Description: Setting up in studio booth for a digital recording of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Closeups on SoundStream tape decks. Closeup on TELARC NEOTEK sound board. Seiji Ozawa conducts Boston Symphony Orchestra in rehearsal with Yo-Yo Ma playing Monn-Schoenberg cello concerto, which they're recording. Ozawa talks with audio engineers.
Description: Short history of piano making. Instrument crafting in progress at Falcone factory. Virginia Eskin and David Hagan try out piano and comment. Chickering stills.
Description: Mayor Ray Flynn visits Boston Latin School. Music students play Yankee Doodle Dandy badly on clarinets. Ray shoots baskets in coed gym class. School officials usher Ray through halls, classrooms, library, auditorium, pointing out problems.
Description: Composer John Harbison working with Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Seiji Ozawa on a piece commissioned by the BSO. Interview Harbison on his composing process and what he wants to listener to get out of his work. Ozawa leads the BSO in rehearsal of Harbison's work. Violinist Joel Smirnoff in back of orchestra.
Description: 1984 arts compilation. Benjamin Zander and Youth Chamber Orchestra. Cartoonist Robert Osborn. Falcone piano making. Kurzweil synthesizer with Herman Weiss, Christopher Stowens, Lyle Mays. Pianist Ran Blake on how his love of Hitchcock movies inspires music.