Orchestra of Exiles, a 90-minute documentary film by Academy Award nominated Josh Aronson, tells the dramatic story of celebrated Polish violinist Bronislaw Huberman (1882-1947) who — with courage, resourcefulness, and an entourage of allies including Arturo Toscanini and Albert Einstein — bravely stood up to racial intolerance, ultimately saving almost 1,000 Jews from 1933–1936 while forming the Palestine Symphony Orchestra.

See broadcast schedule on WGBH.

Watch Orchestra of Exiles Trailer on PBS. See more from Orchestra of Exiles.

Receiving high praise after playing in front of Johannes Brahams at age 12, Huberman quickly rose to fame as a young violin prodigy. Pressured by his father, the teenager supported his family by touring Europe and playing concerts for society’s elite.
 

The Philadelphia Orchestra and Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin perform Twentieth Century masterpieces by Ravel, Szymanowski, and Shostakovich at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Tune in at 8pm, with hosts Fred Child of APM's Performance Today and Jeff Spurgeon of WQXR.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Gustavo Dudamel perform Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, along with music by Maurice Ravel and Steven Stucky, live from Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

1pm, Friday, July 27, live on Classical New England
Anna Samuil soprano
Waltraud Meier mezzo-soprano
Peter Seiffert tenor
René Pape bass
National Youth Choir of Great Britain
West–Eastern Divan Orchestra
Daniel Barenboim, conductor

In 1892, the founder of the modern-day Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin, said, "Let us export our oarsmen, our runners, our fencers into other lands. That is the true Free Trade of the future; and the day it is introduced into Europe the cause of Peace will have received a new and strong ally."

68 years earlier, Ludwig van Beethoven's setting of Friedrich Schiller's An die Freude in the Symphony No. 9, the "Choral" symphony, had established a similar world-view with the words

Joy, bright spark of divinity,
Daughter of Elysium,
Fire-inspired we tread
Thy sanctuary.
Thy magic power re-unites
All that custom has divided;
All men become brothers
Under the sway of thy gentle wings.

The spiritual and philosophical link between Beethoven's musical expression of faith in mankind and the Olympic movement's fostering of international peace through athletics is expressed on Friday at 1pm in a live concert broadcast from the BBC Proms with host Fred Child.

The expression comes through not only in the music itself, but also in the very existence of the orchestra performing it. The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra was founded by conductor Daniel Barenboim and the late Palestinian literary scholar Edward Said to bring together equal numbers of young Israeli and Palestinian musicians. In the spirit of both the Olympics and Beethoven's Ninth,

The only political aspect prevailing the West-Eastern Divan’s work is the conviction that there will never be a military solution to the Middle East conflict, and that the destinies of the Israelis and Palestinians are inextricably linked. Through its work and existence the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra demonstrates that bridges can be built to encourage people to listen to one another.

Learn more about the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.

Join us for this special broadcast on Friday at 1pm!

(photo of Olympic medals courtesy of London 2012)

To hear a performance of Lincoln Portrait with the United States Marine Band, conductor Col. Michael J. Colburn, and narrator Brian Stokes Mitchell, click on "Listen" above.

Written in 1942, Lincoln Portrait, by Aaron Copland, is a rare musical tribute to an American President. It played an inspirational role when it was written, during the dark, early days of World War II.

But it continued to inspire over the decades, with countless notable narrators giving voice to the words by Abraham Lincoln that Copland chose for his tribute.

Those words, though, were chosen from within a surprising cultural context, as Bob Seay explains:

If Lincoln's words express the highest ideals of American democracy, Copland's music expresses the diversity of sources that have combined to create an American music and culture, as James David Jacobs writes:

It’s hard in 2012 to appreciate just how original Copland’s Lincoln Portrait was in 1942. There had been other works that combined spoken text with orchestra, but the combination of serious public statement and serious artistic statement, with ceremony, history, and politics coexisting with music, was, and remains, rare.

The music Copland wrote isn’t mere backdrop for the words, the narrator not even speaking until the piece is about half over. That music tells a story, a story of both an individual life and of a nation. It’s also a story of diverse musical influences, reflecting the diverse musical strands that have come together to create an American music.

The beginning of the work is typical Copland, with woodwinds uttering soft three-note mottoes in intervals of fourths and fifths. That serenity, however, is answered by unsettling chords. It’s not unlike Ives’s The Unanswered Question and its dialogue between a stark, angular statement and its muddled response.