Boston Dance Orchestra

Tom [ Scherman, of the Little Orchestra Society ] came to me and said, “Hey Kubik, I’m being pestered all the time by the pianist in my orchestra, Frank Glazer, for a solo appearance, and by Bob Nagel, my trumpet player, and the principal violist [ Theodore Israel ] .” And so Tom, figuring to kill three birds with one stone said, “Can’t you write me a piece for piano, viola, trumpet, and orchestra, and I’ll have my three players do the solo parts and they’ll get off of my back?” I said, “Sure.” And since it came within a month or so after I’d finished recording the score to the film C-Man, which had exactly those three solo instruments, I just re-wrote it as the Symphony Concertante. Don’t do that thinking that you’re going to save time. It’s twice as hard, it’s ten times as hard, than to just write a new piece.

On October 6, 1953, RCA held experimental stereophonic sessions in New York's Manhattan Center with Leopold Stokowski conducting a group of New York musicians in performances of Enesco's Roumanian Rhapsody No. 1 and the waltz from Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin. There were additional stereo tests in December, again in the Manhattan Center, this time with Pierre Monteux conducting members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In February 1954, RCA made its first commercial stereophonic recordings, taping the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Charles Münch, in a performance of The Damnation of Faust by Hector Berlioz.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at Tanglewood. Andris Nelsons is the current music director of the BSO. Bernard Haitink currently holds the title of conductor emeritus of the BSO, and Seiji Ozawa has the title of BSO music director laureate.