Behind Schedule & Life, Pan Cogito Ponders Whether To Watch The SFS "Keeping Score: Charles Ives" Or The LAPh "Gustavo Dudamel: The Inaugural Concert"

KEEPING SCORE - SEASON TWO: MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS DISCUSSES AND CONDUCTS BERLIOZ, IVES, SHOSTAKOVICH

THE INAUGURAL CONCERT: GUSTAVO DUDAMEL CONDUCTS MAHLER, JOHN ADAMS

CIVILIZATION: SIR KENNETH CLARK (1969)

"Civilisation came at an opportune time for American public television, appearing in that venue after the BBC had tried in vain to place the series with the commercial networks. The program was underwritten by Xerox, which also provided $450,000 for an hour-long promotional programme (again produced by the BBC) to drum up business for the multipart broadcast. The nascent Public Broadcasting System received plaudits for carrying the programme, and Clark undoubtedly found his largest audience in the United States. The series's reach in America was demonstrated by the popularity of the precedent-setting Harper and Row tie-in book, which became a best seller despite its $15 price tag. Thus in addition to promulgating its comforting message about the survival capacities of a high culture besieged for a millennium by the forces of darkness, Civilisation had in the United States the serendipitous effect of demonstrating that high-culture television could in fact draw significant numbers of viewers."

-Anne Morey, The Museum of Broadcast Communications

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