Bernard Chasan wrote:

>There certainly seems to be a larger number of decent orchestras today
>than-say- twenty years ago, The success of Naxos seems based on this
>fact- creditable performances are turned in by orchestras from the Ukraine
>to New Zealand under the direction of conductors who are not likely to
>guest conduct the great American orchestras any time soon.

Maybe it's not that there *are* more decent orchestras nowadays, but
that labels like Naxos record with orchestras that major labels wouldn't
work with and therefore those orchestras weren't known before.  For
instance, Naxos recorded a lot of Polish and other music with Antoni Wit
and his orchestra, but NOSPR and its predecessor existed for years --
there were just unknown outside Poland and other Soviet block countries.
And until ca.  1990 few orchestras from, for instance, Ukraine would
concertize in America.  I really think that it's the question of bringing
many decent but lesser known ensembles to the Western public.

-Margaret Mikulska