165-559: The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge , a classical music record producer for EMI . Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Richard Strauss , Wilhelm Furtwängler and Arturo Toscanini ; of the Philharmonia's younger conductors, the most important to its development was Herbert von Karajan who, though never formally chief conductor,
330-540: A septet , the ensemble gave its first concert in the Wigmore Hall , the main item being Ravel's Introduction and Allegro . With several changes of personnel the quartet continued to play in concert and in the recording studio during the Second World War . In 1942 the editor of The Gramophone , Compton Mackenzie , wrote that he had no hesitation in calling the Philharmonia the best string quartet in
495-756: A British orchestra, appearing at the Salzburg Festival , conducted by Previn, Seiji Ozawa and Karl Böhm , in 1973, and playing at the Hollywood Bowl the following year. The lack of good rehearsal facilities to which Bernstein had objected was addressed in the 1970s when, jointly with the LPO, the LSO acquired and restored a disused church in Southwark , converting it into the Henry Wood Hall ,
660-546: A Sibelius symphony cycle conducted by Ashkenazy and the Mozart piano concertos with Ashkenazy directing from the keyboard, for Decca; Madama Butterfly with Maazel (CBS) and Fauré's Requiem with Giulini (DG). In the last decade of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st, the orchestra's recordings included more discs conducted by Ashkenazy, including symphonies by Beethoven and Tchaikovsky for Decca; Beethoven and Schumann symphonies with Christian Thielemann for DG, and
825-448: A chief conductor to replace Sinopoli: Christoph von Dohnányi took up the position in 1997. The music critic Andrew Clements commented that the Philharmonia's players had "maintained their coherence remarkably well through the long interregnum", but that securing "a conductor of Dohnányi's pedigree" was a major achievement, and that the conductor's skill as an orchestral trainer, combined with his excellence in interpretation augured well for
990-534: A clash of dates. The LSO's board, which reflected the majority opinion of the players, refused to accommodate the principals, most of whom resigned en masse , to form the Sinfonia of London , a session ensemble that flourished from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, and then faded away. For fifteen years after the split the LSO did little film work, recording only six soundtracks between 1956 and 1971, compared with more than 70 films between 1940 and 1955. To replace
1155-455: A classical best-seller. He was responsible for three recordings of The Magic Flute , conducted by Beecham, Karajan and Klemperer, each of which has incurred the disapproval of critics for omitting the spoken dialogue. His recording of Fidelio under Klemperer has been compared unfavourably with Klemperer's contemporaneous live recording from Covent Garden, on the grounds that Legge's chosen singers were less effective than their ROH rivals. He
1320-493: A concert, a player was at liberty to accept a better-paid engagement if it were offered. He would then engage another player to deputise for him at the original concert and the rehearsals for it. The treasurer of the Philharmonic Society described the system thus: "A, whom you want, signs to play at your concert. He sends B (whom you don't mind) to the first rehearsal. B, without your knowledge or consent, sends C to
1485-493: A condition of sponsoring the LSO that the profit-sharing principle should be abandoned and the players made salaried employees. This renunciation of the principles for which the LSO had been founded was rejected by the players, and the offered subsidy was declined. At the end of the war the LSO had to face new competition. The BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra had survived
1650-426: A convenient and acoustically excellent rehearsal space and recording studio, opened in 1975. In 1978, two aspects of the LSO's non-symphonic work were recognised. The orchestra shared in three Grammy awards for the score to Star Wars ; and the LSO "Classic Rock" recordings, in the words of the orchestra's website, became hugely popular and provided handsome royalties. The recordings led to "Classic Rock" tours by
1815-418: A decline in orchestral discipline and standards as Klemperer grew older, frailer and less in command. Giulini became disillusioned and began to distance himself; Barbirolli remained firmly loyal until his death in 1970. Klemperer's decline led to a diminution in recording sessions, and the orchestra's finances became difficult by the late 1960s and early 1970s. There were serious but inconclusive discussions about
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#17327830030731980-571: A hundred films with soundtrack scores played by the Philharmonia. They include The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1946); Hamlet , Oliver Twist and Scott of the Antarctic (1948); Kind Hearts and Coronets and Passport to Pimlico (1949); The Cruel Sea (1953); Battle of the Bulge (1965); Lady Caroline Lamb (1972); King David (1985); The King and I (1999); Great Expectations (2012); and The Lady in
2145-466: A little fun at the LSO's expense: from the viewpoint of a country that had long enjoyed permanent, salaried orchestras such as the Boston Symphony , it gently mocked the LSO's "bold stand for the sacred right of sending substitutes" Shortly after the beginning of the war the board of the orchestra received a petition from rank and file players protesting about Borsdorf's continued membership of
2310-462: A management committee was elected, comprising the four original movers and Alfred Hobday (viola) and E F (Fred) James (bassoon). Busby was appointed chief executive, a post variously titled "Secretary", "managing director", "general secretary" and "general manager" over the years. Borsdorf was a player of international reputation, and through his influence, the orchestra secured Hans Richter to conduct its first concert. Newman held no grudge against
2475-549: A merger with the LPO, which was also in some difficulties at the time. The NPO was rescued from financial disaster by two musical philanthropists, one anonymous and the other Ian Stoutzker , a prominent banker, who offered either to buy the orchestra outright or, as occurred, to underwrite its finances. Leading players of the early 1970s included Raymond Cohen , Desmond Bradley, Carlos Villa (violins), Herbert Downes (viola), Gareth Morris (flute), John McCaw (clarinet), Gwydion Brooke (bassoon) and Nicholas Busch (horn). The Philharmonia
2640-629: A new orchestra, the Philharmonia . Beecham conducted its first concert (for the fee of one cigar) but was unwilling to be the employee of his former assistant and soon founded the Royal Philharmonic in competition with the Philharmonia. In its early years the Philharmonia became closely identified with Karajan, but when he turned his attentions to the Berlin Philharmonic , Legge worked more and more with Otto Klemperer ,
2805-410: A new public. Instead it put an old audience to flight." The LSO's difficulties were compounded by the satirical magazine Private Eye , which ran a series of defamatory articles about the orchestra. The articles were almost wholly untrue and the magazine was forced to pay substantial libel damages, but in the short term serious damage was done to the orchestra's reputation and morale. In August 1984,
2970-399: A new rule requiring players to give the orchestra their exclusive services. The LSO itself later introduced a similar rule for its members. From the outset the LSO was organised on co-operative lines, with all players sharing the profits at the end of each season. This practice continued for the orchestra's first four decades. The LSO underwent periods of eclipse in the 1930s and 1950s when it
3135-565: A permanent job. He was offered, and accepted, the directorship of the Wexford Festival , but he suffered a disabling heart attack in 1967 before he could take up the post, and he withdrew. He continued to supervise the EMI recordings made by his wife, but the breach with the company was complete when in 1977 and 1979 he produced her last recordings not for EMI but for Decca , EMI's great rival. Legge attended Schwarzkopf's final appearance,
3300-404: A problem. The Philharmonia's lucrative recording contract depended on regular work in the studio, and having by now recorded most of the standard repertoire first in mono and again in stereo the orchestra's prospects for recording were diminishing. This meant that Legge's scope for having concert rehearsals subsidised by EMI was also shrinking. Although few agreed with him, Legge contended that
3465-493: A prominent conductor in the 1920s and '30s whose career Legge revitalised. Other eminent musicians of the time whom Legge persuaded to conduct the Philharmonia were Wilhelm Furtwängler , Arturo Toscanini and Richard Strauss . At its peak in the 1950s the Philharmonia was widely rated as the finest British orchestra and one of the finest orchestras in the World. In 1964, concerned at what he saw as falling standards, Legge disbanded
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#17327830030733630-672: A recital at Zürich Opera House on 19 March 1979, despite having suffered a heart attack two days earlier. Three days after the recital, he died in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat , France, at the age of 72. He was cremated, and his ashes were initially placed near those of Hugo Wolf in Vienna, as he had requested. After Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's death in 2006, their ashes were buried next to her parents in Zumikon near Zürich, where she had lived from 1982 to 2003. Legge's artistic judgment
3795-570: A recording orchestra that also gave concerts, although Legge firmly denied this. Nevertheless, the orchestra played far fewer concerts than the older London orchestras: in 1949–50 the Philharmonia gave 32 concerts compared with 55 by the BBC SO, 103 by the LSO, and 248 by the LPO. From its early years the orchestra played under prominent conductors including Richard Strauss for a single concert in 1947, and from 1948 onwards, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert von Karajan for concerts and recordings. Until
3960-475: A resident orchestra at the Garsington Opera festival. Salonen concluded his principal conductorship after the 2020–2021 season, and Helen Sprott stood down as its managing director. Santtu-Matias Rouvali was appointed as the next principal conductor, effective with the 2021–2022 season, with an initial contract of 5 years. Salonen took the title of conductor emeritus and became an honorary member of
4125-494: A role in bringing music to the armed forces and civilians. After the war, Legge founded the Philharmonia Orchestra and worked for EMI as a recording producer. In the 1960s, he quarrelled with EMI and resigned. He attempted to disband the Philharmonia in 1964, but it continued as an independent body without him. After this he had no permanent job, and confined himself to giving masterclasses with, and supervising
4290-669: A series of concerts in Baltimore, London, and Rome, including televised concerts in Baltimore and at the Vatican, as part of the "Millennium Creation Series" In a survey of British orchestras in 2006, Morrison described the current Philharmonia as "a serious, high-quality orchestra". He praised its "astute and canny" management, and commented that the orchestra had a large, loyal following in London, and had gained additional support elsewhere in Britain by extending its touring programme while
4455-603: A series of recordings of the major works of Stravinsky, and another of those of Schoenberg, conducted by Robert Craft , released on the Naxos label. Live recordings of some of the orchestra's early concerts have been issued on CD, including Strauss conducting the Sinfonia Domestica , Furtwängler and Flagstad in the first performance of the Four Last Songs , and Toscanini's Brahms cycle. A later live recording
4620-406: A single principal conductor. Among the guests were Elgar, Beecham, Otto Klemperer , Bruno Walter , Wilhelm Furtwängler and Serge Koussevitzky ; soloists in the 1920s included Sergei Rachmaninoff , Artur Schnabel and the young Yehudi Menuhin . Revenues were substantial, and the orchestra seemed to many to be entering into a golden age. In fact, for lack of any serious competition in the 1920s,
4785-541: A trumpeter, John Solomon. Busby organised a meeting at St. Andrew's Hall, not far from the Queen's Hall. Invitations were sent to present and former members of the Queen's Hall Orchestra. About a hundred players attended. Busby explained the scheme: a new ensemble , the London Symphony Orchestra, to be run on co-operative lines, "something akin to a Musical Republic", with a constitution that gave
4950-443: A year, tours widely, and from its inception has been known for its many recordings. The name "Philharmonia" was adopted by the impresario and recording producer Walter Legge for a string quartet he brought together in 1941, comprising Henry Holst , Jean Pougnet , Frederick Riddle and Anthony Pini . The name was taken from the title page of the published score Legge used for the first work they recorded. Temporarily augmented to
5115-523: A younger generation, Georg Solti , began working with the LSO; Fleischmann persuaded the management of the Vienna Festival to engage the LSO with Solti, Stokowski and Monteux for the 1961 Festwochen. While in Vienna, Fleischmann persuaded Monteux to accept the chief conductorship of the orchestra. Though 86 years old, Monteux asked for, and received, a 25-year contract with a 25-year option of renewal. He lived for another three years, working with
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5280-499: Is still in place in 2022, benefiting more than 60,000 people every year. In September 1988, Michael Tilson Thomas succeeded Abbado as chief conductor. In 1989, the Royal Philharmonic Society established its Orchestra Award for "excellence in playing and playing standards"; the LSO was the first winner. The LSO visited Japan in 1990 with Bernstein and Tilson Thomas. The conductors and players took part in
5445-626: The Star Wars series. At the turn of the twentieth century there were no permanent salaried orchestras in London. The main orchestras were those of Covent Garden , the Philharmonic Society and the Queen's Hall ; their proprietors engaged players individually for each concert or for a season. As there were competing demands for the services of the finest players it was an accepted practice that, even though under contract to play for
5610-541: The Courtauld family. Originally Sargent and Beecham had in mind a reorganised version of the LSO, but the orchestra baulked at weeding out and replacing underperforming players. In 1932 Beecham lost patience and agreed with Sargent to set up a new orchestra from scratch. The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), as it was named, consisted of 106 players including a few young musicians straight from music college, many established players from provincial orchestras, and 17 of
5775-400: The 1911 Musical Times article indicates otherwise. Richter retired from conducting in 1911, and Elgar was elected conductor-in-chief for the 1911–12 season. Elgar conducted six concerts, Arthur Nikisch three, and Willem Mengelberg , Fritz Steinbach and Gustave Doret one each. As a conductor Elgar did not prove to be a big enough box-office draw, and after one season he was replaced by
5940-793: The 1960s and 1970s the orchestra made many recordings. Of those made for EMI, the company later reissued many in the series "Great Recordings of the Century". They include piano concertos by Beethoven with Emil Gilels and Daniel Barenboim as soloists, Chopin with Maurizio Pollini and Mozart with Annie Fischer ; symphonies by Bruckner and Mahler conducted by Barbirolli and Klemperer; orchestral music by Debussy (conducted by Giulini) and Wagner (Klemperer); choral works including Bach's Mass in B minor , St Matthew Passion , Beethoven's Missa solemnis and Brahms's German Requiem under Klemperer, and Verdi's Requiem under Giulini; Mahler's orchestral songs sung by Christa Ludwig and Janet Baker ; and in
6105-430: The 1964 world tour. The orchestra played at the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony , conducted by Sir Simon Rattle . In March 2015, the LSO simultaneously announced the departure of Gergiev as principal conductor at the end of 2015, and the appointment of Sir Simon Rattle as its music director from September 2017, with an initial contract of five years. In February 2016, the orchestra announced that beginning with
6270-411: The 2016–17 season Gianandrea Noseda would be titled "Principal Guest Conductor" (joining the orchestra's other Principal Guest Conductor, Daniel Harding , who held that post 2006-2017), and that Michael Tilson Thomas would be titled "Conductor Laureate" and Andre Previn would be titled "Conductor Emeritus." In January 2021, the LSO announced an extension of Rattle's contract as music director until
6435-487: The Allies, and contracted German and Austrian artists who were then seriously short of work. These performers included Josef Krips , Irmgard Seefried , Ljuba Welitsch , Hans Hotter , Ludwig Weber , Herbert von Karajan and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (whom Legge married in 1953). Later he was among the first to spot the potential of Maria Callas , whose studio recordings he produced for EMI. The repertoire he chose to record
6600-541: The Arts Council's conditions for subsidy, and changed the LSO's constitution to replace profit-sharing with salaries. With a view to raising its playing standards it engaged Josef Krips as conductor. His commitments in Vienna preventing him from becoming the LSO's chief conductor until 1950, but from his first concert with the orchestra in December 1948 he influenced the playing for the better. His chosen repertoire
6765-462: The BBC and Beecham, they went their separate ways. In 1929 the BBC began recruiting for the new BBC Symphony Orchestra under Adrian Boult . The prospect of joining a permanent, salaried orchestra was attractive enough to induce some LSO players to defect. The new orchestra immediately received enthusiastic reviews that contrasted starkly with the severe press criticisms of the LSO's playing. According to
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6930-531: The BBC and Beecham. Critics including Neville Cardus recognised the continued improvement in the LSO's playing: "On this evening's hearing the London Symphony Orchestra is likely, after all, to give its two rivals a gallant run. Under Sir Hamilton it will certainly take on a style of sincere expression, distinguished from the virtuoso brilliance cultivated by the B.B.C. Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Beecham." Among
7095-500: The Barbican. In the first years of the residency, the orchestra came close to financial disaster, primarily because of over-ambitious programming and the poor ticket sales that resulted. The Times commented that the LSO "were tempted by their own need for challenge (and a siren chorus of critics) to begin a series of more modern and adventurous music: six nights a week of Tippett , Berlioz , Webern , Stockhausen designed to draw in
7260-600: The Berlin and Salzburg positions after Furtwängler died in 1954. Karajan remained under contract to EMI, but he quickly reduced his commitments to the Philharmonia. Among alternatives favoured by Legge and the orchestra was Guido Cantelli , who conducted some well-received recordings and concerts; his death in a plane crash in 1956 at the age of thirty-six deprived the Philharmonia of a potential replacement for Karajan. Another of Legge's protégés, Carlo Maria Giulini , seemed promising, but had not at that point established himself with
7425-644: The British government to re-establish opera and ballet at Covent Garden abandoned the pre-war system of opera seasons, in favour of a permanent year-round company. Neither Beecham nor Legge was invited to run it. Legge nevertheless decided to go ahead with his plans to form an orchestra. Although London already had three permanent symphony orchestras – the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) and London Philharmonic (LPO), their personnel and standards had declined during
7590-746: The Festival Hall was closed for renovation between 2005 and 2007. Since 2000 the orchestra has established further residencies: at The Anvil, Basingstoke (from 2001), the Marlowe Theatre , Canterbury and the Three Choirs Festival . Dohnányi's final tour with the orchestra as chief conductor was of the US, where they gave concerts in Miami , Los Angeles , San Francisco and Costa Mesa, California . In 2008 Esa-Pekka Salonen became
7755-512: The Hallé and the Royal Philharmonic Society. For a year he took the role, though not the title, of chief conductor of the LSO. In 1916 his millionaire father died and Beecham's financial affairs became too complicated for any further musical philanthropy on his part. In 1917 the LSO's directors agreed unanimously that they would promote no more concerts until the end of the war. The orchestra played for other managements, and managed to survive, although
7920-535: The LSO allowed its standards of playing to slip. In 1927 the Berlin Philharmonic, under Furtwängler, gave two concerts at the Queen's Hall. These, and later concerts by the same orchestra in 1928 and 1929, made obvious the poor standards then prevailing in London. Both the BBC and Beecham had ambitions to bring London's orchestral standards up to those of Berlin. After an early attempt at co-operation between
8085-531: The LSO has been based in the Barbican Centre in the City of London . Among its programmes there have been large-scale festivals celebrating composers as diverse as Berlioz , Mahler and Leonard Bernstein . The LSO claims to be the world's most recorded orchestra; it has made gramophone recordings since 1912 and has played on more than 200 soundtrack recordings for the cinema, of which the best known include
8250-428: The LSO in 1954, and the following year tensions between the orchestral principals and the rank-and-file players erupted into an irreconcilable dispute. The principals argued that the future of the LSO lay in profitable session work for film companies, rather than in the overcrowded field of London concerts. They also wished to be free to accept such engagements individually, absenting themselves from concerts if there were
8415-626: The LSO lost work it had long been used to, including the Covent Garden seasons, the Royal Philharmonic Society concerts and the Courtauld-Sargent concerts. The orchestra persuaded Sir Hamilton Harty , the popular conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, to move from Manchester to become the LSO's principal conductor. Harty brought with him eight of the Hallé's leading players to replenish the LSO's ranks, depleted by defections to
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#17327830030738580-458: The LSO play in Music Night in one week than in sixty-five years of LSO concerts." Several series of the programme were screened between 1971 and 1977. Previn's popularity with the public enabled him and the LSO to programme works that under other conductors could have been box-office disasters, such as Messiaen 's Turangalila Symphony. In the early 1970s the LSO recorded two firsts for
8745-422: The LSO to within weeks of his death. Members of the LSO believed that in those few years he had transformed the orchestra; Neville Marriner said that Monteux "made them feel like an international orchestra ... He gave them extended horizons and some of his achievements with the orchestra, both at home and abroad, gave them quite a different constitution." Announcing Monteux's appointment, Fleischmann added that
8910-439: The LSO was only in the early stages of its return to eminence. The Philharmonia entered into a new three-year contract with EMI on advantageous terms in 1960; the number of players applying to join the orchestra was increasing; its records sold well; and its concerts under Klemperer, Giulini, Sir John Barbirolli and others (occasionally including Karajan, who made his last appearance with the orchestra in 1960) were well received by
9075-530: The LSO would also work frequently with Antal Doráti and the young Colin Davis . Together with Tuckwell, chairman of the orchestra, Fleischmann worked to create the LSO Trust, a fund to finance tours and provide sick and holiday pay for LSO players, thus ending, as Morrison says, "nearly sixty years of 'no play, no pay' ... this was a revolution." They also pioneered formal sponsorship by commercial firms:
9240-417: The LSO's leading members. To try to raise its own standards the LSO had engaged Mengelberg, a famous orchestral trainer, known as a perfectionist. He made it a precondition that the deputy system must be abandoned, which occurred in 1929. He conducted the orchestra for the 1930 season, and music critics commented on the improvement in the playing. Nonetheless, as patently the third-best orchestra in London,
9405-588: The LSO, refused to continue when he discovered that five leading principals had absented themselves. EMI took Boult's side, and the orchestra apologised. In 1971, John Culshaw of BBC television commissioned "André Previn's Music Night", bringing classical music to a large new audience. Previn would talk informally direct to camera and then turn and conduct the LSO, whose members were dressed in casual sweaters or shirts rather than formal evening clothes. The programme attracted unprecedented viewing figures for classical music; Morrison writes, "More British people heard
9570-498: The LSO, writes of "stodgy programmes of insipid Cowen, worthy Stanford, dull Parry and mediocre Mackenzie"; they put the Parisian public off to a considerable degree, and the players ended up out of pocket. In its early years Richter was the LSO's most frequently-engaged conductor, with four or five concerts every season; the orchestra's website and Morrison's 2004 book both count him as the orchestra's first chief conductor, though
9735-408: The LSO. Although he had done as much as anyone to found the orchestra, had lived in Britain for 30 years and was married to an Englishwoman, Borsdorf was regarded by some colleagues as an enemy alien and was forced out of the orchestra. During the war the musical life of Britain was drastically curtailed. The LSO was helped to survive by large donations from Sir Thomas Beecham , who also subsidised
9900-582: The LSO: he frequently made his major recordings with the Boston or Chicago Symphony Orchestras or the Vienna Philharmonic . One of the LSO's principals commented, "Although we were sweating our guts playing those vast Mahler symphonies for ... Abbado, he would go and record them with other orchestras, which made us feel like second, maybe even third choice". In 1982, the LSO took up residence at
10065-578: The Philharmonia "showed the Continent for the first time all the qualities of perfect chamber-music playing raised to the power of a great symphony orchestra." While the orchestra was in Italy it so impressed Arturo Toscanini that he offered to come to London to conduct it. His two concerts at the Festival Hall in September 1952 (the four symphonies of Brahms ) were a critical and commercial success. In
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#173278300307310230-510: The Philharmonia in the 1940s and 1950s include Leonard Bernstein as soloist and conductor in Ravel's Piano Concerto in G , a series of Walton 's major works, conducted by the composer, Schumann's Piano Concerto with Dinu Lipatti as soloist and Karajan conducting (his first recording with the orchestra), Mozart's Horn Concertos with Brain as soloist and Karajan conducting, and cycles of Beethoven and Brahms symphonies conducted by Klemperer. In
10395-433: The Philharmonia's fifth principal conductor. He first conducted the orchestra in 1983, when he was 25, and from 1985 to 1994 he was its principal guest conductor. Vladimir Ashkenazy is the orchestra's conductor laureate; Dohnányi is its honorary conductor for life. From 2017 Jakub Hrůša and Santtu-Matias Rouvali have been the orchestra's principal guest conductors. The orchestra's website reported in 2018 that Salonen and
10560-694: The Proms , the LSO took over for Wood. The Carnegie Trust, with the support of the British government, contracted the LSO to tour Britain, taking live music to towns where symphony concerts were hitherto unknown. The orchestra's loss of manpower was far worse in the Second World War than in the First. Between 1914 and 1918 there were 33 members of the LSO away on active service; between 1939 and 1945 there were more than 60, of whom seven were killed. The orchestra found replacements wherever it could, including
10725-399: The Queen's Hall Orchestra earlier, and the other 21 had no connection with Wood and Newman. In a profile of the orchestra in 1911, The Musical Times commented: Thus encouraged, the committee ventured to arrange for a series of symphony concerts at Queen's Hall. They had no regular conductor, and to this day they have pursued this policy of freedom. Dr. (now Sir) Frederic Cowen conducted
10890-562: The Second World War broke out the orchestra's plans had to be almost completely changed. During the First World War the public's appetite for concert-going diminished drastically, but from the start of the Second it was clear that there was a huge demand for live music. The LSO arranged a series of concerts conducted by Wood, with whom the orchestra was completely reconciled. When the BBC evacuated its orchestra from London and abandoned
11055-744: The Van (2015). In 1977, a recording of the first movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Klemperer was selected by NASA to be included on the Voyager Golden Record , a gold-plated copper record that was sent into space on the Voyager space craft . The record contained sounds and images which had been selected as examples of the diversity of life and culture on Earth. Walter Legge Harry Walter Legge (1 June 1906 – 22 March 1979)
11220-535: The World of Béla Bartók" (2011), "Woven Words", a centenary celebration of Witold Lutosławski (2013) and "Myths and Rituals", a five-concert festival of music by Igor Stravinsky (2015–17). In recent years the Philharmonia's extensive international touring schedule has included appearances in China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Iceland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Since 2017, the Philharmonia has been
11385-418: The absence of enough recording work to attract the finest new orchestral players to follow such stars he had no alternative to disbanding the Philharmonia. In March 1964, with no advance warning to the orchestra, Legge issued a press statement announcing that "after the fulfilment of its present commitments the activities of the Philharmonia Orchestra will be suspended for an indefinite period." The historian of
11550-461: The armed forces. At Beecham's instigation he took on the musical side of ENSA , arranging concerts for British troops all over the world, and securing the services of musicians such as Solomon , Sir Adrian Boult and John Barbirolli . In 1941 Legge married the singer Nancy Evans ; they divorced in 1948. After the war Legge set to work to refresh EMI's catalogue and its roster of star performers. He set up his base in Vienna, then still occupied by
11715-661: The bands of army regiments based in London, whose brass and woodwind players were unofficially recruited. During the war it had become clear that private patronage was no longer a practical means of sustaining Britain's musical life; a state body, the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts – the forerunner of the Arts Council – was established, and given a modest budget for public subsidy. The council made it
11880-501: The banking firm UBS, the orchestra opened LSO St Luke's , its music education centre, in a former church near the Barbican. The following year the orchestra celebrated its centenary, with a gala concert attended by the LSO's Patron, the Queen . After serving as managing director for 21 years, Clive Gillinson left to become chief executive of Carnegie Hall , New York. His successor was Kathryn McDowell. In 2006, Daniel Harding joined Michael Tilson Thomas as principal guest conductor. At
12045-468: The charismatic Hungarian maestro Nikisch. Nikisch was invited to tour North America in 1912, and despite his long association with the Berlin Philharmonic and Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestras, he insisted that the LSO should be contracted for the tour. The orchestra, 100-strong (all men except for the harpist), was booked to sail on the Titanic , but the tour schedule was changed at the last minute, and
12210-447: The company they collectively owned, with security of employment. Klemperer, Giulini and Barbirolli gave the new orchestra their strong backing, as did Sir Adrian Boult , who incensed Legge by addressing the audience at a Philharmonia concert a few days later: "Do you want to see this great orchestra snuffed out like a candle? It must not be allowed to die!" He urged the public to support the orchestra by going to all its concerts, whatever
12375-580: The company's monthly retailing magazine, The Voice , but he caught the eye of the leading record producer, Fred Gaisberg , and was soon taking an active role in HMV recording procedures. Between 1933 and 1938, Legge also worked as a music critic for The Manchester Guardian . In the pre-war years, Legge pioneered "subscription" recordings, by which the public were invited to pay in advance for their copies of future recordings, thus making it economically possible for EMI to make such "niche" but classic recordings as
12540-455: The conductor of his promenade concerts , Henry Wood , agreed that they could no longer tolerate the deputy system. After a rehearsal in which Wood was faced with dozens of unfamiliar faces in his own orchestra, Newman came to the platform and announced: "Gentlemen, in future there will be no deputies! Good morning!" This caused a furore. Orchestral musicians were not highly paid, and removing their chances of better-paid engagements permitted by
12705-501: The core German symphonic repertory (Klemperer, Furtwängler, Karajan…) have remained in the catalogue for decades, first on LP and then on CD. London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra ( LSO ) is a British symphony orchestra based in London . Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's symphony orchestras . The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood 's Queen's Hall Orchestra because of
12870-526: The country. During the war, Legge was in charge of the music division of the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA), which provided entertainment for British and allied armed forces. In this role he was in close touch with many first-rate musicians in the armed services, from whom he intended to draw when creating a new orchestra after the end of the war. He later set out his guiding principles: Before
13035-434: The critic W J Turner the LSO's problem was not that its playing had deteriorated, but that it had failed to keep up with the considerable improvements in playing achieved over the past two decades by the best European and American orchestras. In 1931, Beecham was approached by the rising young conductor Malcolm Sargent with a proposal to set up a permanent, salaried orchestra with a subsidy guaranteed by Sargent's patrons,
13200-412: The departing principals the LSO recruited rising young players including Hugh Maguire , Neville Marriner and Simon Streatfeild in the string sections, Gervase de Peyer and William Waterhouse in the woodwinds, and Barry Tuckwell and Denis Wick in the brass. With the new intake the orchestra rapidly advanced in standards and status. The average age of the LSO players dropped to about 30. In 1956
13365-459: The deputy system was a serious financial blow to many of them. While travelling by train to play under Wood at a music festival in the north of England in May 1904, soon after Newman's announcement, some of his leading players discussed the situation and agreed to try to form their own orchestra. The principal movers were three horn players ( Adolf Borsdorf , Thomas Busby, and Henri van der Meerschen) and
13530-553: The difficulty of maintaining the orchestra's high standards, attempted to disband it in 1964, but the players, backed by Klemperer, formed themselves into a self-governing ensemble as the New Philharmonia Orchestra. After thirteen years under this title, they negotiated the rights to revert to the original name. In Klemperer's last years the orchestra suffered a decline, both financial and artistic, but recovered under his successor, Riccardo Muti , who revitalised
13695-416: The early years, Karajan's concerts were criticised in the press for their unadventurous programming; but a financially hazardous tour of Europe in 1952 necessitated programmes that were box-office attractions. Karajan told the orchestra that he felt it his duty to show Europe "the exceptional qualities of tone, aristocracy and vitality" of the Philharmonia's playing. The violinist Joseph Szigeti commented that
13860-554: The end of 2006, Davis stood down as principal conductor and became president of the LSO in January 2007, its first since the death of Bernstein in 1990. Valery Gergiev became principal conductor of the LSO on 1 January 2007. In Gergiev's first season in charge a complete cycle of Mahler Symphonies was given, with the Barbican Hall sold out for every concert. In 2009 Davis and the LSO celebrated 50 years of working together. In
14025-440: The existing London orchestras, but like Beecham's Royal Philharmonic, the early Philharmonia was not a permanent ensemble: it was convened ad hoc from available players on Legge's list. Several of those players were also on Beecham's list, and were able to play for both orchestras, including the horn player, Dennis Brain , the clarinettist Reginald Kell and the timpanist James Bradshaw. Although this gave both orchestras access to
14190-466: The expense of symphony concerts; many senior players left when the majority of players rejected the idea. By the 1960s the LSO had recovered its leading position, which it has retained subsequently. In 1966, to perform alongside it in choral works, the orchestra established the LSO Chorus , originally a mix of professional and amateur singers, later a wholly amateur ensemble. As a self-governing body,
14355-542: The film and music public. The LSO had begun its long historic journey as the premier film orchestra." In London Harty did not prove to be a box-office draw, and according to Morrison, he was "brutally and hurtfully" dropped in 1934, as his LSO predecessor Elgar had been in 1912. After this the orchestra did not appoint a chief conductor for nearly 20 years. By 1939 the orchestra's board was planning an ambitious programme for 1940, with guests including Bruno Walter, Leopold Stokowski , Erich Kleiber and George Szell . When
14520-408: The finest players, a review of the London orchestral scene of the late 1940s commented, "The Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic share a very serious disability: that neither is a permanently constituted orchestra. Both assemble and disperse more or less at random ... there is no style which is distinctively RPO or Philharmonia." It was widely felt in musical circles that the Philharmonia was essentially
14685-478: The first concert of the series on October 27, 1904, and the others were conducted by Herr Arthur Nikisch, Mr. Fritz Steinbach, Sir Charles Stanford, M. Edouard Colonne, Sir Edward Elgar, and Mr. Georg Henschel. At every one of these concerts brilliant performances were given, and the reputation of the organization as one of the finest of its kind in the world was made. The orchestra made its first British tour in 1905, conducted by Sir Edward Elgar . Elgar's conducting
14850-518: The following year. The orchestra recognised that a strong chief conductor was needed to restore its standards and finances, but there was no immediately obvious candidate. Although Legge no longer had any stake in the orchestra he watched its progress benevolently, and having spotted the potential of Riccardo Muti he recommended him to the New Philharmonia's general manager, Terence McDonald. Other potential candidates were considered, but Muti
15015-412: The hitherto remunerative work for regional choral societies dwindled to almost nothing. When peace resumed many of the former players were unavailable. A third of the orchestra's pre-war members were in the armed forces, and rebuilding was urgently needed. The orchestra was willing to allow the ambitious conductor Albert Coates to put himself forward as chief conductor. Coates had three attractions for
15180-557: The inadequate rehearsal facilities endured by London orchestras. Bernstein remained associated with the LSO for the rest of his life, and was its president from 1987 to 1990. Mindful of the enormous success of the Philharmonia Chorus , founded in 1957 by Legge to work with his Philharmonia Orchestra, the LSO decided to establish its own chorus. The LSO Chorus (later called the London Symphony Chorus)
15345-529: The inaugural Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo , teaching and giving masterclasses for 123 young musicians from 18 countries. Colin Matthews was appointed as the orchestra's associate composer in 1991, and the following year Richard McNicol became LSO Discovery's first music animateur . Gillison secured increased funding from the Arts Council, the City of London Corporation and commercial sponsors, enabling
15510-536: The milestones on the orchestra's path to recovery were the premieres of Walton 's Belshazzar's Feast (1930) and First Symphony (1934), showing the orchestra "capable of rising to the challenge of the most demanding contemporary scores" (Morrison). The foundation of the Glyndebourne Festival in 1934 was another good thing for the LSO, as its players made up nearly the entirety of the festival orchestra. An important additional source of income for
15675-412: The most conspicuous of Davis's projects with the orchestra was the LSO's most ambitious festival thus far, the "Berlioz Odyssey", in which all Berlioz's major works were given. The festival continued into 2000. Many of the performances, including Les Troyens , were recorded for the orchestra's new CD label, LSO Live, launched in 2000. Les Troyens won two Grammy awards. In 2003, with backing from
15840-449: The next fifteen years. In the same period, others who worked regularly with the orchestra were Alceo Galliera and Paul Kletzki . For Viennese operettas, Lovro von Matačić and Otto Ackermann were Legge's favoured conductors. Many of the orchestra's highest-profile releases were operas. Within days of its inauguration the Philharmonia played in a complete recording of Purcell 's Dido and Aeneas conducted by Constant Lambert . Among
16005-586: The opening of the Royal Festival Hall in 1951, London lacked a suitable hall for symphony concerts. Filling the vast Royal Albert Hall was difficult, except for such sell-out performances as Strauss's concert, a cycle of the Beethoven piano concertos with Artur Schnabel as soloist (1946), or the world premiere of Strauss's Four Last Songs with Kirsten Flagstad as soloist and Furtwängler conducting (1950). For other, less popular, concerts in
16170-550: The opera sets in which the orchestra played in the 1950s were the 1952 Tristan und Isolde mentioned above, and six sets conducted by Karajan: Hansel and Gretel (1953), Così fan tutte (1954), Ariadne auf Naxos (1954), Die Fledermaus (1955), Der Rosenkavalier (1956) and Falstaff (1956). Later sets from the 1950s were The Barber of Seville (Galliera, 1957); Capriccio (Sawallisch, 1957); Lucia di Lammermoor (Serafin, 1959), Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni (both Giulini, 1959). Other recordings by
16335-400: The operatic repertoire Così fan tutte conducted by Karl Böhm and Fidelio and Der fliegende Holländer conducted by Klemperer. In the 1980s, in addition to the recordings made with its chief conductors, mentioned above, the orchestra recorded extensively. Recordings from this decade include the symphonies of Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Walton, conducted by Bernard Haitink for EMI;
16500-439: The orchestra Stephen Pettitt comments, "If Legge thought that by suspending the Philharmonia Orchestra he was killing it, he had reckoned without the players". They formed themselves into a self-governing company, led by Bernard Walton, the principal clarinet, and adopted the name New Philharmonia Orchestra (NPO). Hitherto, the players had been technically freelance, paid by Legge for each performance, but they now became employees of
16665-662: The orchestra a lucrative recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon and tours to countries including Japan and Germany where the conductor was held in very much higher regard than in Britain. Although Sinopoli's Philharmonia performances of works such as Elgar 's Second Symphony attracted much disparaging criticism, he was felt to be more successful in opera. Nice comments that the Philharmonia players "lent an unprecedented degree of tonal beauty" to their opera recordings with Sinopoli; they included Manon Lescaut , 1983; La forza del destino , 1985; Madama Butterfly , 1987; Cavalleria rusticana , 1990; and Tosca , 1992. In 1995
16830-561: The orchestra a particular authority in the Austro-German classics as well as a commitment to the avant-garde. From the orchestra's point of view there were disadvantages to his appointment. His relationship with the players was distant and he was unable to impose discipline on the orchestra in rehearsals. He insisted on conducting without a score, and many times this led to barely-avoided disaster in concerts. Abbado had considerable international prestige, but this too had its downside for
16995-629: The orchestra and the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), resident at the Barbican Theatre, came under threat from a new managing director of the Barbican Centre, Baroness O'Cathain , an economist with no cultural background. O'Cathain, described by Morrison as "a Thatcherite free marketeer", dismissed the LSO and RSC as "arty-farty types", and opposed public subsidy. Such was the press and public reaction that she
17160-593: The orchestra celebrated its 50th anniversary and launched its UK and international residency programme, with residencies at the Southbank Centre, London, and the Corn Exchange, Bedford. The orchestra developed further long-term partnerships, beginning with De Montfort Hall in Leicester (from 1997). Further partnerships followed in later decades. It was three years before the Philharmonia recruited
17325-407: The orchestra had experimented in "groundbreaking ways to present music". The examples quoted were: the first major virtual reality production from a UK symphony orchestra; [the] RE-RITE and Universe of Sound installations, which have allowed people all over the world to conduct, play, and step inside the orchestra through audio and video projections, and [the] app for iPad, The Orchestra, which allows
17490-510: The orchestra in his ten-year term from 1972 to 1982. The orchestra's standards remained high throughout the controversial chief conductorship of Giuseppe Sinopoli from 1984 to 1994, and the more orthodox tenure of Christoph von Dohnányi between 1997 and 2008. Esa-Pekka Salonen , principal conductor from 2008 to 2021 was succeeded by Santtu-Matias Rouvali . The Philharmonia has had many celebrated players in its ranks and has commissioned more than 100 compositions. It gives more than 160 concerts
17655-472: The orchestra mounted "Mahler, Vienna and the Twentieth Century", planned by Abbado, followed the next year by an equally successful Bernstein festival. During 1988 the orchestra adopted an education policy which included the establishment of " LSO Discovery ", offering "people of all ages, from babies through music students to adults, an opportunity to get involved in music-making". The programme
17820-432: The orchestra or the public, and had a restricted repertory. Legge gradually built up a strong relationship with the veteran Otto Klemperer , who was admired by the players, the critics and the public. The year after Cantelli's death, the orchestra suffered a still worse blow with the death in a car crash of Dennis Brain, not only a supremely gifted player, but the most popular member of the orchestra among his colleagues. He
17985-547: The orchestra received royal recognition when the Prince of Wales accepted an invitation to be the Philharmonia's honorary patron. Muti stepped down as chief conductor in 1982. Giuseppe Sinopoli succeeded him in 1984 and, like Muti, served for ten years. Although the orchestra's standards remained high during Sinopoli's tenure, the conductor had what David Nice has described in The Guardian as "a love-hate relationship" with
18150-466: The orchestra recovered its original title, after prolonged and complex negotiations. From September 1977 the "New" was dropped, and the orchestra has been the Philharmonia since then. Walter Legge died in 1979, and the orchestra dedicated a Tchaikovsky symphony cycle at the Festival Hall to his memory; reviewing one of the concerts in The Guardian , Edward Greenfield commented that Muti had brought
18315-428: The orchestra selects the conductors with whom it works. At some stages in its history it has dispensed with a principal conductor and worked only with guests. Among conductors with whom it is most associated are, in its early days, Hans Richter , Sir Edward Elgar , and Sir Thomas Beecham , and in more recent decades Pierre Monteux , André Previn , Claudio Abbado , Sir Colin Davis , and Valery Gergiev . Since 1982,
18480-535: The orchestra to set up a system of joint principals, attracting top musicians who could play in the LSO without having to give up their solo or chamber careers. In 1993, the LSO again featured in a British television series, playing in Concerto! with Tilson Thomas and Dudley Moore . Among those appearing were Alicia de Larrocha , James Galway , Steven Isserlis , Barry Douglas , Richard Stoltzman and Kyoko Takezawa . The series received an Emmy Award . In 1994
18645-411: The orchestra took part in what was described as a "fly-on-the-wall" television documentary, giving the public glimpses of day-to-day orchestral life. It showed the efforts to which individual players went to secure sponsorship for the orchestra, and the heavy workload they sustained. In 2000, under the direction of Gilbert Levine , the Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus performed Haydn's The Creation in
18810-515: The orchestra visited South Africa to play at the Johannesburg Festival. The players were impressed by the dynamic director of the festival, Ernest Fleischmann , and engaged him as general secretary of the orchestra when the post fell vacant in 1959. He was the LSO's first professional manager; all his predecessors as secretary/managing director had been orchestral players combining the duties with their orchestral playing. To raise
18975-406: The orchestra was no longer exclusively tied to EMI, and made more than seventy recordings for Decca , starting in December 1964. Later Decca sessions were conducted by Boult, Britten, Giulini, Maazel, Claudio Abbado , Vladimir Ashkenazy , Charles Munch , Leopold Stokowski , and in 1967 Christoph von Dohnányi , who three decades later became the orchestra's chief conductor. During Muti's tenure,
19140-470: The orchestra was the film industry. In March 1935 the LSO recorded Arthur Bliss 's incidental music for Alexander Korda 's film Things to Come . According to the LSO's website the recording took 14 full orchestral sessions and "started a veritable revolution in film production history. ... For the first time, music for the cinema, previously regarded as a lowly art form, captured the attention of classical music scholars and enthusiasts, music critics and
19305-538: The orchestra's "Peter Stuyvesant" concerts, underwritten by the tobacco company of that name, were given in London, Guildford , Bournemouth , Manchester and Swansea . The company also sponsored LSO commissions of new works by British composers. In 1964, the LSO undertook its first world tour, taking in Israel, Turkey, Iran, India, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and the United States. The following year István Kertész
19470-562: The orchestra's early years Legge was partly dependent on financial support from a musical benefactor, the last Maharaja of Mysore . By the early 1950s the conductor most associated with the orchestra was Karajan, although he was not, officially or even unofficially, its chief conductor. He chose to work mainly with the Philharmonia and came to London for long spells twice or three times a year giving concerts and making recordings. Legge's practice of tying concerts in with studio recordings ensured longer than usual rehearsal time, paid for by EMI. In
19635-647: The orchestra's future. Dohnányi's conducting was regarded as reliable and musically admirable, although sometimes rather cool. His commitment to modern music influenced the orchestra's programming and won approval from the press. With Dohnányi the Philharmonia played in Vienna, Salzburg , Amsterdam, Lucerne and Paris. For several seasons they were in residence at the Théâtre du Châtelet , where they took part in new productions of six operas: Arabella , Die Frau ohne Schatten , Die schweigsame Frau , Moses und Aron , Oedipus Rex and Hänsel und Gretel . In 1999
19800-464: The orchestra's managing director, Peter Hemmings , resigned. For the first time since 1949, the orchestra appointed one of its players to the position. Clive Gillinson , a cellist, took over at a bad time in the LSO's fortunes, and played a central role in turning them round. He negotiated what Morrison calls "a dazzling series of mega-projects, each built around the personal enthusiasm of a 'star' conductor or soloist", producing sell-out houses. In 1985
19965-409: The orchestra's playing "within reach of that earlier peerless example". Leading members of the orchestra in the later years of Muti's tenure included Raymond Ovens (leader), Gordon Hunt (oboe), Adrian Leaper (horn), John Wallace (trumpet) and David Corkhill (percussion). Clement Relf, singled out for praise by Legge in his memoirs, remained the orchestral librarian as he had been since 1945. In 1980
20130-466: The orchestra, characterised by Morrison as "enormously lucrative but artistically demeaning." Claudio Abbado , principal guest conductor since 1971, succeeded Previn as chief conductor in the orchestra's diamond jubilee year, 1979. In a 1988 study of the LSO in Gramophone magazine James Jolly wrote that Abbado was in many ways the antithesis of Previn in terms of style and repertoire, bringing to
20295-580: The orchestra, which at once re-formed as the New Philharmonia, without him but with Klemperer as chief conductor. Legge's employer, EMI, tolerated his independent ways for many years, but in the 1960s attempts were made to curtail his freedom of choice of repertoire, and finally in 1964 he resigned. His memoirs, edited by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and published in 1982, set out his disenchantment with EMI and its increasingly powerful internal committees: In retirement Legge, together with Schwarzkopf, gave many joint masterclasses for young singers but he failed to find
20460-468: The orchestra. In 2023 members of the orchestra were selected to play at the coronation of Charles III and Camilla . The orchestra's first recording, a sinfonia by J. C. Bach , made in July 1945, was never released. Wolf 's Italian Serenade recorded at the same sessions, was the Philharmonia's first published record. It was conducted by Walter Susskind , who made many recordings with the orchestra over
20625-591: The orchestra: he was a pupil of Nikisch, he had rich and influential contacts, and he was willing to conduct without fee. He and the orchestra got off to a disastrous start. Their first concert featured the premiere of Elgar's Cello Concerto . Apart from the concerto, which the composer conducted, the rest of the programme was conducted by Coates, who overran his rehearsal time at the expense of Elgar's. Lady Elgar wrote, "that brutal selfish ill-mannered bounder ... that brute Coates went on rehearsing." In The Observer Newman wrote, "There have been rumours about during
20790-427: The organisation independence. At concerts promoted by the LSO the members played without fee, their remuneration coming at the end of each season in a division of the orchestra's profits. This worked well in good years, but any poorly-patronised series left members out of pocket, and reliant on the LSO's engagements to play for provincial choral societies and other managements. The proposal was approved unanimously, and
20955-534: The other self-governing London orchestra, the LPO: the LPO played 248 concerts in the 1949–50 season; the LSO 103; the BBC SO 55; the Philharmonia and RPO 32 each. When the Royal Festival Hall opened in 1951 the LSO and LPO engaged in a mutually bruising campaign for sole residency there. Neither was successful, and the Festival Hall became the main London venue for both orchestras and for the RPO and Philharmonia. Krips left
21120-467: The players sailed safely on the Baltic . The tour was arduous, but a triumph. The New York Press said, "The great British band played with a vigor, force and temperamental impetuousness that almost lifted the listener out of his seat." The New York Times praised all departments of the orchestra, though, like The Manchester Guardian , it found the strings "brilliant rather than mellow". The paper had
21285-489: The post for 11 years – at 2013 the longest tenure of the post to date. By the Previn era the LSO was being described as the finest of the London orchestras. A reviewer of an Elgar recording by one of the other orchestras remarked, "these symphonies really deserve the LSO at its peak." The implication that the LSO was not always at its peak was illustrated when Sir Adrian Boult, who was recording Elgar and Vaughan Williams with
21450-494: The profile and prestige of the orchestra, Fleischman strove to attract top soloists and conductors to work with the LSO. After Krips's resignation the orchestra had worked with a few leading conductors, including Klemperer, Stokowski, Jascha Horenstein and Pierre Monteux , but also with many less eminent ones. Fleischmann later said, "It wasn't difficult to change the list of conductors that the orchestra worked with, because one couldn't do much worse, really". A rising conductor of
21615-624: The programmes. The music critic of The Times commented that Boult's point was underlined by "the resplendent, intense sound he drew from choir and orchestra during the concert." In its early years as an independent body the New Philharmonia flourished, in the concert hall and the recording studio. As well as its existing regular conductors, the orchestra worked with Ernest Ansermet , Pierre Boulez , Benjamin Britten and James Levine and many others. It reciprocated Klemperer's loyalty and appointed him its president and chief conductor, but this led to
21780-437: The public and critics, because of his "slow speeds and mannered, sometimes lifeless phrasing". The same writer continues that the Philharmonia players did not take to "Sinopoli's peculiarly Italian brand of intellectualism; London musicians never like too much talk, let alone an analytic seminar on the work in question". By 1990 it was far from certain that Sinopoli's appointment would last until 1994 as scheduled, but he brought to
21945-615: The public and the critics. Unknown to the public, and to a considerable extent the players, a combination of factors beyond the orchestra's control was leading to a crisis. First, to avoid clashes of repertoire the Festival Hall management set up a committee to co-ordinate programming by the London orchestras. Secondly, at EMI a similar rationalisation was taking place, with an internal committee deciding which works producers, including Legge, could schedule. Legge, an autocrat by temperament, resented any curtailment of his personal control, and found committees intolerable. Finance also started to become
22110-466: The quality of the orchestra was declining. Looking back in 1975 at the heyday of his orchestra, he singled out for particular mention not only Brain and Civil, Kell and Bradshaw, but also Clement Lawton (tuba), Arthur Gleghorn (piccolo), Gareth Morris (flute), Sidney Sutcliffe (oboe), Frederick Thurston and Bernard Walton (clarinets), Gwydion Brooke (bassoon), and two leaders, Manoug Parikian and Hugh Bean . Legge maintained retrospectively that in
22275-494: The rebels and made the Queen's Hall available to them. He and Wood attended the LSO's first concert, on 9 June 1904. The programme consisted of the prelude to Die Meistersinger , music by Bach , Mozart , Elgar and Liszt , and finally Beethoven's Fifth Symphony . In a favourable review in The Times , J A Fuller Maitland noted that 49 members of the new orchestra were rebels against Newman's no-deputy rule, 32 had left
22440-816: The recordings of, his second wife, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf . Legge was born in Shepherd's Bush , London, where his father was a tailor. He was educated at the Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith. He excelled in Latin and French, but received no musical training. He left school at 16 and had no further formal education. Encouraged by his father he developed a taste for music, and Richard Wagner in particular, in pursuit of which he taught himself to read music and to speak German. Legge first joined HMV in 1927, writing album and analytical notes and copy for
22605-868: The same year the LSO took over from the Berlin Philharmonic as the resident orchestra at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, adding to a roster of international residences at venues including the Lincoln Center in New York, the Salle Pleyel in Paris and the Daytona Beach International Festival in Florida. In 2010 the LSO visited Poland and Abu Dhabi for the first time and made its first return to India since
22770-474: The same year, Furtwängler conducted the orchestra and soloists headed by Flagstad in a recording of Tristan und Isolde that has remained in the catalogues ever since. Legge realised that Furtwängler was in declining health and that sooner or later Karajan would succeed him as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic and Salzburg Festival and be lost to the Philharmonia. Legge began to seek out suitable successors. As Legge had expected, Karajan succeeded to
22935-486: The second rehearsal. Not being able to play at the concert, C sends D, whom you would have paid five shillings to stay away." There was much competition for good orchestral players, with well-paid engagements offered by more than fifty music halls , by pit bands in West End musical comedies , and by grand hotels and restaurants which maintained orchestras. In 1904, the manager of the Queen's Hall, Robert Newman and
23100-651: The songs of Hugo Wolf and the complete piano works of Beethoven (played by Artur Schnabel ). Another pre-war recording supervised by Legge, which has been reissued on LP and CD, was Sir Thomas Beecham 's set of The Magic Flute , made in Berlin in 1937. Beecham invited Legge to join him at the Opera as assistant artistic director. Given a free hand by Beecham he engaged Richard Tauber , Jussi Björling , Maria Reining , Hilde Konetzni , Julius Patzak and Helge Roswänge in their Covent Garden debuts. During World War II, Legge's poor eyesight prevented him from serving in
23265-606: The user unprecedented access to the internal workings of eight symphonic works. The Philharmonia performs more than 160 concerts a year, more than 35 of them at the Festival Hall. It has commissioned more than a hundred works. It also records music for films, computer games and commercial CD releases. Under Salonen the orchestra has taken part in a series of projects at the Festival Hall: "City of Light: Paris 1900–1950" (2015), "City of Dreams: Vienna 1900–1935" (2009), "Bill Viola's Tristan und Isolde" (2010), "Infernal Dance: Inside
23430-466: The war and he was convinced he could do better. Legge secured the services of many talented young musicians still serving in the armed forces. He first assembled a "Philharmonia String Orchestra" for recordings in 1945, composed of musicians from the RAF orchestra. He then recruited wind and percussion players, including some of the country's top instrumentalists who had been playing in other orchestras during
23595-427: The war intact, the latter, abandoned by Beecham, as a self-governing body. All three were quickly overshadowed by two new orchestras: Walter Legge 's Philharmonia and Beecham's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra . To survive, the LSO played in hundreds of concerts of popular classics under undistinguished conductors. By 1948 the orchestra was anxious to resume promoting its own concert series. The players decided to accept
23760-505: The war, Legge had been assistant to Sir Thomas Beecham at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden . Both men wrongly assumed that they would be able to resume their control of the opera house after the war, and Legge conceived of a new orchestra based there, operating on the lines of the Vienna Philharmonic – playing in the pit for the opera and also giving concerts and making records on its own account. The committee appointed by
23925-504: The war. At the Philharmonia Orchestra's first concert, on 27 October 1945, more than sixty per cent of the players were still officially in the services. Beecham conducted the concert (for the fee of one cigar), but as he refused to be Legge's employee and Legge refused to cede control of the orchestra, they went their separate ways. Beecham founded the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) the following year. Unlike
24090-464: The week of inadequate rehearsal. Whatever the explanation, the sad fact remains that never, in all probability, has so great an orchestra made so lamentable an exhibition of itself." Coates remained as chief conductor for two seasons, and after the initial debacle is credited by Morrison with "breathing life and energy into the orchestra". After Coates left, the orchestra reverted to its preferred practice of engaging numerous guest conductors rather than
24255-426: The world, be it Vienna or New York, would envy". In 1959 Legge abandoned his policy that the orchestra should have no permanent conductor, and appointed Klemperer "conductor-for-life". In the early 1960s the Philharmonia continued to be widely regarded as London's best orchestra. The RPO went through difficult times after Beecham's death in 1961; neither the BBC SO or the LPO had yet regained its pre-war excellence; and
24420-452: Was ahead of some of its London rivals in admitting female players. By 1972, seventeen of the sixty-six string players were women, although the other three sections remained exclusively male, except for the veteran harpist, Sidonie Goossens . In Klemperer's later years the orchestra appointed Lorin Maazel , nominally as "associate principal conductor", from 1970, although in practice his role
24585-509: Was an English classical music record producer, most especially associated with EMI . His recordings include many sets later regarded as classics and reissued by EMI as "Great Recordings of the Century". He worked in the recording industry from 1927, combining this with the post of junior music critic of The Manchester Guardian . He was assistant to Sir Thomas Beecham at the Royal Opera House , Covent Garden, and in World War II played
24750-557: Was appointed as the orchestra's chief conductor from 1973. Muti, although he disclaimed such a description, was a firm disciplinarian, and under his conductorship the orchestra restored its standards. Richard Morrison later wrote in The Times that in his ten years in charge, Muti turned a struggling orchestra into "a great ensemble". Critics at the time commented on the orchestra's "superb performance", "immense virtuosity", its "astoundingly delicate" string playing and "woodwind phrasing even more magical than their Berlin colleagues". Muti
24915-657: Was appointed principal conductor. Negotiations with the Corporation of the City of London with a view to establishing the LSO as the resident orchestra of the planned Barbican Centre began in the same year. In 1966 Leonard Bernstein conducted the LSO for the first time, in Mahler 's Symphony of a Thousand at the Royal Albert Hall . This was another coup for Fleischmann, who had to overcome Bernstein's scorn for
25080-495: Was broad, though not extending much earlier than Handel and among modern composers concentrating on the approachable and diatonic . From the 1940s to the 1960s he supervised a long series of recordings of the works of William Walton . Legge had promoted some Lieder recitals before the war, but in 1945, finding his influence at Covent Garden much diminished under the management of David Webster he again ventured into promoting concerts. For these, and for recordings, he founded
25245-435: Was closely associated with the orchestra in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Philharmonia became widely regarded as the finest of London's five symphony orchestras in its first two decades. From the late 1950s to the early 1970s the orchestra's chief conductor was Otto Klemperer , with whom the orchestra gave many concerts and made numerous recordings of the core orchestral repertoire. During Klemperer's tenure Legge, citing
25410-416: Was formed in 1966 under John Alldis as chorus master. Its early years were difficult; Kertész did not get on with Alldis, and there were difficulties within the chorus. Most of its members were amateurs, but at first, they were reinforced by a small number of professionals. This led to disputes over the balance between amateurs and professionals. There was a brief crisis, after which the professional element
25575-476: Was good for the box office: cycles of Beethoven symphonies and concertos (the latter featuring Wilhelm Kempff in one season and Claudio Arrau in another) helped restore the orchestra's finances as well as its musical standards. With Krips and others the orchestra recorded extensively for the Decca Record Company during the early 1950s. The orchestra's workload in these years was second only to
25740-555: Was highly praised; as to the orchestra, Ernest Newman wrote in The Manchester Guardian , "Its brass and its wood-wind were seen to be of exceptional quality, but the strings, fine as they are, have not the substance nor the colour of the Hallé strings." The following year the LSO played outside Britain for the first time, giving concerts in Paris, conducted by Edouard Colonne , Sir Charles Stanford and André Messager . Richard Morrison , in his centenary study of
25905-415: Was more like a chief conductorship, with Klemperer as a figurehead, albeit one still capable of inspiring magnificent performances on occasion. Maazel sought more control than the self-governing orchestra was willing to concede, and resigned from his post in early 1972, although he continued to accept invitations to conduct the orchestra. Shortly afterwards, Klemperer announced his retirement; he died, aged 88,
26070-437: Was obliged to seek a vote of confidence from the LSO and RSC; failing to gain it, she resigned, and was succeeded by John Tusa , whom Morrison calls "steeped in culture." The danger that the concert hall would become a conference centre was averted. In 1995, Sir Colin Davis was appointed chief conductor. He had first conducted the LSO in 1959, and had been widely expected to succeed Monteux as principal conductor in 1964. Among
26235-532: Was regarded as inferior in quality to new London orchestras, to which it lost players and bookings: the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the 1930s and the Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic after the Second World War. The profit-sharing principle was abandoned in the post-war era as a condition of receiving public subsidy for the first time. In the 1950s the orchestra debated whether to concentrate on film work at
26400-425: Was removed, and the LSO chorus became, and remains, an outstanding amateur chorus. By 1967 many in the LSO felt that Fleischmann was seeking to exert too much influence on the affairs of the orchestra, and he resigned. Kertész, too, was dispensed with when he sought control of all artistic matters; his contract was not renewed when it expired in 1968. His successor as principal conductor was André Previn , who held
26565-492: Was sometimes questioned. He was aesthetically conservative; he wrote to a friend, "If producers and scenic designers are allowed to continue their writing of graffiti and vulgarity and stupidity on masterpieces … not to mention Chéreau at Bayreuth – we shall be forced to insist that they write the libretto and music to match the rubbish they put on the stage!" Legge predicted to John Culshaw and Georg Solti that their Decca recording of Das Rheingold would not sell; it became
26730-530: Was succeeded as principal horn by his deputy, Alan Civil . In 1957 Legge launched the Philharmonia Chorus , an amateur body with a stiffening of professionals when needed. The chorus made its debut in Beethoven's Choral Symphony conducted by Klemperer, and won extremely favourable reviews. In The Observer Peter Heyworth wrote that with so fine a choir and "our best orchestra" and a great conductor, Legge had given London "a Beethoven cycle that any city in
26895-406: Was suspicious of stereo recording, and resisted it for as long as he could. Nevertheless Legge's legacy is "a vast number of outstanding recordings that set standards unlikely ever to be surpassed". His recordings of The Dream of Gerontius ( Sargent ), Tristan und Isolde (Furtwängler), Tosca ( De Sabata ), Der Rosenkavalier and Falstaff (Karajan), Così fan tutte ( Böhm ) and
27060-672: Was the last concert conducted by Klemperer (September 1971: Beethoven Overture: King Stephen , and Fourth Piano Concerto with Daniel Adni ; and Brahms's Third Symphony ). In 2009 the orchestra began a collaboration with the record label Signum , with the release of a live recording of Schoenberg's Gurrelieder ; later recordings by the Philharmonia on Signum have ranged from the symphonic repertoire (including symphonies by Beethoven, Berlioz , Brahms, Elgar, Mahler , Rachmaninoff , Schubert and Tchaikovsky) to opera and ballet ( Bartók 's Duke Bluebeard's Castle and The Miraculous Mandarin ). The British Film Institute lists more than
27225-598: Was under contract to EMI, which brought the orchestra much valuable studio work. With Muti the orchestra recorded opera ( Aida , 1974; Un ballo in maschera , 1975; Nabucco , 1977; I puritani , 1979; Cavalleria rusticana , 1979; La traviata , 1980; Orfeo ed Euridice , 1981; and Don Pasquale , 1982); a wide range of the symphonic repertoire including Schumann and Tchaikovsky cycles; concertos with soloists including Sviatoslav Richter , Andrei Gavrilov , Anne-Sophie Mutter and Gidon Kremer ; and choral music by Cherubini and Vivaldi . After Legge's departure
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