Del Sol's Rich Thrift

In the San Francisco Classical Voice

By Janos Gereben

Money, to be sure, is important — especially if you don't have it — but it's no substitute for brains and guts in musical leadership. Big budgets do not equal high standards of programming excitement and excellence. As reported here last week, small, "regional," fiscally constrained California Symphony, on a budget of $1.65 million, is offering more American and commissioned works than mighty San Francisco Symphony, with its $56 million annual budget. The good folks in Davies Symphony Hall may be playing better than ever, and serving hundreds of thousands of "mainstream" listeners well, but a season of six American works from a major American orchestra? Tsk, tsk.

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