Ambassador Auditorium Inaugural Concert 1974

Seeking no profit or benefit of any kind, this recording is presented solely for its historical value. All copyrights retained by the originator, as applicable.

Igor Stravinsky's "Suite from the Firebird" was the very first selection of music ever performed in Ambassador Auditorium. The massive Chandelier of the Grand Lobby began to glow, and the Auditorium opened on the night of April 7, 1974.

This Concert was performed over 51 years ago, in Pasadena, California, when the recording technology was not what we've come to expect by today's standards. Nonetheless, regardless the technical quality, the historical significance makes this treasure of the past well worth viewing!

The logistics of the recording were barely doable at the time, as we had to run multiple cables of a thousand feet or more, all the way from the auditorium, up the hill to the television studios, near the corner of Colorado Blvd and Orange Grove. Beginning July 1, 1974, over the next several months, we edited the 90 minute presentation for release on KCET, Los Angeles, in early 1975.

The orchestra flew in from Vienna, Austria, and Maestro Carlo Giulini conducted the Symphony for this very special event. The orchestral artistry under the command of Giulini's baton was incredible, with a visual expression which matched the name-imagery of Stravinsky's Fire Bird, as if replicating the six-winged, Fire-Seraphim of Isaiah 6, who were the altar-custodians of God's glowing bed of fiery coals! At times, Giulini, via the artistry of his winged-gestures of musical expression, he produced a spirit-lift sensation that defied gravity!

Erika Kirk (Church) quoted form Isaiah 6, during the memorial for her late husband, Charlie, on 9/21, 2025, a major event held in the county near the location of the Phoenix-Firebird of Arizona.

But "Firebird" was a most fitting selection for the Concert of 1974! The memorable beauty in this particular work by Stravinsky is the abrupt and unexpected mood transition, which occurs several minutes into the suite. For those unfamiliar with "Firebird", this can be quite a surprising jolt, unpredictable and completely unexpected! It takes a few minutes for this work to wind up, but when it does, fasten your seat-belts!

Performed just months after the Yom Kippur War, in the fall of 1973, with lines at the pumps, amid the turmoil of Watergate and resignation of former President Nixon--as if a prophetic projection of the age to come, the big kettle percussions are dramatically highlighted in this work. Some may recall that in the English language, the German, Drumpf, is the root, from which stems, drums and trumpets, as in the surname which dominates our age, TRUMP!

The Concert was performed at 131 South Saint Johns Avenue, a number-location of mystery indeed (Rev. 13:1), as if a futuristic vision, appearing in a text, written by the Apostle John: "I stood upon the sand of the Mar (a-Lago)"! Nine chapters earlier, John described the "winged-creatures" which he saw on the Mar (Sea) of Glass (Rev. 4:8).