Len Fehskens wrote: >... I go to the BSO to hear music I know and love in live performance, >which is a qualitatively different experience from hearing it in my home.... To which Jon Johanning replied: >... I don't belong to the school of CM fans who feel that the role of a >great orchestra is to confirm the musical prejudices they already happen >to have. If that's your approach, how can you grow as a listener? I share Len Fehsken's view. Really great orchestras should stick to their specialities (as the otherwise very liberal Joachim Kaiser opined in the Rattle/BPO matter). Breadth should be sought by attending the performances of smaller, or less loftily reputed groups specializing in areas not covered by the greats--or via listening to recordings, a marvellous way of doing it. Playing it this way endows great orchestras with the role, and a secure role it ought to prove to be,the role that the great museums play to the fine arts; at the same time it would assure a very large role for other orchestras, or musical groups, including in the field of recording. Denis Fodor Internet:[log in to unmask]