gershwin himself played the piano part of "rhapsody in blue" at the concert. the audience included some of the greatest classical musicians of the time. when they heard his music, they were electrified. it seemed to capture, for the first time, the true voice of modern american culture. today, we can still hear gershwin playing "rhapsody in blue." an old mechanical piano recording gershwin created has been reproduced exactly. there are also very early versions of "rhapsody in blue" which feature gershwin playing the piano with whiteman's orchestra. those recordings, because they are early, do not sound like modern recordings. but they are recordings of gershwin at the piano. this makes those recordings important.