Who Gets Played

Devoted concertgoers who are under the impression that the nation's orchestral programs are dominated by five great composers--Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Wagner--are absolutely right. A survey of programs played last season by 417 U.S. and Canadian orchestras indicates that those five, as usual, and in that order, are the most frequently performed composers, followed by Haydn, Bach, Stravinsky, Ravel and Mendelssohn.

The survey, which is compiled annually by Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), also indicates that about three out of every five compositions played during the 1968 season were written before 1900. But some moderns--especially Stravinsky, Ravel and Copland--are making gradual gains. For a real growth stock, there is a composer named Leonard Bernstein. Largely on the strength of his theater music, such as West Side Story excerpts and the Candide Overture, Bernstein, who was the 49th most-often-performed composer five years ago, is now 24th.

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