Get out the popcorn. It's November.

Do you like Gershwin? Then you might enjoy these two offerings.

Today's Short Subject: First, have a bit of fun with Yo-Yo Ma. Here he is, on Stephen Colbert's new Late Show, preforming Prelude No 1 with the bandleader, Jon Batiste. Not only is that great music, but look at how much fun they're having. That's almost illegal.

Today's Feature Film: Another conductor who had an awful lot of fun with music was Leonard Bernstein. Here he is performing Rhapsody in Blue with the New York Philharmonic, back in 1976. I think you'll enjoy it, it has verve.

Apparently, bandleader Paul Whiteman got Gershwin to compose this piece by writing an article in the paper saying that Gershwin was already composing it. That was kind of nervy, but we're glad he went on and created the work. He only had five weeks, but Gershwin was inspired by the rhythm of a train as he travelled. He wrote, 'I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our metropolitan madness. By the time I reached Boston I had a definite plot of the piece, as distinguished from its actual substance.' There you have it: 'unduplicated national pep.' That's what we've got.

The most famous bit, of course, is the clarinet glissando at the beginning. And that was provided by clarinetist Ross Gorman, who apparently meant it as a joke during rehearsal. It was too brilliant not to leave in. Although one can't help wondering what John Philip Sousa thought of it – he was at the premiere.

Rhapsody in Blue is a classic, and evokes the 1920s like no other piece of music. Forget your quotidian concerns, and just relax with this one.