The Concert Hour

The Concert Hour ((in French) L'Heure du concert) is a Canadian classical music television series which aired on CBC Television in English and Radio-Canada in French from 1954 to 1958.

The Concert Hour
Genreclassical music
Directed byIrving Gutman
Country of originCanada
Original languagesEnglish
French
No. of seasons4
Production
ProducersNoel Gauvin
Pierre Mercure
Pierre Morin
Production locationMontreal
Running time60 minutes
Release
Original networkCBC Television
Radio-Canada
Original release6 May 1954 (1954-05-06) –
11 March 1958 (1958-03-11)

Premise

This was initially a local series on Montreal's CBFT airing on alternate weeks with Teletheatre until it was given a dual-network run from May 1954.[1] [2] Episodes were then broadcast weekly on both the English and French CBC networks with announcements in both languages.

Guest musicians included Glenn Gould, Louis Quilico, Robert Savoie and Rosalyn Tureck.

Classical music selections were supplemented by ballet, contemporary music and opera performances.

The series included ballet performances with choreographers such as David Adams, Ludmilla Chiriaeff, Heino Heiden, Brian Macdonald.

Orchestras were led by conductors such as Jean Deslauriers, Roland Leduc, Boyd Neel and Wilfrid Pelletier.

Reception

This cultural series had limited appeal, especially in areas such as Winnipeg where CBC held a monopoly of television signals. Many viewers switched off their televisions during broadcasts of The Concert Hour.[3]

Scheduling

This hour-long series was broadcast as follows:

Day Time Season run
Thursday 8:30 p.m. 6 May 1954 24 Jun 1954
Thursday 10:00 p.m. 29 Sep 1955 22 Mar 1956
Thursday 10:00 p.m. 4 Oct 1956 21 Mar 1957
Tuesday 10:00 p.m. 24 Sep 1957 11 Mar 1958

References
  1. Rutherford, Paul (1990). When Television Was Young: Primetime Canada 1952-1967. University of Toronto Press. p. 269. ISBN 0-8020-5830-2.
  2. Corcelli, John (April 2002). "The Concert Hour". Canadian Communications Foundation. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  3. Rutherford, Paul (1990). When Television Was Young: Primetime Canada 1952-1967. University of Toronto Press. p. 298. ISBN 0-8020-5830-2.
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