WQXR; Miscellaneous; Behind the scenes at 'QXR... [The WQXR library].

thumbnail of WQXR; Miscellaneous; Behind the scenes at 'QXR... [The WQXR library].
This content has not been digitized. Please contact the contributing organization(s) listed below.
Collection
WQXR
Series
Miscellaneous
Episode
Behind the scenes at 'QXR... [The WQXR library].
Producing Organization
WNYC (Radio station : New York, N.Y.)
Contributing Organization
WNYC (New York, New York)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/80-84mkmn5k
If you have more information about this item than what is given here, or if you have concerns about this record, we want to know! Contact us, indicating the AAPB ID (cpb-aacip/80-84mkmn5k).
Description
Episode Description
BEHIND THE SCENES AT 'QXR . . . By George Jellinek In the months to come I'll attempt to answer on these pages some of the questions we are asked about how WQXR's music is programmed. But before getting down to specifics, I feel should talk about WQXR's unique library of recordings, without which our kind of programming would not be possible. About a year ago, Sir Rudolf Bing, in his capacity as a host-interviewer on WQXR, had the celebrated dancer-choreographer Jacques d'Amboise as his guest. To illustrate a point in conversation, Mr. d'Amboise asked for an old record by Jacques Brel. Before Sir Rudolf could finish saying "QXR is not a pop station", we came up with the record. I must admit, even I was surprised, and Sir Rudolf could not restrain himself from expressing his delight on the air. He was right, or course we are not a "pop station", but a "classical" station. The boundaries, however, are elastic. Bob Sherman has a special folk music library of several thousand discs that I am sure has no equal anywhere in radio, and the same goes for our special library of international operetta and show music. But these are fringe areas. The nerve center of our programming is a vast library of some 40,000 LP discs and 1,500 tapes containing "serious" music in all categories. Of these, some 10,000 discs are part of what we call our active library, accurately carded and systematically organized to provide the station with varied program material. The remaining 30,000 records are kept in what we call our "reserves", alphabetically arranged according to manufacturer and numerically stacked within each label group. All tapes are part of our "active" library. It is not enough to boast of a vast library. Unless that library is organized to the point where any recording can be found at any moment of need, the efficacy of the operation is debatable. That we at WQXR retain a good control of our library and programming operations is due to several factors. First of all, the cornerstone of our library system was established in the pioneering days, some forty years ago. WQXR was an entirely different operation then, with a considerable amount of live music on its schedule, to say nothing of the recording industry, a mere fragment of today's global colossus. Still, the growth was gradual, keeping in step with industrial changes, and supervised by a chain of dedicated specialists. And there haven't been too many of us, either. This is my tenth year as music director at WQXR; my immediate predecessors, Martin Bookspan and Harold Lawrence, all served for at least a decade at the same post. Our active library contains everything we deem suitable for frequent programming. It is our aim to represent every composer of note. When it comes to the "standards", it becomes impractical to jam up our system with endless duplication. For instance, we are quite satisfied to keep only a dozen versions of. Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique Symphony" in our "active" shelves (Abbado, Bernstein, Dorati, Giulini, Haitink, Karajan (2 versions), Munch, Ormandy (2 versions), Stokowski and Toscanini). Should we decide to explore further, our reserves will readily yield Furtwangler, Klemperer, Kousevitzky, Mengelberg, Mitropoulos, Monteux, plus a handful of others. Our once peerless library of 78 rpm discs has been ground by the wheels of progress to near-extinction. Some of the past treasures have found their worthy resting place at the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives at Lincoln Center. Others have been taped and entered into our "active" lists in that form. But there are still a few hundred albums in their original format, including such never-microgrooved rarities as Sir Edward Elgar conducting his own works; Paul Hindemith playing the viola part of his own "Schwanen-dreher" Concerto; Koussevitzky playing the double bass; Charles Panzera singing Faur; Gustave Charpentier conducting some of his orchestral works; and examples of virtually every famous singer from ABBOTT, Bessie to ZENATELLO, Giovanni. There are special branches, too the arms and legs of our pet monster, you might say. I already mentioned Bob Sherman's enormous folk music library and our special operetta collection. There are shelves and shelves piano recordings containing long-discontinued items as well historical rarities: Grieg, Saint-Saens, Bartok, Dohnanyi playing their own music, also legendary artists like Paderewski, Rosenthal, Hofmann, Levitzki, Hess to say nothing of Rachmaninoff and Schnabel, whose representation is complete. If and when I succeed in doing a series on great violinists a plan I keep postponing due to other commitments and unavailability of program time we'll be able to hear not only Heifetz, Elman and Milstein, but their teacher, Leopold Auer, as well. And we may hear Zigeunertueisen not only by Stern or Francescatti, but also by its composer, Pablo de Sarasate. We maintain tapes and recordings supplied by government and broadcast sources from Canada, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Finland. Sweden, Hungary, Russia and Japan. We also import commercial recordings from Europe on occasion, no doubt pleasing many of our listeners, but at times infuriating those who like what they hear but cannot go around the corner and secure it from a neighborhood dealer. In future contributions, I'll go into the not-so-mysterious ways of turning these recordings into active components of radio programming. For a start, let me state the basic requirements. You must have a very good knowledge of the recording output the past thirty years (and more, if possible). And you must have extremely retentive memory. These are the requisites that keep Ass't. Music Director, Bob Bragalini, Bob Sherman and myself afloat and our benevolent monster up to date.
Description
Copy of article in Archives Storage 5C under "WQXR Miscellaneous Articles"
Media type
other
Credits
Producing Organization: WNYC (Radio station : New York, N.Y.)
Publisher: FM Guide
Writer: Jellinek, George, 1919-2010
AAPB Contributor Holdings
WNYC-FM
Identifier: 70070.1 (WNYC Media Archive Label)
Format: Paper
If you have a copy of this asset and would like us to add it to our catalog, please contact us.
Citations
Chicago: “WQXR; Miscellaneous; Behind the scenes at 'QXR... [The WQXR library].,” WNYC, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed May 5, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-80-84mkmn5k.
MLA: “WQXR; Miscellaneous; Behind the scenes at 'QXR... [The WQXR library]..” WNYC, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. May 5, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-80-84mkmn5k>.
APA: WQXR; Miscellaneous; Behind the scenes at 'QXR... [The WQXR library].. Boston, MA: WNYC, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-80-84mkmn5k