Music test

[thedarkages]

I hesitate to call this a music trivia test, because it's really something that everyone should be able to do. Name the music directors at the five major American orchestras.

Of course, a question which could have preceded this: what are the traditional five major American orchestras? But I'll spot you that one:

1. New York Philharmonic


2. Boston Symphony Orchestra


3. Chicago Symphony Orchestra


4. Philadelphia Orchestra


5. Cleveland Orchestra

NY Philharmonic: Lorin Maazel
BSO: James Levine
CSO: Bernard Haitink
Philadelphia Orchestra: Christoph Eschenbach
Cleveland Orchestra: Franz Welser-Möst

One day, Marin Alsop will be on that short list, and it will be about time.

Comments

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Cleveland?

Provincially, i only know the name of the director of the San Francisco Symphony. Actually, i now realize that i've forgotten his name, but i can clearly visualize his face. Ah, well.

MTT

[thedarkages]

That would be Michael Tilson Thomas, who really is a great conductor. There are many good to great American conductors. They're just not in the historically-accidental grouping I picked. Esa-Pekka Salonen of the LA Philharmonic and Osmo Vänskä of the Minnesota Orchestra are particularly noteworthy.

Re: MTT

[ryba-kit.livejournal.com]

And Salonen is also a great composer.

[alice-q.livejournal.com]

I could have answered this in 1965, but not now.

And, not to be argumentative or anything (after all, I don't know you; this popped up on my friendsfriends list), why is this something that everybody, or even every American, should be able to do? There's an assumption that this is some kind of cultural literacy, but is it really?

[thedarkages]

Why, yes, it's a kind of cultural literacy. Then again, it's as only as great a kind of cultural literacy as knowing who the managers of the teams in the American League East are. I believe that the latter is a kind of common knowledge in a way that the conductors aren't; you don't have three cable channels and four broadcast networks vying to convey the latter. In my optimal world, both kinds of knowledge would be equally widely disseminated. And that's the sense in which I mean "should."

Oh, by the way...

[thedarkages]

Just call me E.D. Hirsch. As much of a beating as that guy got in the eighties and nineties, there's no question in my mind that children would be better off if they knew everything he prescribed. Heck, the same goes for grownups.

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

Cleveland, and nothing for MTT? Even ronebofh berates you, sir. I berate you, sir.

(Although the SFS was *so* much better when Masur stepped in for his guest stint. It was amazing and sort of tragic too.)

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

Also, Maazel is overrated, and Levine I, and every other civilized person, know as the music director of the Met.

Even *Wikipedia* knows that.

I do miss living on West 72nd St.

Sir, you are in error.

[thedarkages]

I refer you to http://www.bso.org/bso/mods/bio_toc.jsp?id=bcat5340039. The BSO is under the pleasant delusion that it has enjoyed Mr. Levine's services for over four years.

Re: Sir, you are in error.

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

That is the case, sir, but no reasonable person would venture the argument that enjoying the services of BSO at the acoustically-atrocious Symphony Hall was in any way superior or even comparable to listening to the delightful direction of Levine at the Metropolitan Opera.

Re: Sir, you are in error.

[thedarkages]

I think we are in agreement. I would only add that the situation would be much improved if Mr. Levine were to conduct more operas at the Met, rather than decamping to Boston at the slightest instance. I realize that this practice has resulted in some promising and noted conductors coming to the public eye in their Met guest stints, but I would prefer the genuine article.

[thedarkages]

I refer you, sir, to the word "traditional" in my post. The five traditional major orchestras are as I have set them out. The list is a historical accident which I believe was codified mid-twentieth-century. (It would be a blog post in itself to figure out how and exactly when that took place.) But it is an arbitrary list, like the list of Ivy League schools. Stanford doesn't bitch and moan that it's not on that list, even though it's better than many schools that are. Just so, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis all have orchestras that are on a par with the Big Five, but the list doesn't change.