I grew up in Chicago and the CSO is one of the great ones. The next great orchestra I have been priviledged to hear is the Royal Concertgebouw. Among the excellent ones I have heard is the Houston Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. I have not heard the New York Philharmonic for 10 years but never thought they were quite as good as the CSO and ROyal Concertgebouw.

I agree with Handel- Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment are definately in my top orchestra list! Looking forward to their Night Shift concert this month- is anyone else going?

Im going to the night shift- looking forward to it too! I think its a great idea to have an informal concert where you can enjoy the music without worrying about all the rules like clapping in the right place. Cheap drinks are a bonus too!

I dont have a top ten as such but I think I would lean towards Vienna phil as one of my favourites as well as Moscow.

Now that I actually have ten favorite orchestras (in no particular order):

Vienna Philharmonic
Berlin Philharmonic
Chicago Symphony
Israel Philharmonic
London Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
Cincinnati Symphony
Lahti Symphony
San Francisco Symphony
Boston Symphony

And a random fact I just realized: this is one of the very few posts I make that does not use an ellipsis!

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"Aufersteh'n, ja aufersteh'n
wirst du, mein Herz, in einem Nu!
Was du geschlagen
zu Gott wird es dich tragen!"
-Gustav Mahler

In my limited experience - and also in no particular order (unless noted):

1. Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
1. Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
2. Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
2. Academy of St. Martin's in the Field
2. London Symphony Orchestra
Chicago Symphony orchestra
New York Philharmonic
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
Royal Philharmonica Orchestra

As I look over this list, I find it humorous in this fashion... A conversation about the differences in European and American orchestra's is what at first piqued my interest to start exploring classical music, and I do tend to like the European greats more so than American (though I do not fault American at all and do have some as my top 10 - easily, like NYP, CSO), especially VPO and BPO at this time. Of course just a couple months ago I had never heard most if not all of these orchestra's - so who can tell what I will like or be on my opinion in say a year from now.

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Remember the 3 SW's: Some Will, Some Won't, So What!

Vienna is the best! Some of the greatest recordings ever made were with the VPO (although Reiner's recordings of Richard Strauss (Chicago) certainly give them a run for their money)!

I really like Prima Vista Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony and Berlin.
As well as the Israeli, they're actually real good too.

I love the Chicago Symphony and the New York Phil. I also like the Budapest Symphony!

Just off the top of my head,

Philharmonia Orchestra under Esa-Peka Salonen
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner
Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan especially
Vienna Philharmonic under anyone
Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Georg Solti

1. Berliner Philharmoniker (the best, as always)
2. London symphony
3. NY Philharmonic
4. Wiener (vienna) philharmoniker
5. Toronto Philharmonic (Canadians ARE good musicians)
6. San francisco philharmonic (just because i live there, and i'm proud of my area)

Now in some semblance of an order...

Vienna Philharmonic
Berlin Philharmonic
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
New York Philharmonic
Chicago Symphony
Lahti Symphony
Philharmonia Orchestra
Israel Philharmonic
Cincinnati Symphony
Orchestre de Paris

I would say the most consistent orchestra, with different conductors, over the recording era would be the VPO.
Second would be the BPO (especially under Karajan).
Third place goes to Amsterdam Concergtbouw (Probably spelt that wrong - )
The rest of the places could go to Chicago, Philharmonia, LSO, LPO, New York Phil. Philadelphia, Clevelend. (in no particular order )

Recordings versus live performances are totally different animals and I prefer live performances. I have heard excellent playing in live performances by The Chicago Symphony playing the best of any orchestra under Solti. The Los Angeles Philharmonic plays vey well under Esa Pekka Salonen. The Royal Concertgebouw was better with Ricardo Chailly than with Mariss Jansons. The Houston Symphony was excellent with Eschenbach. I did not think as highly of the Philharmonia with Dohyani. Their Mahler 1st was just so-so but The Debussy was great. I heard them all in live performance and to quote PDQ Bach "If it sounds good, it is good".

I do find that to judge a particular orchestra can be subject to various factors such as quality of recording, acoustics of the venue used, unsympathetic conducting and has the horn section, for example got out of the wrong side of the bed that particular morning to make all those mistakes.
I have heard orchestras such as BBC symphony orchestra, City of Birmingham SO, Halle, Bournmouth SO and others give some tremendous performances (I live in UK - ). And there are very average recordings by the BPO or VPO around due to those factors I've already mentioned. So It's very difficult to judge what is a top rate orchestra.
I'm just so very pleased that we have soooo many brilliant ensemble around...