According to the tenth annual report released by Broadcast Music Inc., 582 U.S. orchestras played a total of 5,877 concerts during the 1968-69 season.
What did they play? Mostly what they always have. The overture to Wagner's Die Meistersinger was done 127 times, making it the most played single item—possibly because it is in C major, the easiest key to play in. Brahms' First Symphony ranks second (114 performances). Beethoven's Fifth, whose dit-dit-dit-dah victory opening can be whistled by more nonmusical people than any other classical theme, is way down to 39th place...
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