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The 10/2/12 broadcast of Charlie Rose on PBS featured a fascinating interview with Ricardo Muti.

In my area they usually rebroadcast the previous days show during the next day, so you may still be able to catch it on broadcast TV on Wed.

Muti during the interview ranked the CSO, Berlin and Vienna as the three greatest orchestras today and ranked NY beneath them.

After he said it, he clearly realized he probably should have not been so blunt and scrambled a bit to mute the effect.

We all know New Yorkers hate being second tier!

No complaints here (but I'm a transplant). I would have a very difficult time narrowing it down to 3.

Since he left his post as Music Director in Philadelphia without being on the best of terms, Muti's complete omission of that orchestra from his short list in this interview probably confirms that he won't be on Philly's "short list" of guest conductors for a looong time. He's not listed among their Emeritous Conductors. Probably doesn't matter much to Philly musicians or the public; they're plenty excited about the new reign of Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Steve "transplant from Philadelphia to Chicago" Marcus

I dare say that if you had 10 of the "top" orchestras in this country play the same piece in the same hall with the same conductor you would not be able to name which orchestra was playing or notice much of a difference in anything. Personally, based on listening to weekly radio broadcasts, I would much rather listen to the NYP than the CSO right now...