To me, one of the saddest aspects of the whole Louisville Orchestra situation is that we might be losing one of the most important institutions in American music in the 20th century. Even a cursory glance at this list of recordings reveals how vital an organization the orchestra once was to composers. Thankfully, there are other orchestras in America today who have taken up the slack, such as the Albany Symphony and a number of others. But it’s hard to imagine another orchestra inheriting the mantle from Louisville, who commissioned many, many works (the orchestral variations of both Carter and Copland, for example . . .). Too sad!