John Lewis wrote:

>On the Bakels, perhaps because the Bournemouth are a "second tier"
>orchestra, the strings actually have some attack to them and overall the
>orch doesn't sound like a big blended synth, something I felt Haitink and
>Slatkin were guilty of here.

I've heard the Bournemouth live several times.  I don't know.  Maybe
they're not one of the worlds greatest, plushest, and all that.  But I've
never heard a concert by them that I didn't like.  I've always found them
dynamic, enthusiastic, full of good musical instincts and possessed of a
fine clear tone.  Occasionally, they would play two concerts in this area,
in Boston and in Worcester:  I'd always hear them both nights.  They
certainly don't sound like a "big blended synth" as John Lewis has said.

Much of this may be owed to their long time conductor, Andrew Litton (now
in Dallas), but they sounded good on records under Berglund, and the recent
concert I heard under Litton's successor (I forget his name) was up to
their standards.

Roger Hecht