Scenes from Danish orchestra’s dog audition

David K. Nelson says:

As long as the dogs are there, why not program Piston’s The Incredible Flutist which calls for barking dogs, usually voiced by orchestra musicians with varying degrees of enthusiasm and realism? Erich Leinsdorf wrote that when he programmed the Piston in post-War Vienna he was informed that he had desecrated the Musikvereinsaal with such music. He also wrote that he long regretted not retorting that a hall which had Hitler as guest of honor in the official box could not be further desecrated.

And perhaps this is yet another of the Fritz Reiner legends but supposedly some mischief maker substituted a recording of a barking dog for the required recording of singing birds for a Reiner performance of the Pines of Rome.