Hear What Happened At Boston's Symphony Hall After JFK's Assassination

[Anita]

What's so amazing about WGBH's recording is that the planned concert was to start at 2 PM. Musicians were on stage and the audience seated when Erich Leinsdorf received word about the assassination, changed the program and announced Kennedy's death to the the audience. Hearing the collective gasps and cries from the audience and the few moments Leinsdorf had to prepare the musicians for the change makes this a special peice of history.

" First, we hear the gasps and shushes after BSO music director Erich Leinsdorf utters the words: "The president of the United States has been the victim of an assassination." Second, a wave of groans and sighs after Leinsdorf continues, "We will play the funeral march from 's Beethoven's Third Symphony" — as if the crowd's shared response is that they couldn't possibly have heard the first part right, but that then the orchestra's change in repertoire confirms the awful, unimaginable truth. And then, for the next 14 minutes ... utter silence, save for the incomparably somber music."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadenc...assination