One of the few things that's known for sure about the snippet is the identity of the brief clip of music that appears right at the end: about two seconds of the finale movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 in F. We know (see: [[Spectral Evidence]]) that the spoken and musical parts of the snippet, at least, were probably from an FM radio broadcast. In 1975 in London, that makes it likely to be a BBC broadcast. According to the [BBC records](https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?order=first&filt=is_radio&month=0%2C1%2C2%2C3%2C4%2C5%2C6&q=Tchaikovsky+Symphony+No.+4&after=1975-01-01T00%3A00%3A00.000Z&before=1975-12-31T23%3A59%3A59.999Z) , Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 was only broadcast 4 times in 1975: * Tue 4th Feb 1975, 13:20-14:05 * Wed 21st May 1975, 11:50-13:00 * Thu 5th Jun 1975, 11:35-13:00 * Sun 6th Jul 1975, 20:00-21:00 According to *Pink Floyd: All The Songs* (PFATS), p. 348, the recording dates for "Wish You Were Here" were May 16, 19, 21-23, 28-30, and July 10, 24, and 28. There's only one date that appears in both lists: **May 21, 1975**. Which strongly suggests that the Tchaikovsky part of the snippet, and likely the whole thing, was recorded on that day between 11:50-13:00. Now, that date makes some sense. Pink Floyd had been working on the song since May 16. On May 22nd, it got its official name, and the band added additional overdubs (PFATS p. 348). May 21st seems like a good day to work on loose ends like recording some audio off the car radio to serve as an intro. (However, I would note that if I had found a different date, I probably could have come up with a different explanation as to why that date also made sense!) ## Closing In On The Time So, assuming we've got the rest of this right, about when would this have been played? Well, here's a scan from the Radio Times for May 21: ![[Pasted image 20260510143005.png]] From the BBC record above, and from a program I found online (see: [the program](https://www.abebooks.com/signed/Philharmonie-Berliner-Philharmonisches-Orchester-Abonnementskonzert-Serie/30748080935/bd)) we have some details on the concert and the recording. The concert featured the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Igor Markevitch. It was performed on Sep. 10-11 at 8:00 PM. It featured the following pieces: * Georg Friedrich Händel, Concerto Grosso in D Major, Op. 6 No. 5 * Maurice Ravel, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G major, soloist: Nikita Magaloff * Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 I haven't been able to get the full recording of this concert, but I have found a recording [on YouTube](https://youtu.be/WoPATowHye8?si=rRje-zuJeRnzuXwp) of a Markevitch/Magaloff performance of the Ravel piece. Its total length is 21:06. I'm going to assume that's the one listed here. I have found a CD listing for this recording. The listing indicates that the disc contains the Ravel and Tchaikovsky performances. However, the source is not somewhere I can confidently purchase a recording from, so I am still seeking other ways of obtaining it. I've traced down further details of the concert that was almost certainly the source of the recording. Since I don't yet have the exact recording of Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 listed here, and I don't have the running times, I'm going to use Markevitch's London Symphony recording as a stand-in. I found a copy on [archive.org](https://archive.org/details/lp_tchaikovsky-symphony-no-4-in-f-minor_igor-markevitch). | Time | Item | Duration (approx. minutes) | | | ----- | ----------------------------- | -------------------------- | --- | | 11:50 | Ravel Piano Concerto in G 1-3 | 21 | | | 12:11 | TS4 First Movement | 18 | | | 12:29 | TS4 Second Movement | 9 | | | 12:38 | TS4 Third Movement | 6 | | | 12:44 | **TS4 Finale** | 9 | | | 12:53 | Earliest ending | | | ## Where in the Finale? The passage we hear in "Wish You Were Here" repeats three times in the fourth movement, and until I get my hands on the exact recording I can't determine which repetition it is. In the London recording, it repeats at 0:13, 0:58, and 3:30 from the beginning of the movement. The 3:30 mark is about 5 minutes from the end of the piece. That gives us a useful limit. Even if the recording were to have run right up to program end at 13:00, the last time that passage would be played is at 12:55 PM. ## The Time If all of this is right, the time we should be looking at for the broadcast of our clip should be right around: **May 21, 1975, between 12:44-12:55 PM.** The timing there is... interesting. On one hand, that's a little early in the day for a Pink Floyd recording session. According to an interview with Brian Humphries, they started recording around 2:30 PM and worked late into the evening. On the other hand, it does make some sense for Gilmour and the engineers to have shown up a bit early that day to work on the intro before the rest of the band got in. I haven't found any documentation one way or another. [^1]: *Pink Floyd: All The Songs*, p. 348