UPDATE

The program is now available online via the PT website here. Click on Hour 2.

Very exciting news from American Public Media!

Performance Today to broadcast lost symphony by Hans Gál

Public Radio’s flagship live classical music program, Performance Today, will broadcast the first modern performance of Hans Gál’s Symphony no. 3 this Friday, October 14, 2011. Broadcast times vary- check your local listings.

Viennese composer Hans Gál was one of the leading composers of his generation in the years between WW I and WW II, but when Hitler came to power in 1933, Gál, who was Jewish, lost all his professional positions and found his music banned. He eventually settled in Edinburgh, where he had a long and distinguished career as an academic, but though he composed prolifically into his 90’s, his music gradually fell into obscurity.

Gál completed his 3^rd Symphony in 1952, and it received performances in Vienna and Birmingham in 1955. After that, the work remained un-played until a snowy night in Stratford-upon-Avon in December 2010.

Orchestra of the Swan and Kenneth Woods also recorded the symphony for Avie records, a disc that was released in June.

Hans Gal: Symphony No. 3 in A Major, Op. 62

Orchestra of the Swan

Kenneth Woods, principal guest conductor

Civic Hall, Stratford-upon-Avon , England , UK

December 7, 2010

American Public Media’s Performance Today is broadcast on 260 public radio stations across the country and is heard by about 1.3 million people each week.  Each station individually decides what time to air the program.  To find out where and when Performance Today is broadcast in your area, please visit http://performancetoday.org/stations.

You may also visit publicradiofan.com, an independent website that can point the way to on-line listening.  Many radio stations stream their signal on the internet, so it may be possible for you to tune in to a radio station across the country and hear Performance Today by visiting that station’s website at the time they air it.  This Friday’s show will be available on our website for seven days.  We also archive many interviews, Studio MMW performances, Piano Puzzlers, and other features on our website.