Exiles Know Freedom

Posted by a friend, Alan Eason:

I love this emotional rendition of "The Stars and Stripes Forever," conducted by then-National-Symphony conductor Mstislav Rostropovich on his return to his homeland of Russia in 1990. He had been stripped of his citizenship under the Soviets for sheltering and defending Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who also took refuge in the United States. Rostropovich loved his homeland of Russia, and his return concert, held in the Bolshoi Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, drew half of the intelligentsia of Moscow and was televised on Russian TV nationwide. After a mournful rendition of (his mentor as a youth) Shostakovich's #5 symphony, which depicted Stalinism and its terrors, he brought the audience to its feet with "The Stars and Stripes Forever" as a finale.

Heard an Interview with George Gershwin

Go check out this article and hear "a rare, brief interview that George Gershwin had done on Rudy Vallee’s hyper-popular radio show in 1933."

Wow.

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