In 1928, the 30 year old George Gershwin embarked on an extended visit to Europe . After staying a few weeks in London he went to Paris , where he stayed for several months. As well as attending premieres and performances of his own music, he met Ravel, Milhaud, Poulenc, Prokofiev, Stravinsky and other composers of the day. Later he moved on to Vienna where he met Alban Berg, and a meeting is recorded at which Berg's highly atonal Lyric Suite was played for Gershwin, who responded by playing some of his songs for Berg. A greater contrast of styles is hard to imagine, but they both admired each other's music – as Berg said, “Music is music!”.

Gershwin returned to the USA at the end of the summer with the first draft of An American in Paris . The revisions and orchestration were complete by November, and the first performance was given by the New York Philharmonic under Walter Damrosch on 13 th December 1928.

The music is programmatic, and describes the adventures of an American walking the streets of Paris , seeing the sights and hearing the sounds of that city. It is based on a series of themes, some of which are transitory, while others are developed in a symphonic manner. In style it is American to the core, and clearly reflects the style of the 1920s. A detailed description would be dry and dull, and the first programme notes carried a witty and flippant description of the wanderings of the American tourist in Paris (but alas too long for inclusion here!). However, you might listen out for the taxi horns near the beginning, for the Music Hall theme on the trombone, for the solo violin which leads into the blues section, for the Charleston on two trumpets, and then the final robust and joyful version of the blues theme.