In an era when America’s television networks have graced the nation’s airwaves with artistic gems featuring the likes of Jerry Springer and Ricki Lake—Oprah Winfrey having somehow been transformed from an annoying, chatty presenter of similar psychosocial trainwrecks into her new roles as national spiritual healer and (too scary to contemplate) literary arbiter—it’s hard to believe that there was a time in this country when American broadcasters felt an obligation to present classical music to the public. It’s even harder to remember that symphony orchestra concerts were a regular feature of the early days of television. NBC, for example, not only presented classical music but also founded its own orchestra, hiring the most celebrated conductor of the day, Arturo Toscanini, to lead it. Can one imagine any television network today—even PBS—building an orchestra and hiring Riccardo Chailly or Bernard Haitink to make recordings and lead televised concerts? The implausibility of that prospect shows how far and quickly we have descended down the path of cultural mediocrity and worse with the happy aid of the irresponsible, profit-driven Philistines who populate network programming suites.

While many recordings from the discographic legacy of Toscanini and the NBCSymphony Orchestra still remain touchstones today, the Italian conductor’s hard-driving, often relentless approach has worn less well than that of Fritz Reiner. The career of the Hungarian-born conductor, underrated by the public and critics alike during his lifetime, suffered from Toscanini’s flashier, more marketing-friendly persona. Reiner’s career was not helped by his