Omnibus: Bernstein and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (Nov. 14, 1954)

Live on CBS, November 14, 1954. Leonard Bernstein and the Symphony of the Air. This program features a (mostly) restored soundtrack utilizing an off-air recording made during the afternoon of the broadcast. The audio (which kicks in after the introduction) is far superior to the kinescope audio. At the suggestion of the show’s producers, Bernstein put together a program about the genesis of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony using sketches discarded by the composer. The scholarly nature of this material could have been impossibly bookish and was something of a gamble for the mass medium of television. Bernstein, however, made the subject seem vivid and vital through his clear, unprententious writing and clever metaphors.