Steve Schwartz on the next BSO season, resonding to my correct statement
that about half the offerings are 20th century:

>Now, let's add this little fillip: How many of the works to be played
>(from all periods) have you heard before within the last 10 years? I
>went to the BSO site and found about a dozen works out of 63.  Most
>organizations play the same pieces over and over again, from all periods.
>Is this really adventurous programming? It may be economical, but not much
>else.

No disagreement there.  I think that the BSO is putting its best foot
forward for the centennial, but adventurous? Adventurous was the N.Y.
Philharmonic and Mitropolous - or is nostalgia clouding my mind?

I am however, confused by Steve's statistics.  Steve, did you mean: how
many pieces have you NOT heard within the last 10 years? Then the dozen
out of 63 makes sense as a measure of unadventurousness.  ANd the "have you
heard" criterion is of course a variable from listener to listener.  Still,
the number of programs of various orchestras of one Beethoven (concerto,
symphony) and one Brahms (symphony, concerto) is too large.  And programs
are getting shorter- notice?

Bernard Chasan