National Symphony Orchestra

Now THIS outfit has has progressed considerably over the years. Did anyone else

hear them regularly back in the Fifties and Sixties, when Howard Mitchell would do things like have the words to the Beethoven 9th sung in English?

Nothing wrong with that! Remember that, before the orchestra was founded (1934, I think), DC's musical life revolved around the theatre and the military bands. Not exactly a hotbed of European tradition.

Besides, the DAR might have gotten stuffy about all that foreign propaganda if they didn't sing in English, and they *did* perform at Constitution Hall (DAR) most of the time. What a dreadful barn...

Incidentally, the first-ever recording of the Ninth (Weingaertner, 1926) was in English. 'Bigger world market' was the reasoning.

Yes, I remember the creaky old Mitchell

That is true about the principals

My memories of Mitchell (as he was then referred to in the Washington papers) includes a concert with Rudolf Serkin and the Schumann Piano Concerto... this must have been in 1970. Serkin hugged himself and hummed loudly during the tutti, and Mitchell constantly turned from conducting the orchestra and glared at him. Those Constitution Hall days were memorable, especially when Ormandy or Bernstein came to conduct, or when Kubelik brought the Bavarian Radio Orchestra to perform Bruckner's 4th. Heaven.