Dudamel Mania continues, this week by way of a concert given at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome this past November. Leading his Orquesta Sinfonica Simon Bolivar, Dudemel whips up a feast that, if the audience is any indication, was a complete barn-burner.

Recorded by RAI in Rome (with the engineers going a little overboard on levels), November 23rd this past year, the concert runs the gamut from Beethoven and Verdi to Stravinsky, Ravel, Ginastera and Leonard Bernstein.

Here's a rundown of what you'll be hearing:

IL CARTELLONE
ACCADEMIA NAZIONALE DI SANTA CECILIA
Orquesta Sinfónica de Venezuela Simón Bolívar
direttore, Gustavo Dudamel

Ludwig van Beethoven
Sinfonia n. 3 in mi bemolle maggiore op. 55 (Eroica)
- Allegro con brio
- Marcia funebre (Adagio assai)
- Scherzo (Allegro vivace)
- Finale (Allegro molto)

Maurice Ravel
Daphnis et Chloe, seconda suite
- Lever du jour (Alba)
- Pantomime (Pantomima)
Danse générale (Danza generale)

Igor Stravinskij
L’oiseau de feu (L’uccello di fuoco)
Suite dal balletto op. 20 (versione del 1919)
- Introduzione
- L’Uccello di fuoco e la sua danza
- Variazione dell’Uccello di fuoco
- Ronda delle Principesse
- Danza infernale del Re Katschej
- Berceuse e Finale

Giuseppe Verdi
Sinfonia da La forza del destino
Alberto Ginastera
Malambo, dal balletto Estancia

Leonard Bernstein
Mambo, dalle Danze sinfoniche da West Side Story*

Registrato il 23 novembre 2011 al Parco della Musica di Roma

The Beethoven is on the top player and the rest of this 2 hour concert is on the bottom player.

*You know the audience is on your side when, during the Mambo from Bernstein's West Side Story, the entire crowd screams "Mambo" on cue. That's audience participation.

Not the most mellow of Anti-road Rage Wednesday concerts, but a pretty memorable one.

Enjoy.

Aside from the U.S. Presidential election in 1948, the other big news story was the 1948 Italian Elections. The staunchly anti-Communist government of Alcide de Gasperi was in big fear of being toppled by a Communist led movement to upset the election. This was one of the big popularity contests between the West and Communist East and one of the big showdowns in the Cold War period. Speculation ran the gamut, as did the fear factor in the Press that a Communist led government in Italy would indicate the Soviets were well on their way to becoming a dominating force in Europe.

And so the big news also became the big story with most U.S. commentators, including this one - Clifton Utley who delivered his commentary on the upcoming Italian elections on March 18, 1948, viewing it as an epic showdown between Soviet style Communism and Western style Democracy with Italy, a country still in the grips of digging itself out of the devastation of World War 2, stuck somewhere in the middle.

The Post-World War 2 period and the Cold War era had no shortage of cliffhangers and upheavals.

Over to Berlin via Paris this week for a concert featuring the legendary Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the venerable Riccardo Chailly in music of Dmitri Shostakovitch, Nino Rota, Ottorino Respighi and Paul Lincke.

It was recorded on August 23rd 2011.

Here's the rundown:

Berlin : Chostakovitch, Rota, Respighi, Lincke

Dmitri Chostakovitch
Suite N°2 for Jazz Orchestra (1938)

Nino Rota (1911-1979)
La Strada, suite (1954) .

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)
Les Fontaines de Rome, Poème symphonique (1916)

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)
Les Pins de Rome, Poème symphonique (1924)

Dmitri Chostakovitch (1906-1975)
Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, Suite, Op. 29a (Ext.; 1930-1932)

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)
Belkis, reine de Saba, Danse guerrière (1930-1931)

Paul Lincke (1866-1946)
Berliner Luft (1899)

Orchestre Philharmonique de Berlin
Riccardo Chailly, Direction
Concert donné le 23 août 2011 à la Waldbühne de Berlin.

With a particularly excited audience and no less than three encores, the orchestra is in fine form making this an out-of-the-ordinary concert to go with your Anti-Road Rage Wednesday.

I try.

Back to Rome this week for a live concert by Soul/Funk artist Alain Clark performing at RAI Radio 2 studios this past February, and rebroadcast in July.

I admit to not being all that familiar with Clark, someone who has much more of a reputation in Europe than over here. But I found this live gig pretty damn sensational, so I thought I would share it with you.

I always harp on how much more live music there is to be had overseas than here in the U.S. - and how much diversity there seems to be which is just missing over here. But facts are, there just is. I suspect it's always been that way, only now with Streaming Audio from just about every broadcasting outlet in the world, the amount of what we're missing is just that much more magnified.

Alain Clark has only been around for a few years, kicking off a very successful career as singer/songwriter/producer in 2005. In that short time he's achieved much.

And this live concert, complete with excited Italian announcers, pretty much proves it.

Enjoy.

News on this May 9th in 1978 was all about the kidnapping and death, after a 55 day hostage situation, of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro at the hands of members of the terrorist group Red Brigade.

When word got out that the body, found in the trunk of a car parked near the center of Rome, was that of Moro's, a wave of shock spread throughout Italy, quickly replaced by outrage that the government was unwilling, or unable, to deal with a hostage crisis that allowed Moro to be assassinated. The government's response was an attempt at justification, that it would no longer give in to demands of terrorist organizations. That Italy was no longer willing to be considered "soft" when it came to acts such as these. But that didn't stop the anger from being echoed throughout the world.

And the Moro tragedy was being considered on Capitol Hill as the FBI was calling for stepped up measures in dealing with Terrorism, particularly the threat of terrorism within the U.S. Clearly, the kidnapping and death of Aldo Moro was having a marked effect on terrorist policies in many countries.

The other big news story of this day happened off the coast of Florida, where news of a dramatic rescue of passengers of National Airlines Flight 193 by a fishing boat was credited for saving the lives of all but 3 passengers.

So there was bad news and there was good news for this May 9, 1978 as reported by Douglas Edwards and The World Tonight from CBS Radio.

Just like every day on Planet Earth.

April 6, 1976 - News was breaking, during this broadcast, of a possible settlement in the long running Teamsters Strike. President Ford campaigned in Wisconsin, ahead of Tuesday's Primary election. Democratic hopeful Morris Udall quietly campaigned in Wisconsin. UAW President Leonard Woodcock was quoted as saying if a Democrat wanted to be in the White House this election, he needs to consider that it's not less government, but better run government that''s the key. Whether anyone took his advice or not wasn't clear. Right Wing death squads were responsible for the systematic rounding up and murder of 15 people ages 20-25 during the latest reign of terror as part of the Military crackdown in Argentina. Terrorist bombs went off in Northern Ireland and Northern Portugal. Women stage the largest protest in Rome's history as several thousand march in opposition to the Vatican's position on contraception. And France tested another nuclear device in the South Pacific this day.

All that, via NBC News On The Hour for April 6, 1976.

A lot of Pacts going on this day in March, 1940. From Berlin it was learned that Rome and Budapest signed a Pact of Alliance, while Soviet Russia and Persia signed a Trade Pact, which bothered the French Foreign Minister no end. Berlin Radio also reported the explosions heard in the Romanian Oil fields at Ploesti were the work of saboteurs from the British Secret Service, with no other details.

From London it was reported the infamous scuttling of the German pocket Battleship Graf Spee in Montevideo Uruguay was actually the result of a Mutiny among the battleship's crew and Berlin giving the signal to destroy the ship, rather than have it fall into Allied hands.

From Capitol Hill it was reported that Secretary of State Sumner Welles, upon returning from his diplomatic mission to all the Capitals in Europe, concluded that there was "one chance for peace and a thousand chances for war", making for a gloomy assessment, particularly in light of upcoming legislation and hearings regarding our shipping of Military Aid to Britain. Other goings on in Washington - Federal Judge Peyton Gordon ruled that Labor Unions do come within range of U.S. Anti-Trust laws, therefore paving the way for half a dozen Union officials to be indicted on charges of Conspiracy for Restraint of Trade over Cement Mixers on Washington construction sites.

And that's what went on this March 27th in 1940 via the NBC News Of The World.

As the War in Europe started to heat up, all eyes were on the border dispute between Finland and Russia, this March 9th in 1940.

With Germany pressing Moscow for a settlement, fighting had broken out while this broadcast was on the air. The French government was optimistic the Finns would successfully repel Soviet aggression, and Hitler sent Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop on a mission to Rome to try and find some resolution.

Meanwhile, German radio was quick to accuse the U.S. of inciting the Finns to carry on their dispute, although in Washington there was no confirmation or denial of those rumors or give any indication they would have anything to do with the conflict now or in the future.

But Capitol Hill had its own set of situations to deal with. Since it was an election year (1940 Presidential elections), squabbles erupted within the Democratic party over a piece of legislation being introduced called The Hatch Act, or as it was referred to, the "Pure Politics Law" and Congresswoman Mary Norton, Labor Committee Chairperson, condemned the Smith committee move to drop the Labor Relations Board and revise the current Labor law. Norton threatened to take the issue before the voters and make it a campaign topic in 1940.

And so went this day, along with much other news for March 9, 1940 as presented by NBC's News Of The World with reports direct from London and Berlin by reporters who seemed to have trouble reading their own copy.

News as it happens. Or news, it just so happens.

As was the case with most every report during the World War 2 years, news on battles, campaigns and the War Effort took predominance in radio newscasts of the time.

This day in January in 1944 the news was about the Italian campaign and the slow, mud-ridden push towards Rome. The main source of concern was in the Monte Casino area, where German troops were securely entrenched around the historic Monastery and the fighting was relentless.

Other news was on the diplomatic front. First came a report that The Soviet Union was refusing the recognize the Polish government in exile, based on reports that the exiled government was perpetuating Nazi propaganda that Soviet troops had committed atrocities against Polish civilians in 1940. An investigation and press confirmation revealed the atrocities were committed instead by German troops and the alleged massacre took place a year later in 1941. The Polish government in exile refused to back down and the freeze continued.

Also came news that the government of Argentina decided to join the allies and sever diplomatic ties to Germany.

And news on the home front was less than flattering with reports of an investigation on the Black Market and War Profiteering going on throughout the country revealed the practice was widespread and all but out in the open, with meat and stockings being the biggest sellers. Gotta look good at any price, I suppose.

And that's how it all went down, this January 26, 1944 via NBC News.

The world somewhat askew, this 12th day of December 1947. First off- the General Strike in Rome had reached its second day with fears of violence just around the corner as a rumored 20,000 Communist activists were heading into town.

Speaking of Communists - Communist forces had successfully cut railway ties in two places in Manchuria. The Civil War was still raging in the region and fighting was continuing between Nationalist Chinese and Communist Chinese.

On the subject of continued violence - December 12th of 1947 also marked the 13th day of continuous violence since the Partition of Palestine on November 30th.

The Big Four Conference in London was continuing with a sudden mood of conciliation spring forth on the parts of the Soviets. The ease of reparations with Germany raised a few eyebrows.

And given his choice between President Truman and Republican Presidential candidate Senator Robert Taft in the 1948 election, former Democrat-turned Progressive Henry Wallace stunned the Dems by saying he'd vote for Taft.

And that's just part of how the day went, thanks to the NBC World News Roundup for December 12, 1947.