One funny note: the cymbalist and triangulist (is that what they're called) had to sit through 40 minutes just to stand up for a total of 20 seconds to hit the two climaxes in the adagio, and then sat down after that. I remember a Cheers episode where a guy in a tux was enjoying a beer at the bar while counting to himself, when Sam or Woody asked who that was, someone said it was the percussionist from the Boston Symphony waiting for his cymbal moment. Or something like that.
You have no idea...I spent/spend much time playing in orchestras in the percussion section. It can be torture. Some of the worst:
Dvorak - NewWorld Symphony. As the sole percussionist you sit until the 3rd movement only to play triangle. Then in the last movement ONE scrape on a cymbal. That's it.
Tchaikovsky - Pathetique. Fun as it is, waiting to play cymbals in the 3rd movement still doesn't make up for all the sitting through the rest. Well, at least there's a tam tam in the finale.
Elgar - Pomp & Circumstance #1 - hired to play the glockenspiel part, but it only enters in the last 8 bars or so.
Handel - Messiah. Never again will I do this. You're hired to play timpani, but sit and sit and sit only to play in Hallelujah and that's all.
Tchaikovsky - Symphony 5. Even though there are no percussion parts, some conductors want a cymbal crash in the finale like Szell did. Tasteless, tacky, stupid and boring to wait for.
Beethoven - 9th - the contrabassoon part is almost unplayably difficult. But at least it's not the cymbal or triangle part which only get to work in the middle of the finale.
The most annoying of all was being hired to play bass drum in the Shostakovich 9th in a town 100 miles away. There's a really loud solo boom in the first movement. Then you go home, 100 miles, and $125 richer. Stupid.
Mahler percussion - there are no boring symphonies or parts to play at all - they are all really interesting, although the contrabassoon parts are even better.
