Anthony Tommasini has a piece in today’s Times about the ongoing search for Lorin Maazel’s successor at the Philharmonic, written in the context of the recent goings-on in L.A. Frankly, the piece is pretty airless, and is overflowing with unnecessary adjectives describing the various conductors in play: "superlative"; "formidable"; "exacting"; "indomitable"; "feisty"; erratic." Sounds like someone’s been reading one-too-many press releases… Not to mention Tommasini’s drunk the Dudamel Kool-Aid like everyone else, apparently without having once seen one of his performances. One would think the Chief Music Critic of the Times would have the wisdom to be a bit less immediate in his praise of an untested 26 year old, practically going so far as to suggest the same for our own orchestra.