As part of our general obsession with rankings, one from time-to-time sees rankings of orchestras. Gramophone produced one a few years back, and it produced considerable discussion and consternation. When I talk with fellow lovers of symphonic music, they often will wonder aloud about whether the "Big 5" is still the Big 5.
When I visit cities away from home, if the local orchestra is playing, I try to take in a concert. What is striking to me is how really, really good so many orchestras are: within the last year I have heard tremendous concerts here in LA and in Amsterdam, but also in Atlanta and Minneapolis (The Minnesotans played the best Nachtmusik I from Mahler's 7th that I have ever heard).
Even smaller cities have good orchestras, if not quite at the level as larger cities. This is not surprising: there is a lot of great musical talent out there (a friend from a city of about 200,000 reports that his orchestra's principal horn player was runner-up for the job in Chicago). John DeMain did a marvelous job building a fine orchestra in Madison. The Pasadena Symphony is good.
So instead of worrying which orchestras are better than others, perhaps we should just enjoy the ones we have. But by all means, rag on conductors: the bad ones can make even great orchestras sound dull.
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