[2] Its personnel included such musicians as Luigi von Kunits (later the first conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra) as concertmaster, first violinist Frederick William Stahlberg,[3] second violinist John Stepan Zamecnik, assistant principal cello Gaston Borch, Paul Henneberg as first flute, and Leon Medaer as first clarinet.
[8] When Herbert left the orchestra in 1904, the Symphony Society chose as his successor Austrian conductor Emil Paur.
Paur's programs emphasized the classical repertoire and increased the presence of works by Johannes Brahms, whose music was considered too challenging for most audiences at that time.
In the interim, concert promoter May Beegle founded the Pittsburgh Orchestra Association to bring other musical performers to the city.
[16][17][18] This program of frequent guest conductors was made in an effort to restore the symphony to its "golden years," but in effect demoted Modarelli, who was finally asked by the Board to resign in 1936.
[19] Otto Klemperer was responsible for bringing in much new talent while working with the Musicians' Union to hire both local and imported performers.
He was so popular with local audiences that around 1,200 people attended a concert he conducted at the Syria Mosque during one of Pittsburgh's worst snowstorms.
The sponsorship offset costs for industry workers, and the Symphony performed in more convenient locations throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia.
[25][26] The Symphony continued to bring music to smaller communities in partnership with Manufacturers Heat and Light Company and Columbia Gas during the Steinberg era.
[27] The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra performed for audiences in Warsaw, Madrid, Berlin, Zagreb, Reykjavik, and 15 other locations throughout Europe and the Middle East during the State Department tour.
Previn had a collegial working style with symphony musicians and even formed a chamber music trio with Herbert Greenberg, associate concertmaster, and principal cellist Anne Martindale Williams around 1979.
Bond was the first woman to earn a doctoral degree in orchestral conducting from the Juilliard School and is a prolific composer.
During this time, the Symphony was "innovative in drawing new elements of the Pittsburgh region’s population to concerts in Heinz Hall and elsewhere."
Sir Andrew Davis, while providing overall programming input regarding the entire season and leading the orchestra in a variety of styles, paid special attention to the music of British and American composers.
[55][56] In November 2006, the PSO announced a pledge of $29.5 million from the Richard P. Simmons family as the start of a capital challenge for the orchestra to address long-standing financial concerns.
The Alcoa Foundation sponsored the programs, which ran for three years and became the highest rated classical music series on PBS.
The first program explored Mozart, with Previn and the Pittsburgh Symphony's Patricia Prattis Jennings playing four-handed piano sonatas.
Others featured guest artists John Williams, conducting his music from "Star Wars" and "E.T.," Ella Fitzgerald, Yo-Yo Ma, Pittsburgh Symphony principal cello Nathaniel Rosen (the first American cellist to win the gold medal at the Tchaikovsky International Competition), composer Stephen Sondheim and violinist Itzhak Perlman.
Composer Miklos Rosza appeared as a guest to hear the Pittsburgh Symphony play his Oscar-winning score for the movie "Ben-Hur."
Previn displayed his considerable talent as a jazz pianist in a duet with his friend Oscar Peterson, the man Duke Ellington dubbed "the maharajah of the keyboard."
When cameras came into Heinz Hall to film the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra rehearsing in their shirtsleeves, audiences saw a relaxed maestro in bellbottoms who obviously liked and respected the musicians.
It is a complete two-hour concert with Music Director Manfred Honeck and guest artists heard on over 100 PRI and NPR stations across the country.
[66][67] The event, which was attended by the Pontiff, Rav Elio Toaff, Imam Abdulawahab Hussein Gomaa, and 7,000 invited guests, was telecast on RAI, on PBS, and throughout the world, and released on DVD by WQED Multimedia, Pittsburgh.
The inaugural concerts took place on September 10 and 11 with William Steinberg conducting Beethoven's "Consecration of the House" overture and Mahler's Symphony No.
The New York Times published an outstanding review of the performances, citing the improvement of the acoustics over previous Symphony venues saying, "Pittsburghers at last have the opportunity to hear (the orchestra) as it ought to sound.