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Last night I was witness to an incredible event in Denver – a terrific concert – and an even more notable live radio broadcast of that concert.

The Colorado Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of conductor Julian Kuerti, performed an entire Antoin Dvorak program. The featured, guest artist was superstar cellist Yo Yo Ma who performed Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B Minor, Opus 104.

The concert, at Denver’ Boettcher Concert Hall was a complete sell-out. That’s a good thing because the CSO is facing very hard economic times – just like many other music institutions (and the industry as a whole) all around the country.

Last night’s performance was part of a huge fundraising effort for the symphony orchestra – culminating in a three-day, on-air pledge drive. The radio stations weren’t asking for money to help pubic radio – they sought and received contributions ($600,000+ at last count) to help keep the orchestra afloat. The stations had to get special dispensation from the FCC to raise funds for a third-party institution.

The concert was broadcast live over Denver’s public radio stations: KVOD (the classical music station at 88.1 on the dial) and KFCR (usually the jazz station at 90.1) and more than five dozen other public radio stations around Colorado.

The 21st Century broadcast technologies that were used will be the subject of a more detailed future article. What you should know is that it took hundreds of man-hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of of the highest-tech equipment to provide listeners with the best-sounding mono, stereo and especially 5.1-surround sound reproduction of a live concert that I’ve ever witnessed. Kudos to Mike Pappas and David Day for engineering an amazing feat.

I was lucky enough to be able to witness Wednesday’s dress rehearsal from one of the best seats in the house. I got to hear Mr. Ma perform the Allegro moderato – the final movement of Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor, Opus 104. – a portion of which I’m sharing below.

By the way, the live performance, Wednesday night was even better than the rehearsal. Bravo!