Chopin, Again & Again

What major pieces must New York's industrious concertgoers hear oftenest? Last week, the Herald Tribune's statistical-minded Music Editor Francis D. Perkins totted up his annual reckoning of what was played in concert halls during the season. For the second straight year, Chopin's Ballade in G Minor won the prize. In 225 piano recitals, it had been played, for better or worse, in more than one out of ten. Runner-up: Beethoven's "Appassionata" sonata.

Most-played violin piece: Bach's Chaconne from the Partita, in D Minor, which was sawed out 17 times in 109 violin recitals. Statistician Perkins found violinists more venturesome than pianists in programming contemporary music, but noted that both outdid orchestras in repeating war horses. The hardest-worked symphony of the season was a surprise: it was neither Beethoven's nor Tchaikovsky's Fifth, but Mozart's Symphony No. 41 (K.551), the "Jupiter."

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