Roger Hecht asks: >Question. How good was the LAPO when Mehta took it over? I was under the >impression it was less than first rank and got much better under Mehta, but >from 3000 miles away, I have no idea. I have heard very few, if any, of >their pre-Mehta recordings. While not the world class orchestra it became under Carlo Maria Giulini and presently Esa-Pekka Salonen (we quickly draw a curtain over the Previn years), it was not a bunch of stiffs by any means. The three previous MDs were Otto Klemperer (1933-1939), Alfred Wallenstein (1943-1956), and Eduard van Beinum (1956-1959). What Mehta did bring to the orchestra was a higher profile through the marketing done about him. What he also did was make some absolutely dreadful appointments, a process he repeated in NY. [log in to unmask]