THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA CONCERT BROADCASTS
Under Musical Director George Szell 1965-1969
Intermission Interviews with Martin Perlich


The mighty Cleveland Orchestra and its legendary Musical Director George Szell were at global pinnacle in 1965 when the Orchestra undertook to initiate its own syndicated concert series.

The musical public was rightfully awed at their clarity, balance, precision “like a mighty soloist.” Their Columbia, Epic and later EMI recordings from the period bear this out. As a student at Columbia College I’d heard the orchestra at Carnegie Hall in concerts the New York Times compared to “…the Indians shutting out the Yankees at home…”

For the debut season I was named Host of the interviews used as Intermission Features of the syndicated concerts.

My first guest was Maestro Szell, whose reputation for diffidence, cool formal manners, and the unwillingness to suffer fools at all, were widely acknowledged. His secretary required a list of ten questions. I arrived for the taping at his elegant Severance Hall office on the verge of panic, but in shaking hands with him noticed that he was far more nervous than I.

It was on this occasion, by the way, that Mr. Szell used the expression “…in the grace of the moment…” to distinguish the value of live music from records. That 1965 interview – the first of five - is offered below.

It was also my good fortune to interview the succession of world-class soloists, composers and other conductors who found their ways to Cleveland to make music with this unmatched pairing of Man and Orchestra: Isaac Stern Itzhak Perlman, Pierre Fournier, Fernando Valenti, Julian Bream, Darius Milhaud, the families Romero and Casadesus. And these are from the first two years!
Thanks to the Cleveland Orchestra and Robert C. Conrad, President of WCLV/Seaway Productions and Producer of the series, for permission to offer these interviews.
In re-hearing them for the first time in over forty years, I am struck not only by my own 20-sometyhing naïveté, but also the miracle of hearing these Giants of Music speak to us over the years.