Denis Fodor wrote: >But when I want to hear,say, surpassingly well-played Schubert, I should >like to be able to be certain of getting it in Vienna. Celi here in >Munich could play a mean Mussorgsky, but I still think the places to >expect to hear the paradigm are St. Petersburg and Moscow. That's the >way it should be, IMO, and in order for it to be so the great orchestras >should be drilled, without surcease, to the canon of their tradition. >And need I add, drilled by conductors steeped in that tradition. I am trying to think how this would apply to my favorite organization, the Phillies. Would their tradition be, say, Rachmaninov, played with the Ormandy string sound? Rather limiting, I would say, if they were forced to stick with that. Or Verdi, played a la Muti? Or, since they are an American group, and you seem to be stressing national traditions, should they stick to American music? And would this be a general rule for all American orchestras? Or, perhaps, since they don't have any tradition to compare with those of Munich, Vienna, St. Petersburg, etc., they cannot not be considered a "great orchestra." The marvelous thing about the Phillies is that they can play the heck out of almost anything, if they're having a good night and they're in rapport with the conductor. That's what makes them great, IMHO. Jon Johanning // [log in to unmask]