Over to Geneva this week for a concert by The Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra conducted by Michael Hofstetter and featuring the Turkish-born pianist/composer Fazil Say playing the Shostakovitch Concerto for Piano and Trumpet as well as Gershwin's Summertime from Porgy and Bess as an encore. The first half of the concert features the Mendelssohn Symphony Nr. 10 and Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.

A rather short concert (a little over an hour), but I split it up between two players anyway, with the Mendelssohn and Mozart on the top player and the Shostakovitch and Gershwin on the bottom player.

The concert was recorded by Radio Suisse Romande Espace 2 on December 6, 2010. Announcements are in French, the orchestra is German, the soloist is Turkish and the hall is Swiss. Are we talking International here, or what?

Notes as always:

Transmission différée du concert
donné le 6 décembre 2010 au
Victoria-Hall à Genève,
dans le cadre de la série «Les Grands
Interprètes» organisée par l’Agence Caecilia

Orchestre de Chambre de Stuttgart

Direction: Michael Hofstetter
Fazil Say, piano
Jonathan Müller, trompette

Part 1 -F. Mendelssohn: Symphonie no 10, pour cordes, en si mineur

W. A. Mozart: Sérénade pour cordes no 13, en sol majeur KV 525 «Eine
Kleine Nachtmusik», KV 525

Part 2 - D. Shostakovich (sen): Concerto pour piano et trompette no 1, en ut mineur, op. 35

G. Gershwin: Summertime, pour piano

Enjoy.

News for this June 21st in 1955 was mostly all about the 10th Anniversary celebrations taking place in San Francisco, site of the first meeting of the United Nations. June 21st commemorated the signing of the UN Charter. Right after the newscast is a re-cap of the days activities and excerpts of addresses from British Foreign Secretary Harold Macmillan.

With the news was also enthusiastic anticipation over the upcoming Big Four Conference, to be held in Geneva in July. Macmillan voiced optimism that the issues of the Cold War were becoming more agreeable. In addressing the assembly, Macmillan hoped for a continuing of good relations between East and West. Former Prime Minister Winston Churchill was less unreserved, saying he welcomed the softening of positions, but was still wary that the Cold War was still very much with us.

In other news, it was reported two North Korean pilots defected to South Korea. CIO Leader Walter Reuther rejected an offer by the Auto Makers for uniform contract negotiations and President Eisenhower extended the Reciprocal Trade Agreements.

All that and a re-cap of the celebrations at the United Nations for this June 21, 1955 as reported by Ben Grauer of NBC Radio News.

A busy week in November, 1985. The Reagan/Gorbachev Summit meeting in Geneva was underway and olive branches were flying all over the room.

Pres. Reagan: “It was a constructive meeting. So constructive in fact that I look forward to welcoming Mister Gorbachev to the United States next year.”

And the gesture was reciprocated by Gorbachev who extended an invitation for Reagan to visit Moscow. Known as The Fireside Summit, it was the first the two had met and would result in four more over the next few years. But this was a "breaking the ice" meeting and speculation was rife over how it would or would not turn out.

Here is a wrapup for the week, part of ABC Radio's World News This Week.

(Howard K. Smith, Daniel Schorr, Charles Collingwood, Eric Severeid, Ernest Leiser, David Schoenbrun discuss Berlin)

"If, at this conference we could make a beginning toward relaxing the tension then, as they believe, in diplomacy as in forestry that great oaks from little acorns grow, perhaps we could plant an acorn at this conference."- Charles Collingwood.

On the eve of the G-20 Summit in London, I was thinking back on previous summits, back when there was a Cold War. Before The Soviet Union dissolved, everything that seemed to go wrong in the world after 1945 was either directly or indirectly attributed to the goings on of The Evil Empire. The ever-present threat of Communism seemed to be the one glue that held most of Europe and the Western Hemisphere together. It was the one fear that held everything else in check. All out nuclear war was never far away from peoples minds, and the threat of total annihilation made for many sleepless nights.

And so it was this particular Summit Conference, held over the question of Germany, or to be specific, West Berlin that drove all the Super Powers to the negotiation table. The question of reunification was argued since the end of the War and would stay that way until well into the 1980's. And it was always the potential flash point for a crisis threatening to become World War 3.

So fifty years ago next month, on May 10 1959, the Geneva Conference of Foreign Ministers would begin, in another attempt to negotiate another Cold War strategy. Nothing was particularly accomplished, and whatever was achieved died the following year with the U-2 incident and the eventual building of the Berlin Wall. On the eve of the Conference, a panel of CBS News correspondents got together to discuss what lay ahead. It's interesting to compare journalistic skills then and now - how, even within a news organization there was no lock-step point of view, opinions ran the gamut.

Information, even in the relatively primitive days of the 1950's was considered important.