable it would be for people like Gershwin, and Ramanujan, and Mozart, and Mendelssohn, and Keats, and many, many others to continue to unfold their talents, and how unutterably sad it would be if those talents were forever gone.

 

 


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