@Allison said, in regard to a statement Drew made about the MO, “So when someone says that one of the country’s very best orchestra plays so much worse than another that they seem to be in a different line of work, and gives as reason for such judgement such subjective issues as the color and richness of sound, I think it says much much more about the speaker than the orchestra.
It’s easy to spew such criticism with authority, but that doesn’t make it accurate. But it’s the relish with which he does so that I find most disturbing.”
I do agree that criticism should be constructive, not snide.
I am tough on the MO mostly out of exhaustion, of having been through so many (though certainly not all) unsatisfying experiences. I appreciate their beloved Conductor Emeritus SS, for example, but when we were getting a weekly dose of him, I sincerely believe even many non-musicians in the audience would have preferred to have the MO players conduct themselves.
But I will say that from what I am hearing, Maestro Vanska has helped the MO get rid of what I would call bad habits — the bleating flutes, the grandstanding brass, the straggly strings, for example. He seems to be working toward a balence and coherence that allows the music to come through,
While stuck in the fog early yesterday morning on my way to southern MN (for a dressage clinic out in the boonies, of all things) I listened to the MO/Vanska Sibelius 2 and 5. Just stunning. And I am keeping an open mind…
Le Chant du Rossignol...(song of the nightingale) 