More history this week – The Boston Symphony under the direction of their then-Music Director Seiji Ozawa and featuring Maurice André as Trumpet solo in Tartini‘s D Major Trumpet Concerto and after the opening work, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony Number 4 to fill out the one hour program, originally part of the Evenings At Symphony series, simulcast on Radio as well as TV.
In a way, you might consider Seiji Ozawa to be the Gustavo Dudamel of the 1960s. He was new, fresh and exciting – he brought a lot of contemporary music to the concert hall and he generated audience reaction rivaling perhaps Zubin Mehta (also from the same time period as Ozawa) in popularity. This was a shot in the arm for Classical Music in the 1960s. You had the Old School which was getting older and frankly, dying off. And you had this new school who mixed up programs and brought a lot of new music to audiences, in some cases not prepared, but in going along with the 60s and the desire to break old traditions, was welcomed by the more youthful audience. His many recordings were big sellers, and he was a frequent guest conductor with a number of orchestras around the world.
Maurice André had achieved legend status as a Trumpet virtuoso and one of its prime exponents and achieved this great popularity, like Ozawa, during the 1960s and early 70s. André inspired many innovations on his instrument, and his technical mastery and profound artistry has contributed over fifty years to popularize the trumpet worldwide.
He has performed and recorded all the great concertos of the trumpet repertoire with the most illustrious conductors of his time. He is generally recognized by his peers as the greatest classical trumpet player of the century. He died in 2012 at age 78, having spent the last few years of his life in retirement.
Turn it up and enjoy.
Thank you for this Gordon. I am looking forward to listening later today! I found the program on the BSO site. This actually comes from 1978. It’s too bad they didn’t include his Hummel trumpet Concerto as well.
http://archives.bso.org/Detail.aspx?UniqueKey=2641
Thanks so much for the updated information. Yes, the Evenings At Symphony were only an hour, so that explains why the Hummel (and the Haydn) were cut. I will go in and revise the date. Thanks again!