20, 1976, at which point I was a 23-year-old member of the Boston Symphony. My recollection is that that was the highlight of that particular performance. While an effort was underway to determine whether the oboist was still alive – he was – the audience buzzed, recognizing instantly that the crash was probably not part of the drummer’s solo. At the performance, during the snare drummer’s beguiling solo at the beginning of the second movement, the oboist’s chair collapsed with the report of a gunshot, bringing the concert to a momentary standstill. The changes in rhythms and meters were baffling, and the notes went by at an alarmingly fast rate, even in slow practice. (FYI, my stand partner in the New Haven Symphony was future concertmaster Hall of Famer and my former stand partner in the Utah Symphony, Ralph Matson.) For me, learning the Bartók part – yes, even the second violin part in this piece is virtuoso – was a bitch, and the rehearsals were as pleasant as root canals sans Novocain. The gig also enabled me to pick up a few bucks for my Yale tuition. The New Haven Symphony has a long and respectable history as a semi-professional orchestra with many fine musicians. The first time I performed the Concerto for Orchestra I was moonlighting on last stand of the second violins in the New Haven Symphony.
