Boston Symphony announcement of JFK's death

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963)

This is a captivating audio clip capturing the moment when on Friday, November 22nd 1963, the murder of John Kennedy was announced during a concert performance of the Boston Symphony. The gasps from the audience after the following words of the conductor, Erich Leinsdorf, are palpable:

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a press report over the wireless. We hope that it is unconfirmed, but we have to doubt it. The president of the United States has been the victim of an assassination.

Then Leinsdorf announces that the orchestra will play the Funeral March (Marcia funebre: Adagio assai), the second movement of Beethoven’s third symphony, Eroica.

© Adeyinka Makinde (2018)

Adeyinka Makinde is a writer based in London, England.