CBC Symphony Orchestra

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

The CBC Symphony Orchestra was a radio orchestra in Toronto, Canada, run in the 1950s and 1960s by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The orchestra was founded in 1952 and gave its first broadcast on 29 September 1952, with the Third Symphony by Jean Sibelius and the overture to Rossini's La Cenerentola. Geoffrey Waddington was the only music director, although conductors such as Jean-Marie Beaudet also had close ties with the orchestra. It consisted of eighty instrumentalists, about half of whom were also members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Albert Pratz was concertmaster from 1953 to 1961.

Music and breakthrough

The orchestra played weekly on CBC Radio and often appeared on CBC Television. It also travelled abroad, including to London, and played at the Inter-American Music Festival in 1961. Many performances were recorded by Radio Canada International and distributed outside Canada. The orchestra recorded with the Mendelssohn Choir, the CBC's Festival Singers and the pianist Glenn Gould. It also played and recorded a great deal of music by Igor Stravinsky, including the Symphony of Psalms, with Stravinsky himself conducting and Steven Staryk as concertmaster. Those recordings later appeared on albums such as Stravinsky Conducts Stravinsky.

Influence

In 1964 the orchestra was disbanded. It shows how radio in the mid-twentieth century brought classical music to a large audience.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1964Stravinsky Conducts - Symphony of Psalms / Symphony in C
• 1988Stravinsky conducts Stravinsky: Firebird / Scherzo a la Russe / Scherzo Fantastique / Fireworks
• 1988Stravinsky Conducts Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms / Symphony in 3 Movements