The Big Five: Adds Personality to American Classical Music

America's "Big Five," the old masters of American classical music .

The top five orchestras in America must be relishing the onset of this fresh classical season. With anticipation rising as if it were a National College Athletic Association (NCAA) tourney. If misled I surely apologize but as in sports, music especially classical music likes to place itself in categories and sub divisions. As the American sports fan may know especially in college sports terms like the "Big 12," in American football are thrown around a bit as a means to rank teams by division, record and talent.

We are however concerning ourselves with the "Big Five," of American orchestra. The New York Philharmonic, The Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra and not to be outdone the Cleveland Orchestra these staples of classical music have been with us for as long as the 1800s and should be celebrated at every avenue.

Unlike its sporting counterparts the Big Five of Philadelphia basketball, Villanova, Temple, Penn State, Saint Joseph's and La Salle, the orchestras are not at each other's throats. Naturally because after all the word, "class," is in the name of the genre of music but they has to be some rivalry even if it's under the surface where the public can't see it. There has been call for however to do away with the tag "Big Five." Critics say the term is outdated, angling for a way to allow performance to be the determinant of such accolades are bestowed. Pushing hard is the likes of the Los Angeles Philharmonic who are a fine ensemble but yet some still deem it just outside the original, "Big Five," orchestras.

These fine institutions as said before have been around since as the 1800s. The New York Philharmonic the first in 1842. Boston Symphony Orchestra lagging just a few decades behind serenading Bean town since 1881. The last of the 18th century club was the Chicago Orchestra they started in 1891. One of the nation's oldest cities Philadelphia formed its own orchestra in the year 1900 and one of Ohio's major cities Cleveland, decided to add a little bit of culture to their diet to go along with its fine Polish cuisine when they opted in 1918 to have their own orchestra.

These five grand orchestras are the aristocrats of eastern American classical music. They are the Notre Dame and Villanova of the classical American world.