Temple radio to start Philadelphia Orchestra broadcasts
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Artswatch
Temple radio to start Philadelphia Orchestra broadcasts
Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Classical Music Critic
It’s not the restoration of a national radio presence, but the Philadelphia Orchestra will return to regional radio under the terms of a new deal with WRTI-FM.
Starting Feb. 24 and through the end of the season, the Temple University station will begin airing a series of regular Sunday afternoon delayed broadcasts of Philadelphia Orchestra concerts.
Broadcasts will run between Feb. 24 and the end of the 2012-13 season, with re-broadcasts over the summer. The series is expected to resume next season, said David S. Conant, WRTI’s general manager.
But first, this Sunday at 2 PM, WRTI-FM will rebroadcast WQXR-FM’s recording of the orchestra’s Jan. 17 Carnegie Hall performance of Ravel’s La Valse, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, and Leonidas Kavakos in Karol Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 2.
Conant said he has been talking with the orchestra for several years about the radio series, which required the approval of musicians and music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
He said the 2 p.m. broadcasts would push aside New York Philharmonic broadcasts and the children’s talent show From The Top, both of which he said he hoped to move to another time slot.
The last concert in the 2012-13 series — a live broadcast on Friday, May 24 at 2 p.m. — features Gil Shaham in Brahms’ Violin Concerto.
The orchestra lost its national radio series in 1990 when Cigna Corp. pulled its funding and the orchestra was unable to find new sponsorship. Since then, it has returned to the national and local airwaves under the terms of various short-term deals.
WRTI broadcasts in Philadelphia, plus Reading, Allentown, Wilmington, Harrisburg, York, Lancaster, Ephrata, Lebanon, Mt. Pocono, Wilkes-Barre, Pottsville, Scranton, Ocean City and Coatesville.
Great news, well overdue. Hopefully someone (Comcast/NBC) could restore the funding for the national broadcasts.— CoolZanna- It may have made sense 50 years ago to have a weekly broadcast, but not anymore. How is a recorded, edited, broadcast concert different than a commercial recording? Why anyone would waste time or money on this instead of real concerts is a mystery.
The only real music is live. Otherwise it is just a picture of a performance.
Go to the concerts. Live.— altekakker - Broadening the orchestra's audience is a worthwhile endeavor. Many people cannot afford to go to concerts or are unable to attend due to illness or distance. We have a great new music director, I'm sure there are people all around the world who would listen to a webcast of Yannick and the Philadelphia Orchestra on a regular basis.— CoolZanna
- alte kakker - I always thought you picked the perfect moniker for yourself - of course, go to the concerts! But getting that wonderful sound back on the airwaves might result in more actual concertgoers as people tune in and hear what they've been missing - now done "wasting my time" responding to your comment.— philorchphilsphan
- Regrettably, WRTI streams at 64 kbps. This is low fidelity for anyone, like myself, beyond the reach of the FM signal.— Jerry10062
- Regrettably, WRTI streams at 64 kbps. This is low fidelity for anyone, like myself, beyond the reach of the FM signal.— Jerry10062
- One small step forward.— NYMike
- Who will the host be?— djdekok
Peter Dobrin is a classical music critic and culture writer for The Inquirer. Since 1989, he has written music reviews, features, news and commentary for the paper, covering such topics as the Philadelphia Museum of Art at the Venice Biennale, expansion of the Curtis Institute of Music, the Philadelphia Orchestra's bankruptcy declaration in 2011, Philadelphia's evolving performing arts center and the general health of arts and culture.
Dobrin was a French horn player. He earned an undergraduate degree in performance from the University of Miami, and received a master's degree in music criticism from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with Elliott Galkin. He has no time to practice today.
