Top ten orchestras

The Cincinnati Enquirer's Janelle Gelfand has a new entry in her blog titled Top ten orchestras in which she expands upon a talk she gave to a Kiwanis group last night in which she was asked how the Cincinnati Symphony would rate today against the "Big 10" American orchestras. I especially liked this part (and I bet the orchestra would, too!):

So, where does our orchestra fall? I'd say lately, under Paavo Jarvi, definitely within the Top 10 -- and that is because the artistic quality (playing, programming and sheer excitement level) of concerts is something the likes of which this city hasn't seen since the Schippers era. In fact, it may be better now than any time in our orchestra's 111-year-old history.