Rating U.S. Orchestras

TIME'S Music Critic William Bender, who wrote the cover story on Sir Georg Solti, here turns to other conductors and gives his considered, though to some perhaps arbitrary, ranking of U.S. orchestras:

THE TOP THREE

CHICAGO SYMPHONY

Sine qua non.

NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC

The musicians grumblingly nicknamed him "the French Correction," and some older subscribers yawn or go home early, but it is indisputable that Pierre Boulez, 48, has brought the orchestra smack into the middle of the century and given it a pristine technical polish.

PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA

After almost four decades at the helm, Eugene Ormandy at 73 commands an orchestra that remains a patrician marvel, even though Ormandy's interpretations occasionally tend to be more like glossy prints than the real music.

HONORS

BOSTON SYMPHONY

A great orchestra that lost its edge during the last years of Erich Leinsdorfs reign, and has been essentially without a ruler since his retirement in 1969. Seiji Ozawa, 37, takes over next season in an effort to restore the Boston to its traditional excellence.

CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA

Built in the image of George Szell, the Cleveland has been fervently searching for a new look since his death in 1971. After one season on the job, Lorin Maazel, 43, is going all out to provide it, even posing for a Maazel sweatshirt that the orchestra's fund-raising committee is selling for $20.

PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY

A perennial, dependable producer under the master hand of William Steinberg, 73.

MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA

Four years after adopting a more regional stance, the former Minneapolis Symphony has a broad base of audience popularity and an equally broad range of musical style, thanks largely to its stern, businesslike mentor, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, 49.

LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

At 37, Zubin Mehta remains the most polished, versatile member of conducting's young generation, the orchestra a shiny steed for his charging musical ways.

SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY

Seiji Ozawa again, the only man to lead two major American orchestras at once. The peppery Japanese has excited not just his musicians but the subscribers as well --one reason the orchestra has finished in the black throughout the three years of his tenure.

ON THE RISE

CINCINNATI SYMPHONY

Always an astonishingly well-disciplined orchestra, the underrated Cincinnati has sprung to new life under Thomas Schippers, 43, one of America's finest native-born (Kalamazoo, Mich.) conductors.

BUFFALO PHILHARMONIC

Buffalo drew national attention to itself by the simple expedient of grabbing the hottest young conductor anywhere, Michael Tilson Thomas, 27, who drew his own national attention as associate conductor of the Boston Symphony. Though the Buffalo is not yet hale and hardy, Thomas appears to be winning the orchestra's fight for the youth audience.

GREATER MIAMI PHILHARMONIC

Miami's new cultural hero is slim, personable, vibrant Alain Lombard, 32. Director of the Strasbourg Music Festival in his native France, as well as a regular guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, Lombard has led the Philharmonic for six years and given it new dash, style and popularity.

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