Since 1904, thousands upon thousands of artists from all over the world and across several musical genres have taken Ravinia’s stage, but in order to experience most of these amazing performances, “you just had to be there.” So when we have occasion to set that maxim aside, it’s a rare treat.

This got us thinking about the few times we’ve been able to share recordings of Ravinia performances to a wider audience, from more than half a century ago to our upcoming telecast of 2019’s Mass performance.