Symphony of the Air
The Symphony of the Air grew out of Toscanini's NBC Symphony Orchestra. NBC had hired the best musicians, many of them first chairs of their orchestras, specifically to perform with Toscanini on NBC's radio broadcasts. Toscanini built the group into a lean, precision orchestra, recognized around the world. NBC dissolved the group after Toscanini's retirement in the spring of 1954. Most of its members (with a few new players) reassembled as the Symphony of the Air and at 11:30 pm on September 21, 1954, made a recording to raise money. On October 27 they gave their first public concert. The concert was conductorless; they played the music the way Toscanini had drilled it into them.
Though the Symphony of the Air had no music director, Leonard Bernstein in effect led the orchestra during its first season. It was the Symphony of the Air that made the celebrated Omnibus TV program that played Beethoven's discarded ideas for his Fifth Symphony. The first season was a financial and artistic success, and included a triumphal State Department-backed Asian tour and a summer season in the Catskills that drew 60,000 ticket buyers.
A second Asian good-will tour was scheduled for the spring of 1956. Prof. Donald C. Meyer of Lake Forest College in Illinois has concluded that what happened next was character assassination by disaffected orchestra members, including one who was fired for drunken and immoral actions on the first tour and others who objected to the orchestra's hiring black and women players.
They went to Brooklyn Democratic Congressman John Rooney and charged there were communists in the orchestra. Rooney used the allegations (which Meyer has concluded were unfounded) to attack the Republican administration State Department in the election year of 1956, as payback for Joseph McCarthy's similar attacks against the Democrats before the 1952 campaign. As a result, the tour was cancelled. The orchestra lost its Mutual Radio contract, much of its financial support, and a lot of ticket sales. The incident, says Meyer, was not the direct cause of the orchestra's eventual demise, but did start the process, abetted by poor management decisions. Despite much artistic success, morale slipped. Debt piled up, and its quality eroded as up to half its original membership had left by the time it disbanded, deeply in debt, in 1963.
Even so, the Symphony of the Air was an important voice for new music, led by such conductors as Reiner, Bruno Walter, Bernstein, Monteux, and Beecham, and made outstanding recordings labels including Columbia, Vanguard, and United Artists. It recorded on RCA as "...His Symphony Orchestra" (e.g. "Morton Gould and his Symphony Orchestra"; "Leopold Stokowski and His Symphony Orchestra"). It was with the Symphony of the Air that 14-year-old Daniel Barenboim made his New York debut, and it was with it that Van Cliburn played in triumph at Carnegie Hall after winning the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958.
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Beethoven: The 5 Piano Concertos by Arthur Rubinstein (2024 Remastered, New York 1956)
Arthur Rubinstein, Josef Krips, Symphony of the Air
Klassik - Erschienen bei Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording am 09.11.2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven by Igor Markevitch: Overtures, Symphonies Nos. 1,3,5,6,8,9
Symphony of the Air, Igor Markevitch, Orchestre Lamoureux
Klassik - Erschienen bei Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording am 25.11.2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Great Transcriptions
Leopold Stokowski Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Symphony of the Air, Léopold Stokowski
Klassik - Erschienen bei Urania Records am 03.07.2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jorge Bolet playing the Music of Franz Liszt (Transferred from the Original Everest Records Master Tapes)
Jorge Bolet, Robert Irving, Symphony of the Air
Klassik - Erschienen bei Everest am 02.08.1960
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92
Léopold Stokowski, Symphony of the Air
Klassik - Erschienen bei Signum-Cala am 26.04.2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wagner: Orchestral Works (Remastered 2022)
Oper - Erschienen bei Archipel am 20.05.2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Segovia Plays Boccherini, Sor & Giuliani (Recorded 1952-1958)
Andrès Segovia, Symphony of the Air, Enrique Jorda
Klassik - Erschienen bei Artemisia am 15.06.2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Symphony No. 1 (Igor Markevitch – The Deutsche Grammophon Legacy: Volume 7)
Symphony of the Air, Igor Markevitch
Klassik - Erschienen bei Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. am 01.01.1958
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Saint-Saëns: Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 22
Arthur Rubinstein, Symphony of the Air
Klassik - Erschienen bei Past Classics am 24.08.2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Music of Samuel Barber
Klassik - Erschienen bei Soundmark am 01.01.1960
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Maestro
Andrès Segovia, Symphony of the Air, Enrique Jorda
Klassik - Erschienen bei Profil am 14.08.2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
In Memory of Arturo Toscanini (Complete 1957 Concert of the Symphony of the Air) (1957)
Symphony of the Air, Bruno Walter, Charles Munch, Pierre Monteux
Klassik - Erschienen bei Music and Arts Programs of America am 05.06.2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: Piano Concerto No 1 in E Flat, S 124 - Hungarian Rhapsody No 1 - No 6
Arthur Rubinstein, Symphony of the Air, Alfred Wallenstein, London Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti
Pop - Erschienen bei Ginkgo Classical am 30.11.2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vaughan Williams, Wagner & Schoenberg: Orchestral Works
Symphony of the Air, Léopold Stokowski
Klassik - Erschienen bei Bridge Records am 01.04.1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 'Eroica' (Igor Markevitch – The Deutsche Grammophon Legacy: Volume 5)
Symphony of the Air, Igor Markevitch
Klassik - Erschienen bei Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. am 01.01.1957
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Heitor Villa Lobos - Forest of the Amazon (1959)
Symphony of the Air, Bidù Sayao
Klassik - Erschienen bei Black Round Records am 15.02.2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven & Gluck: Orchestral Works
Symphony of the Air, Orchestre Lameroux, Igor Markevitch
Klassik - Erschienen bei Urania Records am 01.10.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Franck: Symphonic Variations
Arthur Rubinstein, Symphony of the Air
Klassik - Erschienen bei Past Classics am 24.08.2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Leonard Bernstein: Serenade for Violin Solo, Strings and Percussion
Symphony of the Air, Isaac Stern
Klassik - Erschienen bei Soundmark Records am 23.09.2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: Orchestral Works (Live)
Symphony of the Air, Léopold Stokowski
Klassik - Erschienen bei Archipel am 05.08.2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concertos No. 3 and No. 4
Arthur Rubinstein, Symphony of the Air
Klassik - Erschienen bei Past Classics am 01.02.2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo