Peter Lundin in response to Janos's latest MTT encomiums:

>...as a measure of musical value Blomstedt is a Aston Martin while
>Tillson-Thomas mostly resembles a Pontiac Fiero...

My jury's still deliberating on just where Mikey ranks on your
vehicular-conductor scale, but I'm pleased to see someone sticking up
for Blomstedt.  While J.G.  might have you believe that the Blomstedt
years were dark and dour days, gladly forgotten by all, I think there
are many SFSO subscribers, like myself, who have mixed feelings about
the change in regime.  Sure, Herbie did his share of slogging through
routine performances and repertoire -- as do all conductors -- but he
did, and still does, preside over some superb performances.  Two of the
finest performances I've heard from the orchestra in the last year or
so were the Blomstedt-led Berwald 3/Brahms3 and a magnificent Nielsen
"Inextinguishable".  Judging by the warm audience reception these received,
I think what Blomstedt brought to the orchestra is very much missed by many
of the SFSO regulars.

Sure, I doubt that he could have pulled off anywhere close to as stunning
a performance of Shostakovich 11 as MTT did -- everything Janos said it was
(I heard it Sunday) -- but I'd bet that he would have come up with a better
Beethoven 5 than MTT did, which I thought disjointed and tricked-up (using
last year's NYPO/Masur performance as a benchmark).

Having said that, I suppose I'll be marked for life as a 3Bs moldy fig.
Not true, I'd rather hear Shostakovich than Beethoven any day (from an
orchestra, at any rate), but the fact is that there are some things HB does
well, some MTT does well, and some music neither one should come within a
country mile of.  I'm pleased to be able to cherry pick from the programs
each maestro offers.

Art Scott
Livermore, Cal