As far as possible, I strive to provide my readers with original material, or at least original insights or "takes" on news, books, sports, politics, etc. Notice that I write "original" in the sense of "product of my fervid brain" and not necessarily in the sense of "intelligent"! The idea is to provide my readers with material that they cannot find anywhere else, always supposing that they are looking for such material. That is the idea. In recent times, however, I feel I have come to rely perhaps a little too often on other people's bright ideas, although I hope I have not been guilty of passing them off as my own. No, that's not quite true, I'm sure I HAVE been guilty of that very thing on occasion! It's so difficult to think of something truly original to say on a regular basis...
Well, here is something which, to the best of my knowledge, has not been written about before. (I am writing this post offline during a thunderstorm.) Have you noticed how few national symphony orchestras there are? There is no English, French, German, American or Austrian Symphony Orchestra, but there is a London, Berlin, New York and Vienna Symphony or Philharmonic Orchestra. Why should this be?
And why are diplomatic exchanges always been capital cities and not countries? "London sent a note to Berlin outlining its position on Sudetenland", "Paris took the view that....", etc.
Mr. Dunn, we do have an English, a Scottish and a Welsh symphony orchestra. Where did you get the idea that we don't? Of course I can't speak for your French ...
ReplyDeleteRegarding letters from Berlin to Bogata - sounds good, doesn't it? Probably because that's where the Embassies are? Or anyway, Our Man In ...
I suppose I should have known better than to venture into this territory! But I never said my content was correct, only original! But I stand by my (much reduced) statement that the great orchestras of the world tend to be associated with cities rather than countries.
ReplyDeleteYep, I think you are right about the 'great' ones.
ReplyDeleteIt just occurs to me - would the national orchestras be like national football teams, players normally playing elsewhere like, e.g., the Birmingham S.O?
And speaking of football - the flag of St. George is waving merrily from very many windows right now (because we are a hopeful nation, against all logic, as you know), but they give me quite a turn because the flag is nowadays too often hijacked by the BNP.
That's a thought. And of course they oftern hire at great expense star conductors or "managers" such as Fabio Capello!
ReplyDeleteNo list of great orchestras would be complete without mention of The Northen Dance Orchestra under its esteemed conductor Malcom Lockyer (or Malcolm Lockjaw as Ken Dodd used to say)
I'm afraid those English and French flags will very soon be put away.
Other great orchestral leaders include Cyril Stapleton (Show Band), Reginald Leopold (Palm Court Orchestra), Norrie Paramor, Victor Sylvester (Brylcreem Orchestra)and Ted Heath (both versions).
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