LDV118

24 AU CINÉMA CE SOIR Let’s move on to the choice of works on this disc. How did you organise it? Could you point out a ‘common thread’ running through all the pieces you play? The thread runs from Rota . . . to Rota! Seriously though, as I said before, this album is a tribute to my parents. I’m thinking in particular of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue , which my father would have so liked me to play for him. But there could be no question of tackling that type of music at the Paris Conservatoire, where in those days it was held in low esteem – to put it mildly! All the same, it’s worth pointing out that Rhapsody in Blue , premiered in 1924, certainly influenced Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini , which was composed ten years later. The eighteenth variation is modelled on the big central theme of Gershwin’s score. Woody Allen – since of course we’re talking about the music he chose for his film Manhattan – is a fascinating and passionate director. His culture is American, a New Yorker’s culture to be precise, and he delightfully mocks the snobbery of some of his compatriots (just look at the larger-than-life performance of Diane Keaton!). Allen is sheer artist, and his films broaden our minds. The music in Manhattan is redolent of nostalgia, of sad mornings, of The Great Gatsby , both F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel and Jack Clayton’s film of it.