Gerhswin's famous tune "I Got Rhythm" (from the 1930 musical "Girl Crazy") was not only among the most popular of his hits with the public, but seems also to have become one of the composer's own favorites as well. It is well known that whenever he was attending a party, Gershwin would gravitate toward a piano and improvise on his own tunes. "I Got Rhythm" quickly became one of the tunes he used most often, but we have Porgy and Bess to thank for this published work for piano and orchestra. Gershwin took on extra work—a radio program and an extended tour—to earn money and clear the decks so that he could devote his time to that opera. In 1932 he prepared formal piano versions of some of his songs (collected as George Gershwin's Song-Book), and two years later he made an orchestral version that drew on his experiments-in-performance with "I Got Rhythm." Each variation decks the theme out in a new mood and new sound, even one that seems to spoof stereotypes of "Chinese" music. In one variation the song is transformed into a wholly new, broad melody. Gershwin at the time was in the midst of one of his periodic stretches of study of classical composition, and there are many nicely finished touches that make these variations into something beyond a notated improvisation. Fifteen minutes long, the work is often used as a companion to the Rhapsody in Blue and is an attractive addition in its own right to the canon of Gershwin's concert works.

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