Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

THE BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHKSTRA, WHICH IS BEING HEARD IN A SERIES OF PROGRAMS BROADCAST EXCLUSIVELY BY THE BLUE NETWORK. BOSTON SYMPHONY ON BLUE Famed Orchestra, loitd Serge Kousseoitsky Conductint}. Has opened 46-V/eek Series of Broadcasts. Including "Pops" Concerts. MUSIC in its most lyrical and etherial flights is said to serve a war-torn world, oflFering a spiritual analgesia to revitalize the tired nerves of a hard-working people on the home front. In appre- ciation of this view, the BLUE Net- work has added the Boston Sym- phony Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Serge Koussevitzky, to its growing list of cultural music programs, which already includes the Satur- day afternoon broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera. To many millions of war workers and soldiers in training on Ameri- can soil, the BLUE program execu- tives believe, surcease from the pressing demands of war will be found in great measure in the new orchestral series, which opened De- cember 26 to be heard each Satur- day thereafter from 8:15 to 9:15 p.m., EWT. In these broadcasts, the Boston Symphony Orchestra will be heard over a coast-to-coast hook-up for the first time in five years. Mark Woods, president of the BLUE, is responsible for its return to the radio audience of the BLUE Net- work. The long term contract, provid- ing the radio public with the con- certs of the orchestra weekly through its long season of 46 weeks each year is unprecedented. The majority of the concerts will origi- nate in Symphony Hall, the orches- tra's own auditorium in Boston. At the expiration of the regular season. May 1, the BLUE Network will bring to its vast audience the "Pops" concerts under Arthur Fiedler until early July nnd the open air concerts on the Charles River Esplanade which follow. It is hoped conditions will permit the resumption of the Berkshire Sym- phonic Festival at Tanglewood, in Lenox. According to published acknowl- edgments, the Boston Symphony Orchestra unquestionably is among SERGE KOUSSEVITSKY the finest in the world. Its con- ductor for the past twenty-eight seasons. Dr. Koussevitzky, has the reputation of being the greatest living exponent of Russian music, and the most consistent champion of modern music. He is completely the perfectionist, demanding noth- ing short of an inspired perform- ance. Firmly espousing the cause of the contemporary composer. Dr. Koussevitzky has declared: "We cannot refuse a careful performance and a fair hearing to the composers who are working in our own time." No other conductor in this countr.\' has brought forth so many new works by the world's composers. The Boston Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Serge Kdus- sevitzky, has signed a new long- term contract to make Victor Rod Seal recordings, according to Frank B. Walker, of the RCA Victor Divi- sion. The contract also calls for the exclusive recording performances of the Boston "Pops" Orchesti';i, with Arthur Fiedler as conductor. Just 25 years ago, the first Victor records of the Boston Symphony were released. These discs were history-making in the phonograph art, because for the first time an orchestra of 100 men was recorded. Up to this time, the size of an or- chestra for records was limited to forty men. Since 1917, the records of the Boston Symphony Orchestra have sold in the millions. With Dr. Koussevitzky as conductor, the or- chestra's records have attained their greatest popularity. [24 RADIO AGE