Spring for Music Festival at Carnegie Hall AMERICAN symphony orchestras are living in interesting times, in both the positive and the negative sense of the old Chinese blessing. Or is it curse? At a time when money is tight and would-be listeners are often lost to other activities, the dangers are painfully obvious and, in some cases, already playing themselves out. But it is also a time of opportunity in a shifting orchestral landscape, as exemplified by the second Spring for Music Festival at Carnegie Hall from May 7 through 12. Edmonton Symphony Orchestra Bill Eddins conducts the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, one of the orchestras participating in this year's Spring for Music Festival. Suddenly you don't hear much about the Big Five, a term that had long outlived its usefulness in any case. The Philadelphia Orchestra's filing for bankruptcy probably put the last nail in that coffin. But the New York Philharmonic, living on its reputation, and the Cleveland Orchestra, banking on residencies outside Cleveland, are both following courses fraught with peril. For various reasons, the Boston Symphony and the Chicago Symphony remain on surer footing, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony are making substantial claims to be considered in the same breath. Probably none of the Spring for Music participants this year - the symphony orchestras of Alabama, Houston, Milwaukee, Nashville, New Jersey and Edmonton, Alberta - can hope to make an immediate leap into that exalted company. But all are worthy of wider recognition, and the Spring for Music format, with participants chosen for the imagination and meaningfulness of the programs submitted, is designed to present each in the best possible light. Last year's consensus winner, if there can be said to have been one, was the Oregon Symphony, which presented a war-theme program and performed it brilliantly, by all accounts. I could not be there. But more important was the overall impression of inventiveness and excellence. At a time of struggle for the classical music business this year's festival, like last year's, promises nothing but exhilaration. And at $25 a head, the price is right.