Steve Schwartz responded to Jon Johanning's request for a great Southern
symphony with Virgil Thomson's Symphony on a Hymn Tune.

This is another sleeper of a work that I have loved nearly all my life for
its brash swagger and freshness but there is something about it I don't
understand--naively, I'm sure--and maybe someone can explain it to me.  In
his wonderful autobiography--one of the best sources on Paris in the 20's,
by the way--Thomson describes how he played this symphony on the piano for
Serge Koussevitzky, seemingly to increasing approval with each successive
movement--until the last, at which point Koussevitzky said he could never
play that for his BSO audience and would Thomson consider rewriting the
finale.  No he wouldn't and so K didn't.  What was Koussevitzky's problem?

Howard Hanson eventually recorded the work and there is a more recent
recording on Albany.  Both are quite satisfying, but I am also wondering
if a major orchestra has EVER played this work or if anyone on the list
has ever heard it live.

Jim Tobin