Denis Fodor wrote:

>But when I want to hear,say, surpassingly well-played Schubert, I should
>like to be able to be certain of getting it in Vienna.  Celi here in
>Munich could play a mean Mussorgsky, but I still think the places to
>expect to hear the paradigm are St. Petersburg and Moscow.  That's the
>way it should be, IMO, and in order for it to be so the great orchestras
>should be drilled, without surcease, to the canon of their tradition.
>And need I add, drilled by conductors steeped in that tradition.

I am trying to think how this would apply to my favorite organization,
the Phillies.  Would their tradition be, say, Rachmaninov, played with
the Ormandy string sound? Rather limiting, I would say, if they were forced
to stick with that.  Or Verdi, played a la Muti? Or, since they are an
American group, and you seem to be stressing national traditions, should
they stick to American music? And would this be a general rule for all
American orchestras? Or, perhaps, since they don't have any tradition to
compare with those of Munich, Vienna, St. Petersburg, etc., they cannot
not be considered a "great orchestra."

The marvelous thing about the Phillies is that they can play the heck out
of almost anything, if they're having a good night and they're in rapport
with the conductor. That's what makes them great, IMHO.

Jon Johanning // [log in to unmask]