Aaron Rabushka wrote:

>A couple of weeks ago I got next season's schedule for the Fort Worth
>Symphony, and they're actually sticking one toe into the 20th century as
>it comes to an end.  On the classical series their only living composer
>is John Corigliano...

This obsession with dates is amusing.  It reeks of very non musical
parochialism, in this case temporal, over riding musical choices.  The
reaction against the Phillie's schedule seems to be rather similar - in the
other direction.  All of the advanced whining doesn't mean very much, if
you can make the work stick.  All too often I find that peopel cannot make
the works they want to play for non-musical reasons hold together.  This
is true of several conductors who want too program Beethoven and could not
find their way past a deceptive cadence, as well as instrument groups that
wnat to play advanced music, but can't follow I-IV-V properly, let alone
anything more esoteric.

The real question I have about any orchestra wanting to play anything
is: Can they do it? Or at least make a good showing of it.  When Habeneck
did teh Paris Premieres of Beethoven, he had to rehearse for a year
before he was ready.  I don't see many groups that would have that kind
of committment to anything - and most of the ones that do seem to be
period ensembles or specialist groups.  One can pull other examples.

A commitment based on political or social reasons is almost always skin
deep, and notoriously thin skinned deep...

Stirling Newberry