These are my top 10 Orchestras:
Berlin Phil
Boston Symphony
Chicago Symphony
Cleveland Orchestra
Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam
London Symphony
Orchestre de Paris
Staatskapelle Dresden
Bavarian Radio Symphony
Vienna Philharmonic

I was wondering what else you guys think? What metric do you use to pick your Top 10?

Discuss amongst everyone

Hi
I do not have a long list of favorite orchestra. I like Cleveland Orchestra, London Symphony and Vienna Philharmonic. These are my favorite orchestra.

I do not have favourite orchestras as such. But I wonder whether you list is about the current orchestras, or those from years gone by, or overall, since their performances tend to change as their music directors, conductors and players change.

I also do not have a list but the Berlin Phil is my favorite. I have a CD of them playing Tchaikovsky's 5th and 1812 Overture. By FAR my favorite recording of any music i own. It was given to me for my birthday and if you come across it, get it! VERY passionate

I have the 5th with Karajan conducting. I have heard the 4th and 6th a few times. Maybe today I will listen to the 5th.

I am biased and love my hometown symphony orchestra the best!

There are many great orchestras out there, even the lesser known ones.

Well, my metrics are my taste, my experience and the recordings I own.

It's very difficult to pick up a Top 10, because as ChamberNut says there are a lot of very good orchestras all over the world, well-known and lesser known. In Germany we have some good Radio Symphony Orchestras - the Bavarian one was already mentioned, others are in Frankfurt, Cologne and Hamburg. The Gewandhaus orchestra Leipzig is also very good, it has a long tradition back to Mendelssohn. One of my favourites is the Cologne Chamber Orchestra, they made some fine recordings of Baroque and Classical music on Naxos.

I agree with most of those, incl the NY Phil, Berlin, Vienna, London, and Chicago....but what about the San Francisco Sym...quite a group (I would say, in my opinion, and you can take it or leave it, ...second-best to NY Phil in US).

....as mentioned above, for russian music I`ll go with st.petersburg or moscow, they know the tradition of playing russian music, ect.ect..

down with the metric system...it's the devil's tool !!! oops, you meant something else...

i don't believe i really have a 'top 10'.

i gravitate toward chicago/st. louis general sound.
others are - london, berlin, l'orchestra de la suisse romande, philharmonia.

my metric? brass section and overall orchestral sonority as shows up in recordings.

dj

Difficult to answer.

In a non-specific order:

Les Violons du Roy
Akamedie für Alte Musik Berlin
La Petite Bande
Tafelmusik Orchestra
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Orchestra of the 18th century
Collegium Cartusianum
Concerto Köln
London Mozart Players
Les Musiciens du Louvre

There are many others but this is my top 10.

__________________
"Handel understands effect better than any of us -- when he chooses, he strikes like a thunderbolt... though he often saunters, in the manner of his time, this is always something there."

Mozart

Ooh this is tricky! Erm, Berlin Phil, Philharmonia of the Nations, St.Petersberg, Moscow Phil, Halle (yes, they do rock), London Mozart Players, London Symphony, Polish Radio, Orchestra Revolutionaire, Vienna Philharmonic!

vienna phil. isn´t really a professional, to have a job there, orchestra. there are players from opera and others, pedagogues...

Heh, being from Québec City, I thought you'd say Les Violons du Roy . I only have one recording from them, and it's Appolo e Dafne and Silete venti. Excellent in every aspect!

Because I live in Québec City I can attend Violons concerts. However, I didn't choose the orchestra because it was from Québec City. Rather because it is truly a great orchestra.