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The oldest and most famous of all major American orchestras, the New York Philharmonic is the definitive international-level orchestra in America, compared on occasion with the Berlin Philharmonic. For much of this century, it has been the most prestigious of American orchestras, if not universally praised at all times. The orchestra's chief conductors, music advisors, and music directors since the 1920s is a list of musical legends, the presence of any one of which in the history of other orchestras would be a more than sufficient honor: Gustav Mahler, Willem Mengelberg, Arturo Toscanini, Sir John Barbirolli, Bruno Walter, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, and, currently, Kurt Masur. And its recordings, beginning in the '20s under Mengelberg, were among the most honored of their era, while those from the '60s during the tenure of Bernstein as music director, are also among the best-selling classical records ever made in America. The New York Philharmonic as we kn...