This week, we look at the history of classical music broadcasts on the radio, in an episode we're calling "On The Air!"
Did you know...
- The famous Adagio For Strings by Samuel Barber had its world premiere on the radio, conducted by Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra.
- The first full opera broadcast by the Metropolitan Opera was Hänsel und Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck on Christmas Day 1931.
- In an act of psychological warfare, the "Leningrad" Symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich was broadcast live over loudspeakers in Leningrad to the Nazi forces involved in the siege.
- Before Bernard Herrmann wrote the scores to films by Alfred Hitchcock, he worked with Orson Welles in his famous radio drama series The Mercury Theater On The Air.
See the full playlist below:
