President John F. Kennedy Memorial Concert

The past week Dallas has been remembering the 50th Anniversary of the assasination of JF Kennedy. On Nov 22 the City of Dallas declared a holiday and there was to be a downtown Memorial. This was severely disrupted by Heavy rain and high winds, cancelling the outdoor concert

While travelling back from work Friday night I came across a replay of a piece by Walter Cronkite assembled ten years previously for the 40th anniversary on KERA 90.1MHz. Of particular interest was listening to the Air to ground Communications on HF SSB between Air Force One, the Federal Council (inbound from Hawai and Washington) . Previous experience listening to 20m SSB did help. I did find a copy of the programme, and transcription at http://keranews.org/post/walter-cronkite-assassination-john-f-kennedy

As part of the Memorial Activities DSO held three concerts  entitled "President John F. Kennedy Memorial Concert"  for which we managed to get tickets for the Nov 24 Performance. The concert opened with a commissioned work by CONRAD TAO The World Is Very Different Now. The piece was a bit nondescript, but scenes from the period were projected on a huge screen over the orchestra which were very interesting. Next was SIBELIUS Violin Concerto with the Soloist Joshua Bell who was brilliant and highlight of the concert. After the Intermission MILHAUD Murder of a Great Chief of State was quickly followed by BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3, Eroica which was well conducted at a faster than normal by Jaap Van Zweeden