Mitch Friedfeld <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>The question of which are the world's Top 10 orchestras cannot be answered
>unless you add "in which repertoire." Do you really want to hear the Berlin
>PO do John Adams? Is Los Angeles good in the Brandenburgs? I'd much rather
>have the Academy of St.  Martin in the Fields.  Should the Chicago SO be
>doing a Haydn symphony? You can fill in the blanks with your own ludicrous
>examples.

I completely agree with this, and I'd argue a need for more parameters.
When you said "best," were you speaking from a purely technical point of
view? Apparently not, or you would have included Clevland from the start.
But from a musical point of view it's impossible to separate the conductor
from the orchestra, isn't it? So, shouldn't the list go something like,
"Berlin/ early Karajan (or Furtwangler), Chicago/ Reiner, etc.?" Note that
I say, for example, "early Karajan;" because the BPO of the eighties (and
after) doesn't compare to the BPO of the sixites, at least not on the
recordings I've heard.  So this is another consideration.

On a tangential subject, what about concert halls? I'd like to know
what people think are the best halls in the world, or even in the U.S.
The last few years I've heard Davies Hall (San Francisco), Symphony Hall
(Boston), Jones Hall (Houston), and Heinz Hall (Pittsburg), all doing
Mahler 3, or Mahler-related music (Maris Jansons was sick when we went to
Pittsburg, so other Mahler was substituted).  Although the Boston SO was
technically the best, putting forth a slow-paced yet heart-rendering second
movement under Ozawa, it was the SFS under Tilson Thomas which has left the
biggest impression on me, and I believe that Davies Hall itself played an
important role in that experience.  Perhaps Janos Gereben can post his
opinion.  At the other end, the Houston Symphony is a decent orchestra, but
I'm convinced that they will never be at the level of the other orchestras
mentioned as long as they perform in Jones Hall.  The sound simply doesn't
carry in there, and what does carry is not very focused.  Jones Hall is
better than a barn, but I can think of small cities with school auditoriums
that have better acoustics-- hey, no offense to small cities!:)

hector aguilar