More cities in the US have first-class orchestras than any other country. The opera is first-class. The museums are first-class. Art and money have usually made excellent bedfellows. It is when art is produced by money people and not arty people that problems arise.
Commercialism can choke the inner life.
Culture can be reduced to marketing. Kaplan's financial intelligence has won him a governor's seat at the South Bank in London. Kaplan knows how to sell. Gilbert conducting the Second Symphony is a high art event with a Chaplinesque tinge. We must call it real Gilbert Kaplan.