Posted by Richard on March 14, 2001 at 19:30:52:
In Reply to: Pittsburgh Symphony posted by Matt B. on March 14, 2001 at 02:03:21:
Go here and get this recording. Pittsburgh Symphony is a strange and uneven work, but contains incredibly fine sounding instrumental writing. The passage I think you're describing occurs in the second half of the second movement. There's a lot of tuba in this piece, but in this place the tuba plays several repetitions of an old Pennsylvania Dutch tune. I actually got to hear the CSO play this under Hindemith at Ravinia (1960?). Jacobs was incredible, but the Dresden guy on this recording is terrific, so since you can't have incredible, settle for terrific. The other work, Die Harmonie der Welt, is IMHO, Hindemith's masterpiece, also tuba-rich. Neither appear on the excerpt lists because they're not played enough to be considered repertoire. And why is that? Because of lazy conductors who'd rather get easy ovations, and have easy relations with boards and managers, than learn pieces that may get shot down by "he who pays the piper."
http://www.towerrecords.com/product.asp?pfid=1513795