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: Piano Concertos No. 3 and No. 4
Arthur Rubinstein, Symphony of the Air
Classical - Released by Past Classics on 1 Feb 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Farewell to New York
Kirsten Flagstad, Symphony of the Air, Edwin McArthur
Opera - Released by Music and Arts Programs of America on 1 Aug 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J. Strauss II: Le beau Danube bleu, Op. 314 & Légendes de la forêt viennoise, Op. 325 (Arranged by Leopold Stokowski, Mono Version)
Symphony of the Air, Léopold Stokowski
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1956
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff: Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30
Van Cliburn, Kirill Kondrashin, Symphony of the Air
Classical - Released by Classically on 15 Jan 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bruno Walter to the Memory of Arturo Toscanini 02/03/1957
Classical - Released by Archipel on 4 Dec 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Music of Franz Liszt
Symphony Of The Air, Robert Irving, Jorge Bolet
Classical - Released by Classic Style on 2 Aug 1960
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
Classical - Released by Everest on 2 Aug 1960
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major ("Eroica"), Op. 55 (1957)
Symphony of the Air, Bruno Walter
Classical - Released by Music and Arts Programs of America on 2 May 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
If I could fly
London Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti, Symphony of the Air
Classical - Released by Music Manager on 4 Dec 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5
Arthur Rubinstein, Symphony of the Air
Classical - Released by Past Classics on 1 Feb 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major
Arthur Rubinstein, Symphony of the Air
Classical - Released by Past Classics on 2 Jan 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30
Symphony of the Air, Van Cliburn
Classical - Released by Past Classics on 1 Nov 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Manuel Ponce: Concierto Del Sur / Joaquín Rodrigo: Fantasia Para Un Gentilhombre
Andrès Segovia, Manuel Ponce, Enrique Jorda, Symphony of the Air
Classical - Released by Music Manager on 26 Mar 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 (Rubinstein) (1956)
Arthur Rubinstein, Symphony of the Air, Josef Krips
Classical - Released by Naxos Classical Archives on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 4 (Rubinstein) (1956)
Arthur Rubinstein, Symphony of the Air, Josef Krips
Classical - Released by Naxos Classical Archives on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cassadó: Guitar Concerto - Bach: Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009
Andrès Segovia, Symphony of the Air, Enrique Jorda
Classical - Released by Naxos Classical Archives on 1 Aug 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ponce.: Concierto del sur - Rodrigo: Fantasia para un gentilhombre
Andrès Segovia, Symphony of the Air, Enrique Jorda
Classical - Released by Naxos Classical Archives on 11 Jul 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Joaquin Rodrigo: Fantasía Para Un Gentilhombre - Manuel Ponce: Concierto Del Sur (Album of 1960)
Andrès Segovia, Symphony of the Air, Enrique Jorda
Classical - Released by Guitar Heros on 30 Sep 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven, L. Van: Piano Concerto No. 5 (Rubinstein, Symphony of the Air, Krips) (1956)
Arthur Rubinstein, Symphony of the Air, Josef Krips
Classical - Released by Naxos Classical Archives on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven, L. Van: Piano Concerto No. 1 (Rubinstein, Symphony of the Air, Krips) (1956)
Arthur Rubinstein, Symphony of the Air, Josef Krips
Classical - Released by Naxos Classical Archives on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff: Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30
Van Cliburn, Kirill Kondrashin, Symphony of the Air
Classical - Released by Ancien Prodige on 15 Jan 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo