Before he decided to be a full-time composer at 27, Walter Piston worked as a draftsman for the old Boston Elevated Railway (he helped draw plans for an "articulated streetcar") and studied painting. His painting teacher advised him: "Don't be afraid to make a poor one." Since then, unafraid Composer Piston, now 64, has turned out a steady flow of works, none of them poor, most (including a 1948 Pulitzer-prizewinning Third Symphony) concise, witty, technically brilliant. Last week the Boston Symphony Orchestra performed the latest Piston, Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, to warm applause. As played by the Boston's first-rate Violist...
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