Even in the wilds of Australia, Willis Conover's jazz program could be
heard, loud and pretty clear. I also remember his dulcet tones from the
records of some of the early Newport festivals.
Denis Fodor:
>the RIAS symphony's most influential conductor was Ferenc Fricsay
One radio presenter in particular always said the name of the orchestra
as if Rias was a German provincial city: perhaps he thought it was.
There's a 9-CD set of Fricsay recordings from the late 1940s-early 1950s
which includes the Hartmann 6th Karl mentioned recently. I cut my CM
teeth on some of his records. Among my favourites are his Beethoven 9th
in which a rather screechy Irmgard Seefried is more than compensated for
by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and especially his Bartok Concerto for
Orchestra, which is just magnificent.
Richard Pennycuick