Also I attended this SFS concert mentioned in Civic Center, and I found it distinctly odd. The pieces were all so meaty, and felt like they could have each been the centerpiece of their own concert. And I rather liked the Tchaikovsky.

Also I like your use of Jimmý. I feel like it should be prounounced Jimmayyy!

Well, of course there is, and the good news is that a fair number of orchestras are starting to at least try to program that way, and without hearkening back to the days when a single work of unlistenable modernist dreck was presented as the medicine audiences had to choke down to get to the Brahms they’d come to hear.

That the NY Phil obviously isn’t going this route may be a reflection more of their unique situation (being the Orchestra Of Record in a city that’s already bubbling over with quality new music performances for those who like that sort of thing) than of any national trend among major orchestras. Most of us aren’t anywhere near as creative as LA, but at least a lot of us see the value in trying to get there…

“1984: at a now-defunct boutique called Ben’s Village, I bought a pair of cotton tropical-print unisex pants that I named ‘fish pants’ because blousy fish swam on them in wallpaper patterns. A friend had advised, when I’d told him there was no room in my life for fish pants, ‘Change your life to fit the pants.'”

I have tried to live my life according to this maxim.