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Aural States tours the creme de la creme of US orchestras

usa_chicago_orchestrahall_3So begins an epic journey.  You may have noticed our classical specialist Sam Buker finished off 2008 with a round-up of the top US orchestras as rated by esteemed UK mag Gramophone.

Well, she has taken a bit of her own advice and begun trekking around the country to hear some of the singled-out orchestras.  This weekend, Sam will hit up the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (pictured left) performing modern American masters including Edgard Varèse’s Amériques with conductor emeritus Pierre Boulez followed by the Cleveland Orchestra featuring guests conductor Kurt Masur and pianist Louis Lortie performing Beethoven’s Symphony Nr. 7 and Piano Concerto Nr. 1

Any classical aficionado will readily profess some strong preferences on orchestras, something that is critical to interpretation and repertoire selected for any given season.  Finding your spiritual match is fantastically rewarding and can leave you with blissful, life-affirming performances.  We’ll see how these top-rated orchestras match up with Sam’s tastes!

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2 Responses to “Aural States tours the creme de la creme of US orchestras”

  1. Alex Mudge says:

    Does Sam do chamber music? I’d like to see her picks for best quartet, piano trio, and such. I guess live reviews would be slightly easier, given that these ensembles tour more often than orchestras.

    Why not have her review the one instrument (but the king of all instruments) that is forever tied to one location–the pipe organ. Part of the review would be journey narrative. Hey, the pilgrimage framing structure has been around since at least the 14th century.

    Speaking of the pipe organ, I think I’m going to make a point of trekking out to see Cameron Carpenter this year. I doubt he’d actually come to Baltimore.

  2. Wanna trek out and check out my pipe organ?

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