| Genre: | classical music |
| Director: | Irving Gutman |
| Country: | Canada |
| Language: | English French |
| Channel: | CBC Television Radio-Canada |
| Num Seasons: | 4 |
| Producer: | Noel Gauvin Pierre Mercure Pierre Morin |
| Location: | Montreal |
| Runtime: | 60 minutes |
The Concert Hour (L'Heure du concert) is a Canadian classical music television series which aired on CBC Television in English and Radio-Canada in French from 1954 to 1958.
This was initially a local series on Montreal's CBFT airing on alternate weeks with Teletheatre until it was given a dual-network run from May 1954.[1] [2] Episodes were then broadcast weekly on both the English and French CBC networks with announcements in both languages.
Guest musicians included Glenn Gould, Louis Quilico, Robert Savoie and Rosalyn Tureck.
Classical music selections were supplemented by ballet, contemporary music and opera performances.
The series included ballet performances with choreographers such as David Adams, Ludmilla Chiriaeff, Heino Heiden, Brian Macdonald.
Orchestras were led by conductors such as Jean Deslauriers, Roland Leduc, Boyd Neel and Wilfrid Pelletier.
This cultural series had limited appeal, especially in areas such as Winnipeg where CBC held a monopoly of television signals. Many viewers switched off their televisions during broadcasts of The Concert Hour.[3]
This hour-long series was broadcast as follows:
| Day | Time | Season run | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday | 8:30 p.m. | 6 May 1954 | 24 Jun 1954 | |
| Thursday | 10:00 p.m. | 29 Sep 1955 | 22 Mar 1956 | |
| Thursday | 10:00 p.m. | 4 Oct 1956 | 21 Mar 1957 | |
| Tuesday | 10:00 p.m. | 24 Sep 1957 | 11 Mar 1958 | |