Catfish Row

"Catfish Row", originally titled "Suite from Porgy and Bess", is an orchestral work by George Gershwin based upon music from his famous opera. Gershwin completed the work in 1936 and it premiered at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia on January 21 of that year, with Alexander Smallens conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. Gershwin played the piano part, including the piano solo in the opening moments. This piece preserves some of the darkest and most complex music Gershwin ever wrote.

It should not be confused with Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture, scored at the behest of Fritz Reiner by Robert Russell Bennett in 1942, and premiered by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 1943.

Gershwin divided his work into five sections:

  1. Catfish Row contains the Introduction, "Jazzbo Brown's Piano Blues", which was cut from the opera until 1976 (a blues development of the overture theme), and the first iteration of "Summertime" with a short coda.
  2. Porgy Sings contains one of Porgy's arias: "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'" and Porgy and Bess's duet "Bess, You Is My Woman Now" bridged by some of the introduction to the latter song.
  3. Fugue contains the dark music from the murder of Crown in Act III scene 1.
  4. Hurricane features the music from the hurricane sequence (12 more measures than the R. R. Bennett Porgy and Bess "Symphonic Picture" medley).
  5. Good Morning, Sistuh contains the Act III Prelude from the final scene of the opera, as well as the final song, "Oh, Lawd, I'm on My Way".

Gershwin conducted all of the ensuing performances before his death in 1937. The suite was virtually forgotten until it was discovered, in March 1958, by Ira Gershwin's secretary, Lawrence D. Stewart. Ira Gershwin decided to title to work "Catfish Row" to distinguish it from Robert Russell Bennett's medley.

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