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.
© TiVo
-
Beethoven: The 5 Piano Concertos by Arthur Rubinstein (2024 Remastered, New York 1956)
Arthur Rubinstein, Josef Krips, Symphony of the Air
Classical - Released by Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording on 9 Nov 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
Classical - Released by Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording on 25 Nov 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
Classical - Released by Urania Records on 3 Jul 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
Classical - Released by Everest on 2 Aug 1960
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92
Léopold Stokowski, Symphony of the Air
Classical - Released by Signum-Cala on 26 Apr 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wagner: Orchestral Works (Remastered 2022)
Opera - Released by Archipel on 20 May 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Masterpieces - Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker, Ballet Suite, Op. 71a
Classical - Released by Menuetto Classics on 7 Jun 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Segovia Plays Boccherini, Sor & Giuliani (Recorded 1952-1958)
Andrès Segovia, Symphony of the Air, Enrique Jorda
Classical - Released by Artemisia on 15 Jun 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
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 1 Jan 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
Classical - Released by Past Classics on 24 Aug 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Music of Samuel Barber
Classical - Released by Soundmark on 1 Jan 1960
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Maestro
Andrès Segovia, Symphony of the Air, Enrique Jorda
Classical - Released by Profil on 14 Aug 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
Classical - Released by Music and Arts Programs of America on 5 Jun 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 - Released by Ginkgo Classical on 30 Nov 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vaughan Williams, Wagner & Schoenberg: Orchestral Works
Symphony of the Air, Léopold Stokowski
Classical - Released by Bridge Records on 1 Apr 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
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 1 Jan 1957
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Heitor Villa Lobos - Forest of the Amazon (1959)
Symphony of the Air, Bidù Sayao
Classical - Released by Black Round Records on 15 Feb 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven & Gluck: Orchestral Works
Symphony of the Air, Orchestre Lameroux, Igor Markevitch
Classical - Released by Urania Records on 1 Oct 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Franck: Symphonic Variations
Arthur Rubinstein, Symphony of the Air
Classical - Released by Past Classics on 24 Aug 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Leonard Bernstein: Serenade for Violin Solo, Strings and Percussion
Symphony of the Air, Isaac Stern
Classical - Released by Soundmark Records on 23 Sep 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: Orchestral Works (Live)
Symphony of the Air, Léopold Stokowski
Classical - Released by Archipel on 5 Aug 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo