A recent poll of music critics in Europe and North America asked for recommendations for a league table of the world's best orchestras. The result is below. While I abhore this sort of meaningless comparison, I thought it might be interesting to get others' opinions on who they thought might be missing from the list and who is on the list that they wouldn't include.
It was also interesting that not a single chamber or period-instrument orchestra was mentioned – even though there are many stunningly good ones. Shame on the critics for completely ignoring them!
1. Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam
2. Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
3. Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
4. London Symphony Orchestra
5. Chicago Symphony Orchestra
6. Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
7. Cleveland Orchestra
8. Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
9. Budapest Festival Orchestra
10. Dresden Staatskapelle
11. Boston Symphony Orchestra
12. New York Philharmonic Orchestra
13. San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
14. Mariinsky (Kirov) Theatre Orchestra
15. Russian National Orchestra
16. St Petersburg Phillharmonic
17. Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
18. Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, New York
19. Saito Kinen Symphony Orchestra, Japan
20. Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
On my part, some glaring omissions (although I would never try to put them in order!) include:
Australian Chamber Orchestra
BBC Symphony Orchestra
European Union Youth Orchestra
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (there isn't a single orchestra from the southern heimisphere in the list)
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (London)
Philharmonia Orchestra (London)
Royal Danish Orchestra, Copenhagen
St Paul Chamber Orchestra
Swedish Chamber Orchestra
Tonhalle Orchestra, Zurich
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Incidentally, Y!A's prompt as to which category this question should be posted was "Food and Drink: Beer, wine and spirits"
Wow! some swift responses. I feel I can now add some of my views on those additions some of you have suggested:
The English Chamber Orchestra – actually created to be a recording orchestra (as was the Philharmonia, actually) is possibly the best-known chamber orchestra on the planet. However, as a 'live' ensemble they are less impressive – somewhast boring to my biased ears.
I concur with those that mentioned the revitalised Hallé. Mark Elder was undervalued for too many years, I have to say. I'm still not sure if they should be on a list of the 'top 20' in the world. And should they be there in preference to, say, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra?
I agree that there are too many American orchestras for a world list, although I too am surprised to see the LA Phil and San Francisco orchestras on the list instead of the still fabulous Philadelphians. I would add Montreal to my original list (perhaps in preference to Toronto).
Stefan K is right to put in a bid for the Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra in Venezuela – especially if one considers what the value of the orchestra is within that country (or continent) as a whole. It knocks the socks off most others on the list in that respect.
I would say that neither the London Philharmonic nor the Royal Philharmonic are currently in the world top 20 (not even among the best in the UK!). The Royal Scottish National Orchestra would outplay them any day. And Malcolm, I should have included the Scottish Chamber Orchestra – they are one of the best in the world of ANY kind.
However, I have to take issue with Malcolm's Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Oh dear, of dear. One of the dangers of playing without a conductor is that 1) you have to play 'safe' and 2) you play like a committee. I find the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra one of the dullest orchestras I have ever heard. They can even make Prokofiev's Classical Symphony sound boring!
I'll be back later …
As the answers seem to have dried up now, I shall conclude and then try to pick a best answer (difficult!). Thank you all for your contributions. I'm glad I didn't let this slip into the public vote this time!
It would seem that a general consensus (coloured by my own opinion, of course!) might be:
Orchestras on the list that don't deserve to be there:
Saito Kinen Orchestra
Budapest Festival Orchestra (yes, it's a pick-up band but so are the big 4 London orchestras!)
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
I would suggest the four to replace them should be:
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
Philharmonia Orchestran (London)
Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra (for their amazing work and inspiration)
Stefan K: sorry I didn't find room for some of your excellent suggestions. Maybe I'll post a question about the best 'non-symphony' orchestras. That might be interesting.
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