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On The Air

By Mark Chilla
Published September 23, 2019 at 3:50 PM EDT

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: