Highlights from A Third of a Century of National Symphony Orchestra Memories

The National Symphony Orchestra has invited
its subscribers and other friends to help it celebrate
its upcoming 75th Anniversary Season by sharing an
NSO Memory with the orchestra's web-site.

Here is the 1,000 character memory which I shared
with the NSO this morning. I believe that I have a
snowball's chance in hell of having my submission
actually published on the NSO's site, given the NSO's memory
of my letter to the Washington Post criticizing the NSO
for publishing a long letter in the Washington Post
stating that many composers, thoughout history, have
used orchestrators to score their compositions.


Anyway...

"I have enjoyed the National Symphony Orchestra for
over a third of a century, beginning when I was in
local public elementary school.
For me, the NSO’s highest peaks of musical achievement,
over this third of a century, have been Antal Dorati
conducting the American premiere of Olivier Messiaen’s
oratorio LaTransfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus Christ;
and Mstislav Rostropovich’s leading the world premieres
of Krystof Penderecki’s Polish Requiem, Alfred Schnittke’s
Symphony #6, and Vyacheslav Artyomov’s Symphonies -
Threshold of Bright Light and Gentle Emanations.
All four of the distinguished composers were in attendance
for these premieres.

Also most memorable was Rostropovich leading
two symphonies by his fellow countryman and colleague,
Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony #13 – Babi Yar
(dedicated to the Jews killed by the Nazis in Kyiv, Ukraine),
and Symphony #14, featuring Rostropovich’s wife,
the distinguished soprano Galina Vishnevskaya."


You, too, can share an NSO memory, subject to, of course,
their approval:
http://www.kennedy-center.org/nso/history/75th/open_feature.html