Tom Connors wrote:

>PS What I've heard from Levine so far seems nice.  The BSO should have
>more than nice.

It'd be interesting to hear from our Boston cognoscenti how they rate
the BSO as an orchestra, conductors apart.  I mean, the quality of an
orchestras does, quite normally, has its vicissitudes.  For example,
currently the Philharmonic's celli here in Munich are not as convincing
as they used to be seven, eight years ago.  The horns have improved, on
the other hand.  The Vienna Philharmonic has a reputation for homogeneous
quality, come any of the four seasons, or any dozen political regimes.
But having listened to them, with great pleasure, for lo these many years
I'm not sure that, in part at least, the homgeneity may not be due to the
unchanging quality of the players but rather to the firm of instrument
makers that 's been supplying and servicing the orchestra's unchangingly
fine violins.  Maybe these'll even make the Vienna-bound Ozawa sound
qualitatively homogeneous.

Denis Fodor