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89-535: The BBC Symphony Orchestra ( BBC SO ) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. The BBC SO is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The orchestra was originally conceived in 1928 as

178-549: A "rich and opulent [score] magnificently played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra" under Bělohlávek, and another Telegraph critic praised the BBC SO's "virtuoso form". In addition to Bělohlávek, other principal guest conductors of the orchestra from this period included Alexander Lazarev (1992–1995) and Jukka-Pekka Saraste (2002–2005). In October 2011, Sakari Oramo made his first guest conducting appearance with

267-845: A Big Band in Frankfurt and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin. The British Broadcasting Corporation operates five full-time permanent orchestras, as well as a full-time chamber choir, the BBC Singers and the BBC Big Band . Denmark also maintains orchestra in the form of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra , the Danish Radio Big Band , Chamber Orchestra and Radio Choir. In Norway NRK runs

356-739: A few recordings with the BBC Wireless Singers directed by Stanford Robinson . Under Boult the BBC Symphony Orchestra recorded a wide range of music from Bach to Mozart and Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner and Elgar. In the 1950s and 1960s it recorded a range of music with Sargent, mostly British but with several Sibelius discs in addition. With Doráti the orchestra made recordings of works by Bartók, Gerhard and Messiaen. Under Colin Davis it made its first opera sets: Mozart's Idomeneo and The Marriage of Figaro , and Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini , as well as works by Beethoven and Tippett. Under Boulez

445-521: A further extension of Oramo's contract as chief conductor to 2030. Oramo is currently the longest-serving chief conductor of the orchestra since Adrian Boult. In August 2012, the BBC SO announced the appointment of Semyon Bychkov to a newly created conducting post with the orchestra, the Günter Wand Conducting Chair. In January 2019, the BBC SO announced the appointment of Dalia Stasevska as its next principal guest conductor,

534-410: A further extension of Oramo's contract through 2022. In October 2020, the BBC SO announced a further extension of Oramo's contract as chief conductor through September 2023, the scheduled conclusion of the 2023 Proms season. In April 2022, the BBC SO announced an additional extension of Oramo's contract as chief conductor through the close of the 2025–2026 season. In September 2024, the BBC SO announced

623-537: A joint enterprise by the BBC and the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham , but the latter withdrew the next year and the task of assembling and training the orchestra fell to the BBC's director of music, Adrian Boult . Among its guest conductors in its first years was Arturo Toscanini , who judged it the finest orchestra he had ever conducted. During and after the Second World War, Boult strove to maintain standards, but

712-426: A permanent orchestra of similar excellence were Reith and the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham . The latter aimed at setting up a first-rate ensemble for opera and concert performances and, though no admirer of broadcasting, he was willing to negotiate with the BBC if this gave him what he sought. Reith's concern was that the BBC should have a first-rate radio orchestra. The critic Richard Morrison writes: Reith's BBC of

801-429: A result of initiatives begun in the 1960s by the BBC controller of music William Glock , performing standards rose appreciably. Under Andrew Davis in the 1990s and Jiří Bělohlávek in the 2000s, the orchestra prospered. By the second decade of the 21st century, the BBC SO was regarded by critics as of first-class status. From the outset, the orchestra has been known for pioneering new music, and it continues to do so, at

890-459: A series of successors between 1944 and 1959 who either lacked his commitment to modern music or were actively hostile to it. Richard Howgill, who held the post from 1952 to 1959, took the view that although Webern "might have been a small composer of some significance, Schoenberg wasn't really a composer at all." In addition to working under a conductor it disliked, the BBC SO found its role as a pioneer of progressive music gone, and its performances of

979-488: A song-cycle, "Summertime", was written for the tenor Ben Davies , who premiered it in 1901. The music critic of The Manchester Guardian called the songs "melodious", but added that they "impressed by their graceful lyrical character rather than by evidence of any inventive fancy." In 1900 Ronald was approached by Fred Gaisberg of the recording firm the Gramophone Company , a predecessor of EMI. He accepted

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1068-1000: A year. In the Netherlands, the Muziekcentrum van de Omroep ( Broadcasting Music Centre ), an umbrella organization of the Netherlands Public Broadcasting associations, supports the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest , the Radio Kamer Filharmonie , the Groot Omroepkoor ( Netherlands Radio Choir ), and the Metropole Orkest , the world's largest professional pop and jazz orchestra. The last surviving broadcast orchestra in North America

1157-537: Is documentary evidence of the excellence of the orchestra in 1944". With Reith long gone from the post of director-general, Boult found that the top management of the BBC was less concerned for the status of its Symphony Orchestra. The new director-general, Sir William Haley , was unwilling to approve the funding needed to keep the orchestra competitive with new rivals – Walter Legge 's Philharmonia and Beecham's Royal Philharmonic . Some younger players felt that many BBC SO principals were past their best. Steuart Wilson ,

1246-602: Is his song Down in the Forest that has survived." Ronald was knighted in 1922, and published a volume of memoirs, Variations on a Personal Theme in the same year. He published a second volume, Myself and Others , in 1931. Landon was also the editor of the first edition of Who's Who in Music in 1935. In 1932 Ronald's wife died by suicide; he married Mary Callison b. 1895, (Aunt of Lady Bridget Faulks, née Bodley b.1921), of Manchester shortly afterwards. Ronald died in London at

1335-749: The Late Show with David Letterman whimsically called itself the CBS Orchestra though it was not a classical musical orchestra and did not perform on CBS outside of the Late Show . The last permanent studio orchestra in America was The Tonight Show Band , also known as the NBC Orchestra, a big band led by trumpeter Doc Severinsen . Landon Ronald Sir Landon Ronald (born Landon Ronald Russell ) (7 June 1873 – 14 August 1938)

1424-944: The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra founded in 1949, the Tokyo-based NHK Symphony Orchestra , the Danish National Symphony Orchestra founded in 1925, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra founded in 1969 and the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio (formerly the USSR State Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra among other names) founded in 1930. Germany has an especially large number of radio orchestras. Eleven radio orchestras perform and produce classical as well as contemporary music and jazz for

1513-498: The Norwegian Radio Orchestra (Norwegian, Kringkastingsorkestret, abbreviated as KORK). The orchestra specializes in classical music as well as popular music. This makes it quite unique in that the musicians are trained both classically and rhythmically to a high degree. The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Stavanger Symphony Orchestra also have agreements with NRK too make a number of broadcast recordings

1602-637: The Queen's Hall , Robert Elkin, writes, "At this period the standard of orchestral playing in London was distinctly low, and the well-drilled efficiency of the Berliners under their dynamic conductor came as something of a revelation." These, and later concerts by the same orchestra, gained plaudits from the public and music critics at the expense of the London orchestras. The chief music critic of The Times , Frank Howes , later commented, "the British public ...

1691-702: The Royal Albert Hall orchestra; Ronald remained with it until 1928, when it disbanded. He and the orchestra began recording for HMV in 1909. Their recorded repertoire comprised mostly overtures and short orchestral pieces, mainly by Tchaikovsky and Wagner , but also longer works including the Peer Gynt Suite and Schubert 's Unfinished Symphony. Ronald also worked with the Scottish Orchestra , and in continental European countries. Landon Ronald conducted over four hundred times at

1780-530: The Royal Opera House ; this was valuable experience, bringing him into contact with leading singers and with the scores of the opera repertoire. In her memoirs, Nellie Melba told how Ronald coached her in Manon , playing the accompaniment from memory, having learned the piece from scratch overnight. The following year he became conductor of Augustus Harris 's touring opera company. In 1894, he toured

1869-611: The Royal Philharmonic Society . In 1924, the Wireless Orchestra, by then comprising 22 players, was contracted for six concerts a week. The following year, Pitt, by now working full-time for the BBC, as its director of music, augmented the ensemble to form the "Wireless Symphony Orchestra" for a new series of concerts broadcast from Covent Garden, conducted by Bruno Walter , Ernest Ansermet and Pierre Monteux ; at this time Reith also allowed Pitt and

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1958-546: The 1920s was ... imbued with an almost religious zeal for "enlightening" the public through the magical medium of the wireless. An orchestra, and particularly one that was unencumbered by commercial constraints and thus free to deliver the highest of highbrow programmes, would fit very well into that idealistic philosophy. Landon Ronald brought Reith and Beecham together in April 1928; negotiations and preliminary arrangements continued for more than 18 months until it became clear that

2047-465: The BBC SO began to rise. Glock engaged Antal Doráti as the orchestra's principal conductor. Heyworth judged that Doráti raised standards of playing and brought new vigour to the programmes in his four years in charge (1962–1966). Doráti was convinced that the orchestra was stultified by concentrating on studio broadcasts, as it did except during the Proms season. He strove to free players from "slavery to

2136-464: The BBC SO included an early performance of Schoenberg 's Variations, Op. 31, British premieres, including Berg 's Wozzeck and Three Movements from the Lyric Suite , and world premieres, including Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 4 in F minor . Anton Webern conducted eight BBC SO concerts between 1931 and 1936. During the 1930s the orchestra presented rarely heard large-scale works from

2225-569: The BBC SO, his first guest-conducting engagement with any London orchestra. On the basis of this concert, in February 2012, Oramo was named the orchestra's 13th Chief Conductor, with an initial contract of 3 years, effective with the First Night of the 2013 Proms season. In September 2015, the BBC SO announced the extension of his contract to the 2019–2020 season. In May 2018, the BBCSO indicated

2314-407: The BBC appointed high-profile chief conductors in the 1960s and 1970s – Antal Doráti , Colin Davis , Pierre Boulez and Gennady Rozhdestvensky – the BBC SO remained underfunded. However, because it was the sole symphony orchestra in London that offered its players full-time contracts, players of high repute, including Alan Civil (horn) and John Wilbraham (trumpet), enrolled as regular members. As

2403-459: The BBC decided to move the orchestra again. In September 1941 the BBC SO took up residence in Bedford , where it remained, giving live broadcasts and making recordings until it returned permanently to its London base at the BBC's BBC Maida Vale studios in 1945. The BBC resumed its support for the Proms in 1942, with the BBC SO returning temporarily to London during the Proms seasons of 1942–45. For

2492-412: The BBC management to increase the orchestra's budget to allow for joint principals in the string sections, to attract top musicians who could play in the BBC SO without having to give up their solo or chamber careers. The following season, he was able to engage joint principals for the wind section, including as Jack Brymer and Terence MacDonagh , formerly members of Beecham's celebrated "Royal Family" in

2581-614: The BBC took over the responsibility for the Promenade Concerts , widely known as "the Proms". At first Henry Wood , the founding conductor, persuaded the corporation to engage his Queen's Hall Orchestra for each Prom season; from 1930 onwards, the BBC provided the orchestra. The inadequacy of the BBC's players, and also of the established London orchestras, was shown up by the Berlin Philharmonic , under Wilhelm Furtwängler , in two concerts in 1927. A historian of

2670-659: The BBC would maintain a full-scale symphonic orchestra of up to 100 players. With Reith's approval, Pitt engaged various orchestras for a BBC concert series in 1924 at the Methodist Central Hall Westminster . Pitt and Landon Ronald conducted the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra; Eugene Goossens conducted the London Symphony Orchestra ; and Hamilton Harty and Sir Edward Elgar conducted the orchestra of

2759-606: The BBC, regarding it as a dangerous competitor, but the British National Opera Company allowed broadcasts of its performances from the Royal Opera House . John Reith , the general manager of the BBC, invited the opera company's musical director, Percy Pitt , to become the BBC's part-time musical adviser from May 1923. Later in the same year, Pitt conducted the BBC's first broadcast symphony concert, which included Dvořák 's New World Symphony and works by Saint-Saëns , Elgar and Weber . Pitt expanded

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2848-685: The First World War. Ronald began to make progress as a conductor after the foundation of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) in 1904. He was a frequent guest conductor of the LSO, and in 1905 he was appointed director of the Birmingham Promenade Concerts. When Thomas Beecham parted company from the New Symphony Orchestra in 1908, Ronald succeeded him as its conductor. The orchestra was later known as

2937-640: The Maida Vale studios; some recording sessions are free for the public to attend. In common with other orchestras, the BBC SO engages in educational work. According to the orchestra's website: "Among ongoing projects are the BBC SO Family Music Intro scheme, introducing families to live classical music, BBC SO Student Zone and the highly successful BBC SO Family Orchestra, alongside work in local schools. Total Immersion composer events also provide rich material for education work." In 2000,

3026-1146: The North German Broadcasting ( NDR ) with two orchestras in Hamburg and Hanover as well as the NDR Big Band. West German Broadcasting ( WDR ) has two orchestras in Cologne and a Big Band, Southwest German Broadcasting ( SWR ) with one orchestra (2016 merged) and the SWR Big Band in Stuttgart and Baden-Baden/Freiburg, Bavarian Broadcasting ( BR ) with two orchestras in Munich, Central German Broadcasting ( MDR ) with one orchestra in Leipzig, Saarland Broadcasting ( SR ) with one orchestra (2006 merged) in Saarbrücken/Kaiserslautern, Hessian Broadcasting ( HR ) with one orchestra and

3115-632: The Proms , in concerts at the Barbican Centre , and in studio concerts from its base at BBC Maida Vale studios . Almost from its beginning in November 1922, the BBC had started broadcasting from its " 2LO " transmitter with its own musical ensembles. The first such groups were the "2LO Dance Band", the "2LO Military Band", the "2LO Light Orchestra", and the "2LO Octette", all of which began broadcasting in 1923. No concert promoter would co-operate with

3204-492: The Proms drew poor houses – as low as 29 per cent of capacity in the 1959–60 season. The manager of the Royal Festival Hall , Ernest Bean, spoke of "an inherited aura of mediocrity about BBC concerts which keeps people away". Schwarz's five-year contract was not renewed when it expired. In 1959, the BBC appointed William Glock as controller of music for the BBC. During Glock's tenure, the profile and fortunes of

3293-512: The Proms, with which Wood went ahead, backed by the Royal Philharmonic Society, with the LSO replacing the BBC SO. The BBC SO was relocated from London to Bristol . More than 40 players were released for active service, including the 30 youngest members; the orchestra was reduced to a complement of 70, although it was increased to 90 later in the war. During 1940 and 1941 Bristol suffered devastation from German air-raids, and

3382-451: The RPO. The problem remained that recruiting rank-and-file string players was difficult: although the BBC offered secure employment and a pension, it did not pay as well as its London rivals. After 1964, the BBC SO was the only one of the five London symphony orchestras that was not self-governed, and some musicians felt that the BBC SO's constitution as a body of salaried employees, with no say in

3471-666: The Royal Albert Hall, London between 1898 and 1936, mainly with the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra. His last performance at the Hall was on 4 February 1936 for the 'Memorial Concert in Commemoration of His Late Most Gracious Majesty King George V', where he conducted and played the piano. Ronald was also closely associated with the music of Elgar . In later life he recalled Parry's "smacking me on

3560-556: The United States as accompanist for Melba. He composed piano music and songs, some of which were well received. He first conducted at Covent Garden in July 1896, for a production of Faust , starring Melba, Charles Bonnard and Pol Plançon . In August 1897 he married Mimi Ettlinger (1873–1932), daughter of a Frankfurt cloth merchant; they had one son. Operatic and concert work was in short supply for young English conductors at

3649-617: The Wireless Symphony Orchestra to contract with the Columbia Graphophone Company to make a substantial series of electrically recorded discs, most of which were recorded in the Methodist Central Hall Westminster which the BBC had previously used for concerts. In 1927 the BBC and Covent Garden collaborated in a series of public concerts with an orchestra of 150 players under conductors including Richard Strauss and Siegfried Wagner . Although

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3738-421: The autumn of 1929 by Edward Clark and Julian Herbage – and to place that orchestra's fortunes under the direction of the man who was to guide it with the utmost distinction for the next 20 years, the BBC's new director of music, Adrian Boult. By the time Adrian Boult succeeded Pitt as director of music for the BBC, the violinist Albert Sammons and the violist Lionel Tertis had scouted for new talent around

3827-585: The back and saying 'I heard yesterday Richter perform the Enigma Variations by a Mr. Elgar, which is the finest thing I have listened to for years. Look out for this man's music'." He was the pianist in the first performance of Elgar's Violin Sonata in E minor in 1919, with W H Reed the violinist, and was the dedicatee of Falstaff , a work regarded by some as Elgar's masterpiece, though Ronald admitted privately, "Never could make head or tail of

3916-625: The composers, Beethoven under Toscanini, Bruno Walter and Barbirolli, and Sibelius under Beecham and Koussevitsky. Radio orchestra Famous broadcast orchestras include the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1937–1954) conducted by Arturo Toscanini , the five orchestras maintained by the BBC , particularly the BBC Symphony Orchestra founded in 1930, the MDR Symphony Orchestra founded in 1923,

4005-479: The corporation and the conductor had irreconcilable priorities for the proposed new ensemble. Beecham withdrew and, as described by Nicholas Kenyon : With the collapse of the Beecham scheme, the way was open for the BBC's music department to design an orchestral scheme truly suited to broadcasting needs – a plan for a 114-piece orchestra that could split into four different smaller groups, which had been devised in

4094-570: The country on behalf of the corporation. Twenty-seven players had been offered positions in the new orchestra. Among those who joined were Aubrey Brain , Arthur Catterall , Eugene Cruft , Sidonie Goossens , Lauri Kennedy and Frederick Thurston . Although many of the principals were stars recruited from the LSO, the Hallé and other orchestras, a high proportion of the rank and file members were fresh from music colleges. Boult wrote, "a brilliant group of young and inexperienced players came to sit behind

4183-586: The curriculum and raised its standards to compete with the leading musical training establishments the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music . Ronald was born in Kensington , London, the illegitimate son of Henry Russell , singer, songwriter and merchant, and his partner Hannah de Lara, a painter. He was the younger brother of the impresario Henry Russell and half-brother of

4272-521: The first woman ever to be named to the post and the second female conductor ever to be given a titled post with a BBC orchestra. The BBC SO is the associate orchestra of the Barbican Centre in London, where it gives an annual season of concerts. These seasons include series of concerts devoted to individual modern composers, who have included John Cage , James MacMillan , Elliott Carter , Sofia Gubaidulina , Michael Tippett , George Benjamin , Roberto Carnevale and Thomas Adès . The orchestra remains

4361-481: The individual temperaments of his players as artists or as human beings. It did not help that Sargent was universally acknowledged to be at his finest in choral music. His reputation in big works for chorus and orchestra such as The Dream of Gerontius , Hiawatha's Wedding Feast and Belshazzar's Feast was unrivalled, and his large-scale performances of Handel oratorios were assured packed houses. However, his regular programming of such works did nothing to lift

4450-462: The initial concerts Reith was told by his advisers that the orchestra had played better for Boult than anyone else. Reith asked him if he wished to take on the chief conductorship, and if so whether he would resign as director of music or occupy both posts simultaneously. Boult opted for the latter. During the 1930s, the orchestra became renowned for its high standard of playing and for performing new and unfamiliar music. The pioneering work of Boult and

4539-586: The institution, he raised the status of the school." He also formed a professors' club to bring a more collegiate spirit into the school. Under Ronald the standard of teaching was brought into line with that of the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music. In his later years he laid great emphasis on the importance of live music, and worried that broadcasting and the gramophone were making music so ubiquitous and casually accessible that it

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4628-439: The listener-in; it has been censured on a variety of trifling points, but never for the one heinous offence it has committed, and goes on committing: for this corporation, with all its assured and conspicuous wealth, has given and is giving us the worst orchestral performances ever heard in London. … This year at Queen's Hall they have assembled an orchestra which sounds as if it were composed in great part of "substitutes". In 1927,

4717-412: The management or repertory of the orchestra, attracted an unadventurous type of player. A former member of the BBC SO said in 1979, I felt I was getting too secure ... [in] the BBC Symphony you can be a poor player, but if you're on time and never moan at the conductor … you'll have no trouble... I think the BBC Symphony lost some good young players because the management got their priorities wrong. Glock

4806-419: The microphone", and Glock promoted a regular series of concerts at the Festival Hall. The music critic Tom Sutcliffe later wrote that Doráti and his successors, Colin Davis (1967–71), Pierre Boulez (1971–75) and Gennady Rozhdestvensky (1978–81) had been partly successful in improving playing standards, but had not brought the orchestra up to its original level of distinction. By 1962, Glock had persuaded

4895-455: The new Director of Music who had previously been married to Boult's wife Ann, engineered Boult's retirement in 1950, Wilson had neglected to secure a successor of similar eminence to take over the orchestra. His efforts to recruit Sir John Barbirolli and Rafael Kubelík were unsuccessful, and he was obliged to offer the post to his third choice, Sir Malcolm Sargent , on whatever terms Sargent demanded. Sargent, an immensely popular figure with

4984-434: The new orchestra were enthusiastic. The Times wrote of its "virtuosity" and of Boult's "superb" conducting. The Musical Times commented, "The boast of the B.B.C. that it intended to get together a first-class orchestra was not an idle one", spoke of "exhilaration at the playing", and called another concert later in the season "an occasion for national pride". The Observer called the playing "altogether magnificent". After

5073-447: The novelist William Clark Russell . He was educated at St Marylebone Grammar School and a boarding school in Margate , and took private music lessons from the violinist Henry Holmes and the composer Kate Loder . Between 1884 and 1890 he was enrolled at the Royal College of Music, where he studied under Hubert Parry and Charles Villiers Stanford . In 1891 Ronald was appointed "maestro al piano" (accompanist and répétiteur ) at

5162-432: The only contemporary composers with whose music he was much associated. He retired from conducting in 1929. In 1910 Ronald succeeded W H Cummings as principal of the Guildhall School of Music, a post he held until 1938. He overhauled the curriculum and the administration of the school. According to his biographer, Raymond Holden, "By modernizing teaching methods, and increasing the morale of those working and studying at

5251-449: The orchestra appointed its first associate composer, Mark-Anthony Turnage . John Adams became the BBC Symphony Orchestra's artist in association in June 2003. The composer and conductor Oliver Knussen took up the post of artist-in-association in July 2009. The orchestra's commitment to new music continues. In 2013, the music journalist Tom Service wrote, "I've heard the BBC Symphony give concerts that I don't think any other orchestra in

5340-417: The orchestra recorded mostly twentieth century music – works by Bartók, Berg, Schoenberg and Boulez himself – and also Berlioz. Andrew Davis has recorded extensively with the orchestra for the Teldec label and others. Under Bělohlávek the orchestra has recorded Martinů 's complete symphonies, and also his The Epic of Gilgamesh . With guest conductors, the BBC SO has recorded Elgar and Vaughan Williams under

5429-425: The orchestra took part in "once-in-a-lifetime projects such as Anthony Payne 's completion of Elgar's Third Symphony ." Upon Davis' departure, the orchestra appointed him its first conductor laureate. Leonard Slatkin succeeded Davis as chief conductor, from 2000 to 2004. His relationship with the players was reported to be uneasy, and his choice of repertoire received criticism. In February 2005, Jiří Bělohlávek

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5518-410: The orchestra was large, it was not good. The BBC attempted to stop its contracted players sending deputies to rehearsals and even to concerts, but was unsuccessful. In January 1928 The Musical Times protested: The B.B.C. has been blamed for devoting too much time to the classics, and also for not giving them all that is due to them; it has been held responsible for the inferiority of the apparatus of

5607-432: The orchestra's remit. He welcomed the fact that the orchestra's new principal guest conductor was David Robertson, a new-music expert and a protégé of Boulez. The orchestra was seen by some as "a bolshie lot" and "grumpy", but its relations with Bělohlávek were harmonious. Under Bělohlávek the orchestra won glowing reviews: The Times referred to its "superb musicians", Michael Kennedy in The Sunday Telegraph referred to

5696-479: The orchestra's reputation as Britain's leading modern music ensemble, the balance of programming affected the players' capacity in the mainstream repertoire. The principal horn, Alan Civil , recalled: The bassoon player William Waterhouse who joined the BBC SO from the LSO found the BBC's repertory refreshing, but the music making less impressive: " John Pritchard was principal conductor from 1982 to 1989. In The Times , Paul Griffiths wrote: Pritchard's successor

5785-477: The past, including Berlioz 's Grande Messe des morts and Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale . Mahler 's Eighth and Ninth Symphonies, and Purcell 's King Arthur . The excellence of the orchestra attracted leading international conductors. In its second season guest conductors included Richard Strauss, Felix Weingartner and Bruno Walter, followed, in later seasons, by Serge Koussevitzky , Beecham and Mengelberg. Arturo Toscanini, widely regarded at

5874-513: The piece". He recorded little of Elgar's music, because HMV signed the composer up to record his own works; Ronald recorded the "Coronation March" in March 1935, a year after Elgar's death. As a conductor Ronald was especially noted as a concerto accompanist; the critic Robert Elkin described Arthur Nikisch as "the finest accompanist until Landon Ronald". His repertoire was limited. Unlike Adrian Boult he did not feel it his duty to present difficult modern works. Elgar and Richard Strauss were

5963-410: The post of musical adviser, and was the pianist on many of the company's early song recordings. Gaisberg calculated that Ronald's varied musical contacts would help the new company recruit the distinguished performers it needed. Ronald helped the company to sign up Melba and other leading singers including Adelina Patti , Charles Santley and Enrico Caruso . He remained closely connected with HMV for

6052-442: The principal orchestra of the Proms, giving about a dozen concerts each season, including the first and last nights. Most of its concerts are broadcast on BBC Radio 3 , streamed online and available as podcasts for a month after broadcast, and a number are televised: the orchestra's website claims that this gives the BBC "the highest broadcast profile of any UK orchestra". The orchestra continues to make studio recordings for Radio 3 at

6141-446: The public, was not at all popular with orchestral players, because of what a historian of the Proms has called his "autocratic and prima-donna attitude towards orchestral players". He offended the BBC SO players by demanding that they all stand up when he came on to the platform – which they firmly declined to do. He rapidly became equally unpopular with the BBC music department, ignoring its agenda and pursuing his own. He refused to join

6230-403: The regular eight-piece studio ensemble to form The Wireless Orchestra of 18 players, augmented to 37 for important broadcasts. The augmented "Wireless Orchestra" conducted by Sir Landon Ronald made its first commercial recording in July 1924 by the acoustical process for HMV , Schubert 's Rosamunde overture, which was issued in the following October. There was no thought at this stage that

6319-475: The rest of his career, becoming a director in 1930 and a founder-director of Electrical and Musical Industries (EMI) formed by the merger of HMV with its rival, the Columbia Graphophone Company in 1931. In 1901 Ronald was conductor of London's Queen's Hall concerts and in the same year he was contracted by Blackpool's Winter Gardens as conductor of summer Sunday concerts until where Adelina Patti, Nellie Melba and Caruso performed. He held this position until

6408-683: The rest of the year, the orchestra played in the hall of Bedford School , and after the launch of the V-1 raids in 1944 the remaining broadcast concerts of that year's Proms season were performed at the Bedford Corn Exchange . Boult had striven to maintain the orchestra's standards and prestige during the war; as an instance of its prowess in the 1940s Kennedy cites an HMV recording of Elgar's Second Symphony released in January 1945: "a performance that blazed with excitement and passion and

6497-455: The senior management of the post-war BBC did not allocate the orchestra the resources to meet competition from new and well-funded rivals. After Boult's retirement from the BBC in 1950, the orchestra went through a fallow period. Boult's successor, Sir Malcolm Sargent , was popular with the public but had poor rapport with his players, and orchestral morale dropped. Sargent's successor, Rudolf Schwarz , made relatively little impact, and although

6586-542: The spirits of the BBC SO: orchestral musicians regarded playing the instrumental accompaniment for large choirs as drudgery. In the 1950s, the BBC SO, in common with the rest of the BBC's musical organisation, suffered from stagnation. In the words of the critic Peter Heyworth , "the Corporation's music department had become a byword for its narrow-mindedness and lassitude". Boult had been followed as director of music by

6675-466: The staff of the BBC, and insisted on remaining a freelance, taking numerous external engagements to the detriment of his work with the BBC SO. A senior BBC manager wrote: Except when a Barbirolli or a Kletzki has been in charge for a few days, the Orchestra is inferior, as an artistic instrument, to the Hallé or Philharmonia... [Sargent] is indifferent to the morale and welfare of the Orchestra and to

6764-497: The standard classics criticised as under-rehearsed (particularly during Proms seasons) compared with those given by Legge's Philharmonia and others. Sargent's contract was not renewed in 1957, although he continued as chief conductor of the Proms until his death ten years later. Howgill appointed Rudolf Schwarz as chief conductor of the BBC SO. Schwarz failed to restore orchestral standards to pre-war levels, and lacked Sargent's box-office appeal. Under Schwarz, BBC SO concerts other than

6853-503: The time as the world's leading conductor, conducted the BBC SO in 1935 and later said that it was the finest he had ever directed. He returned to conduct the orchestra in 1937, 1938 and 1939, and declared, "This is the orchestra I would like to take round the world." On the outbreak of war in September 1939 the BBC put into effect its contingency plans to minimise disruption of broadcasting. The corporation withdrew from responsibility for

6942-605: The time; Ronald was obliged to seek employment in musical comedy in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Among those for whom he conducted and composed were Harry Graham , Lionel Brough , Kate Cutler , Evie Greene and John Le Hay . Neither this employment nor his engagement from 1898 as conductor of the Winter Gardens concerts in Blackpool helped his professional advancement in the snobbish atmosphere of fin de siècle England. Ronald continued to compose serious music;

7031-478: The well-known old stagers." A substantial number of the players performed at the 1930 Promenade Concerts under Wood, and the full BBC Symphony Orchestra gave its first concert on 22 October 1930, conducted by Boult at the Queen's Hall. The programme consisted of music by Wagner , Brahms , Saint-Saëns and Ravel . Of the 21 programmes in the orchestra's first season, Boult conducted nine and Wood five. The reviews of

7120-675: The world could do as brilliantly … That supreme virtuosity in new music makes them unique among London's big orchestras." From their first years the BBC SO and its predecessor the BBC Wireless SO were active in commercial recording studios. Under Percy Pitt the Wireless SO recorded mostly shorter works and some that were abridged, but represented composers as diverse as Glazunov, Tchaikovsky (the entire Nutcracker Suite on six 78 rpm sides, for instance), Mendelssohn, Wolf-Ferrari, Puccini, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rossini, and Grieg, as well as

7209-469: Was Andrew Davis , beginning in 1989. He held the post until 2000, the longest-serving chief conductor since Boult. He was at the helm for what John Allison in The Times called "the valuable Barbican weekends that each January investigate another major but not fully understood 20th-century composer." Noting that modern music was central to the work of Davis and the orchestra, Allison added that under Davis

7298-508: Was an English conductor, composer, pianist, teacher and administrator. In his early career he gained work as an accompanist and répétiteur , but struggled to make his way as a conductor. In the absence of operatic or symphonic work he made his living as a conductor and composer in West End shows in the late 19th and early 20th century. With the foundation of the London Symphony Orchestra in 1904 his career began to flourish, and by 1908 he

7387-438: Was continued under Glock's successors. World or UK premieres in the 1970s included works by Elliott Carter , György Ligeti , Witold Lutosławski , Olivier Messiaen , Luigi Nono , Arvo Pärt and Karlheinz Stockhausen . BBC commissions premiered by the BBC SO in the 1980s included Alfred Schnittke 's Second Symphony, Harrison Birtwistle 's Earth Dances , and John Tavener 's The Protecting Veil . Although Glock restored

7476-690: Was electrified when it heard the disciplined precision of the Berlin Philharmonic... This apparently was how an orchestra could, and, therefore, ought to sound". After the Berliners, London heard a succession of major foreign orchestras, including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra under Willem Mengelberg and the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York under Arturo Toscanini . Among those determined that London should have

7565-406: Was named the orchestra's next chief conductor, effective with the 2006 Proms season. He was principal guest conductor of the orchestra from 1995 to 2000, and was the first past principal guest conductor of the orchestra to be named its chief conductor. The classical repertory was regarded as one of Bělohlávek's strengths, but he had no reputation for conducting new works, which remained a core part of

7654-407: Was no longer special. Among Ronald's output as a composer are more than 200 songs. They include "Serenade espagnole" recorded by Caruso. The critic Michael Kennedy writes, "His compositions include a symphonic poem, an overture, a ballet, Britannia's Realm , composed for the coronation of Edward VII in 1902, and incidental music to Robert Hichens’s The Garden of Allah (1921, Drury Lane), but it

7743-828: Was the CBC Radio Orchestra founded in 1938. On March 28, 2008 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation announced that the orchestra would be dissolved at the end of November. The ensemble has continued independent of network affiliation as the National Broadcast Orchestra based in Vancouver. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in Australia operates six state radio symphony orchestras through its subdivision Symphony Australia . The house band for

7832-653: Was well known as a proponent of music of the Second Viennese School and their successors; earlier in his career he had been dismissed as music critic of The Observer for such views as "no great composer has ever cared how 'pleasant' his music sounds". Under his administration, the BBC SO gave world premieres of works by composers including Roberto Gerhard , Peter Maxwell Davies and Michael Tippett , and UK premieres of works by, among others, Luciano Berio , Boulez and Edgard Varèse . The policy of commissioning works, and giving UK premieres of new compositions

7921-470: Was well-enough established to be chosen to succeed Thomas Beecham as conductor of the New Symphony Orchestra in London. Ronald was an early enthusiast for recording, and was associated with the Gramophone Company (later part of EMI ) from 1900 for the rest of his life. From 1910 until shortly before his death, Ronald was principal of the Guildhall School of Music in London. He modernised

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