"The 1942 concert concluded with Rhapsody in Blue in a performance given by Earl Wild. He was the youngest soloist to have played with the orchestra and always wondered why he and not a raft of others had been selected. Wild reminisced elsewhere that he later found out that Toscanini used to listen in to NBC’s chamber concerts on Sunday mornings and had heard Wild there – a more or less humble NBC staffer catapulted to fame. The Rhapsody comes complete with a celebrity clarinettist in the shape of Benny Goodman..." - MusicWeb International, 2004
Toscanini rarely conducted American music - here we bring fabulous new source recordings to light of the first of two wartime broadcast concerts dedicated entirely to US composers - with two very special guest soloists...
- LOEFFLER Memories of My Childhood (Life in a Russian Village)
- CRESTON Choric Dance No. 2
- GOULD Lincoln Legend
- GERSHWIN Rhapsody In Blue