I received this from Richard P. Stymans who received it from George Cooper. Mel Kozlowski also sent a very similar story.

A number of years ago, the Seattle Symphony was doing “Beethoven’s Ninth” under the baton of Milton Katims….

At this point, you must understand two things: First, there’s a long segment in this symphony where the bass violins don’t have a thing to do, not a single note for page after page. Second, there used to be a tavern … Read the rest...