Synopsis

It was on this day in 1929 that the first performance was given of a radio cantata – not on the radio, oddly enough, but in a concert hall in Baden-Baden, Germany. It was entitled “Lindbergh’s Flight,” with a text by Bertolt Brecht, and music by both Kurt Weill AND Paul Hindemith. This cantata was intended for a later radio broadcast and meant to illustrate both the literal and philosophical aspects of Charles A. Lindbergh’s first-ever solo flight across the Atlantic two years earlier in 1927.

Today, when planes whiz back and forth across the Atlantic every day, carrying hundreds of thousands of passengers, we have to remember that in 1927, the number of people flying to Europe nonstop was just ONE, namely Lindbergh, and the feat made headline news around the world.

Three decades after Lindbergh’s flight, composer Franz Waxman would write the film score for “The Spirit of St. Louis,” a 1957 Hollywood version of the Atlantic crossing starring Jimmy Stewart.

And speaking of Atlantic crossings, Waxman, Weill and Hindemith – all German-born composers – would emigrate to the U.S. in the 1930s, their flight a result of the racial laws and artistic repression that followed the rise of Nazi ideology in Europe.

Music Played in Today's Program

Kurt Weill (1900-1950) – Lindbergh's Flight (Cologne Radio Orchestra; Hermann Scherchen, cond.) Capriccio 60012

Franz Waxman (1906-1962) – The Spirit of St. Louis (studio orchestra; Franz Waxman, cond.) BMG/RCA 2283