Recital Hall

Recital Hall is an American musical television program that debuted on NBC on July 8, 1951,^[1] and was broadcast intermittently until 1955.^[2]

Format

Each 30-minute episode of Recital Hall featured a musician giving a solo performance.^[1] The setting — a small audience with the performer on stage — was an effort to form a recital-hall environment on the TV screen.^[2] The concert setting was complemented by the episode's being filmed "without comment, commercials or trick camera work".^[3]

The premiere featured pianist Gyorgy Sandor. Other artists who performed on the program included violinist Ruggiero Ricci, cellist Leonard Rose, and baritone William Warfield.^[1]

Production

Charles Polacheck was the producer, with Kirk Browning and John Block as directors.^[4] Cameras "focused attentively on the soloist", avoiding closeups and often remaining stationary for minutes.^[2]

Episodes broadcast in 1953 originated at WPTZ in Philadelphia.^[5]

Reception

Musicologist Sigmund Spaeth, in a review in Music Clubs Magazine, described Recital Hall as an example of "good intentions gone wrong".^[6] He acknowledged the "creditable attempt" to give viewers access to top-quality musicians, but he felt that productions failed to take advantage of the "intimacy and informality that alone can differentiate television from its competitors".^[6] As a result, he wrote that the program had been unable to appeal to viewers other than a "quota of serious musical devotees".^[6]

Critic Jack Gould, on the other hand, in a review in The New York Times, called the program "an altogether superb half hour of television" and suggested that it should be considered for a Peabody Award.^[4] He noted the successful creation of a recital-hall atmosphere and a level of relaxation rare in that era of television and added that the performers' repertoire was "effectively varied and eminently satisfying".^[4]

In a two-years-later review in the Times, Val Adams bemoaned the reduced number of broadcasts of Recital Hall (only four that season). Adams pointed out TV's advantage in providing a new dimension via close-ups, "bringing an even greater appreciation for the accomplishments of the musician."^[7]