Lindsey Orcutt wrote:

>This is indeed good news.  I've gotten fed up with the war-horses
>programmed by the Oregon Symphony in the last few years.  When they do 20th
>century works, they have to put them in the middle of a program (with some
>familiar classical or baroque favorite at the end) to keep most of the
>audience around.  It's maddening.  Oh, I pine to hear some new music out
>of this orchestra...  <sigh> It's as if they weren't even living in this
>current decade!

Around here, in Columbus, OH the situation is a bit better than in
Portland.  Columbus Symphony orchestra does program some 20th century
works quite often.  Of course, 99% of them are on the conservative side,
but still I've heard works of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, much Ravel, Martinu,
Nielsen, Sibelius, Barber and Mahler this year.  The closest they've come
to programming non-conservative works this year is Ives' Unanswered
Question, but that's too short a piece I suppose.

Next year promises to bring a similar type of mix with a little more 20th
century works than this year, but still nothing from the atonal world.
However, come to think of it, there will be Macmillan's "Veni, Veni
Emmanuel" which might just be the only work by a living composer they
programmed in 2 years.

FWIW...

Igor
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