In 1929 the BBC asked Walton to write an oratorio for small chorus, small orchestra and a vocal soloist. The result was anything but small! Belshazzar’s Feast, to a libretto by Osbert Sitwell, turned out to be on an epic scale. It rejuvenated English oratorio writing, and audiences were surprised with a jazzy, perhaps slightly racy, shocker. Bernstein revisited the score of his wildy successful musical and extracted nine sections to assemble into what he called the Symphonic Dances. The famous opening confrontation of the Jets and the Sharks is followed by the strains of Somewhere and the lively Latin dances of the Mambo and Cha-cha before the Cool fugue slides into the final, deadly Rumble, before ending on a haunting, unresolved chord. That Rhapsody in Blue became an American legend from its very first performance is down to Gershwin’s genius to tap into the spirit of his country drawing on American popular song and dance, African-American jazz, and the rhythm of the New York streets to create a potent new hybrid for the concert hall.
