206-572: The London Philharmonic Orchestra ( LPO ) is a British orchestra based in London . One of five permanent symphony orchestras in London, the LPO was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symphony Orchestras . The founders' ambition was to build an orchestra the equal of any European or American rival. Between 1932 and
412-411: A symphony orchestra or philharmonic orchestra (from Greek phil- , "loving", and "harmony"). The number of musicians employed in a given performance may vary from seventy to over one hundred, depending on the work being played and the venue size. A chamber orchestra (sometimes a concert orchestra ) is a smaller ensemble of not more than about fifty musicians. Orchestras that specialize in
618-750: A Knight Bachelor in 1937 and was created a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 1969. He received the gold medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1944 and the Harvard Glee Club medal (jointly with Vaughan Williams) in 1956. He received honorary degrees and fellowships from 13 universities and conservatoires. In 1951 he was invited to be the first president of the Elgar Society . In 1959 he
824-519: A musical score , which contains all the instrument parts. The conductor uses the score to study the symphony before rehearsals and decide on their interpretation (e.g., tempos, articulation, phrasing, etc.), and to follow the music during rehearsals and concerts, while leading the ensemble. Orchestral musicians play from parts containing just the notated music for their instrument. A small number of symphonies also contain vocal parts (e.g., Beethoven 's Ninth Symphony ). Orchestras also perform overtures ,
1030-611: A London concert room for years. The tone was magnificent, the precision perfect, the reading a miracle of fire and beauty, and the enthusiasm of the audience could not have been greater." In The Times H C Colles said that the LPO was "as fine an instrument as could be wished for"; Neville Cardus wrote in The Manchester Guardian , "nothing more sumptuous and daring in orchestral playing could be heard in more than three other cities between New York and Vienna"; and W J Turner , of The Illustrated London News , praised
1236-399: A bad period financially for the orchestra, and it was forced to abandon fixed contracts for its players with holiday and sick pay and pensions, and revert to payment by engagement. Financial disaster was averted thanks to an anonymous benefactor, generally believed to be Boult. A historian of the orchestra, Edmund Pirouet, writes that having been on an upward curve in the 1940s, by the mid-1950s
1442-513: A bit of wood. He spoke very little". This style was in accord with Boult's opinion that "all conductors should be clad in an invisible Tarnhelm which makes it possible to enjoy the music without seeing any of the antics that go on". He sang in choral festivals and at the Leeds Festival of 1913, where he watched Nikisch conduct. There he made the acquaintance of George Butterworth , and other British composers. Later that year Boult joined
1648-413: A conductor, although early orchestras did not have one, giving this role to the concertmaster or the harpsichordist playing the continuo . Some modern orchestras also do without conductors , particularly smaller orchestras and those specializing in historically accurate (so-called "period") performances of baroque and earlier music. The most frequently performed repertoire for a symphony orchestra
1854-522: A consensus that faking may be acceptable when a part is not written well for the instrument, but faking "just because you haven't practised" the music is not acceptable. With the advent of the early music movement, smaller orchestras where players worked on execution of works in styles derived from the study of older treatises on playing became common. These include the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment ,
2060-572: A crisis when Russell was dismissed as its managing director. He was an avowed member of the Communist party ; when the Cold War began, some influential members of the LPO felt that Russell's private political affiliations compromised the orchestra, and pressed for his dismissal. Boult, as the orchestra's chief conductor, initially stood up for Russell, but when matters came to a head Boult ceased to protect him. Deprived of that crucial support, Russell
2266-470: A discography of the LPO published in 1997, Philip Stuart listed 280 recordings made at Kingsway Hall and 353 at Abbey Road. By the early 2000s the late 20th-century boom in classical recordings had ended, and with studio work in decline for all orchestras, the LPO set up its own CD label in 2005, featuring recordings taken mainly from live concerts. With the exception of Steinberg, all the orchestra's principal conductors from Beecham to Jurowski are represented in
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#17327723772642472-525: A few miles away. From 1962 to 1966 he again taught at the Royal College of Music. In later life, he made time for young conductors who sought his counsel. Among those who studied with or were influenced by Boult were Colin Davis , James Loughran , Richard Hickox and Vernon Handley . The last was not only a pupil of Boult, but acted as his musical assistant on many occasions. Boult was created
2678-465: A few young musicians straight from music college, many established players from provincial orchestras, and 17 of the LSO's leading members. During the early years, the orchestra was led by Paul Beard and David McCallum , and included leading players such as James Bradshaw, Gwydion Brooke , Geoffrey Gilbert , Léon Goossens , Gerald Jackson , Reginald Kell , Anthony Pini and Bernard Walton . Holt became
2884-517: A growing conviction that the orchestra would be "seriously jeopardized financially" if Russell remained in post. A later writer, Richard Witts , suggests that Boult sacrificed Russell because he believed doing so would enhance the LPO's chance of being appointed resident orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall . In 1953 Boult once again took charge of the orchestral music at a coronation, conducting an ensemble drawn from UK orchestras at
3090-642: A high school, or a university, and community orchestras; typically they are made up of amateur musicians from a particular city or region. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ὀρχήστρα ( orchestra ), the name for the area in front of a stage in ancient Greek theatre reserved for the Greek chorus . In the Baroque era, the size and composition of an orchestra were not standardised. There were large differences in size, instrumentation and playing styles—and therefore in orchestral soundscapes and palettes — between
3296-571: A hundred, but the actual number of musicians employed in a particular performance may vary according to the work being played and the size of the venue. A chamber orchestra is usually a smaller ensemble; a major chamber orchestra might employ as many as fifty musicians, but some are much smaller. Concert orchestra is an alternative term, as in the BBC Concert Orchestra and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra . Apart from
3502-415: A live performance, could be heard by critics. As recording technologies improved over the 20th and 21st centuries, eventually small errors in a recording could be "fixed" by audio editing or overdubbing . Some older conductors and composers could remember a time when simply "getting through" the music as well as possible was the standard. Combined with the wider audience made possible by recording, this led to
3708-879: A modified member of the horn family, appears in Richard Wagner 's cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and several other works by Strauss, Igor Stravinsky (as featured in The Rite of Spring ), Béla Bartók , and others; it also has a notably prominent role in Anton Bruckner 's Symphony No. 7 in E ;Major . Cornets appear in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 's ballet Swan Lake , Claude Debussy 's La Mer , and several orchestral works by Hector Berlioz . Unless these instruments are played by members "doubling" on another instrument (for example,
3914-546: A paper to an Oxford musical group, the Oriana Society, entitled Some Notes on Performance , in which he laid down three precepts for an ideal performance: observance of the composer's wishes, clarity through emphasis on balance and structure, and the effect of music made without apparent effort. These guiding principles lasted throughout his career. He was president of the University Musical Club for
4120-624: A permanent member who is sick. A professional musician who is hired to perform for a single concert is sometimes called a "sub". Some contract musicians may be hired to replace permanent members for the period that the permanent member is on parental leave or disability leave. Historically, major professional orchestras have been mostly or entirely composed of men. The first women members hired in professional orchestras have been harpists . The Vienna Philharmonic , for example, did not accept women to permanent membership until 1997, far later than comparable orchestras (the other orchestras ranked among
4326-498: A permanent orchestra of similar excellence were Sir John Reith , director-general of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham . In 1928 they opened discussions about jointly setting up such an ensemble, but after 18 months of negotiations it became clear that the corporation and the conductor had irreconcilable priorities. Beecham demanded more personal control of
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#17327723772644532-457: A proposal to set up a permanent, salaried orchestra with a subsidy guaranteed by Sargent's patrons, the Courtauld family. Originally Sargent and Beecham envisaged a reshuffled version of the LSO, but the orchestra, a self-governing body, balked at weeding out and replacing underperforming players. In 1932, Beecham lost patience and agreed with Sargent to set up a new orchestra from scratch. With
4738-523: A quality of playing not matched by the older groups, including the LPO. By the 1960s, the LPO had regained its earlier standards, and in 1964 it secured a valuable engagement to play in the Glyndebourne Festival during the summer months. In 1993 it was appointed resident orchestra of the Royal Festival Hall on the south bank of the Thames , one of London's major concert venues. Since 1995
4944-405: A range of different employment arrangements. The most sought-after positions are permanent, tenured positions in the orchestra. Orchestras also hire musicians on contracts, ranging in length from a single concert to a full season or more. Contract performers may be hired for individual concerts when the orchestra is doing an exceptionally large late-Romantic era orchestral work, or to substitute for
5150-420: A rare probity to everything he undertook." Boult's biographer, Kennedy, gave this summary: "In the music he admired most, Boult was often a great conductor; in the rest, an extremely conscientious one. ... If from behind he seemed unexciting and unemotional, the players could see the animation in his face – and he was capable of frightening outbursts of temper at rehearsals. Tall and erect, with something of
5356-471: A recording contract with EMI, but management turnover, financial stresses, and political disputes at the Southbank Centre at the time contributed to the difficulty of the working atmosphere in the orchestra. There were complaints that the orchestra's high standards of playing were not consistently maintained. Welser-Möst's period as principal conductor coincided with the installation of the LPO as
5562-412: A renewed focus on particular star conductors and on a high standard of orchestral execution. The typical symphony orchestra consists of four groups of related musical instruments called the woodwinds , brass , percussion , and strings . Other instruments such as the piano, accordion , and celesta may sometimes be grouped into a fifth section such as a keyboard section or may stand alone, as may
5768-444: A schoolboy, Boult met the composer Edward Elgar through Frank Schuster , a family friend. At Christ Church college at Oxford , where he was an undergraduate from 1908 to 1912, Boult studied history but later switched to music, in which his mentor was the musical academic and conductor Hugh Allen . Among the musical friends he made at Oxford was Ralph Vaughan Williams , who became a lifelong friend. In 1909, Boult presented
5974-523: A small number of core players were recruited before negotiations foundered. Beecham withdrew, and with Malcolm Sargent soon established the rival London Philharmonic Orchestra . In 1930 Boult returned to London to succeed Percy Pitt as director of music at the BBC. On taking up the post, Boult and his department recruited enough musicians to bring the complement of the new BBC Symphony Orchestra to 114. A substantial number of these players performed at
6180-545: A spare recording session in August 1970 Boult recorded the Third Symphony of Brahms. This was well received and led to a series of recordings of Brahms, Wagner, Schubert, Mozart and Beethoven. His repertoire in general was much wider than his discography might suggest. It was a disappointment to him that he was rarely invited to conduct in the opera house, and he relished the opportunity to record extensive excerpts from
6386-603: A strong impression with the public, and within months the LPO was playing to ninety per cent capacity audiences at the Festival Hall, far outstripping the other London orchestras. Among the composers with whom Haitink was associated were Bruckner and Mahler , whose symphonies featured frequently in the LPO's concerts during the Haitink period, as did those of Shostakovich , particularly the Tenth , which Pirouet describes as
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6592-437: A term originally applied to the instrumental introduction to an opera. During the early Romantic era, composers such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn began to use the term to refer to independent, self-existing instrumental, programmatic works that presaged genres such as the symphonic poem , a form devised by Franz Liszt in several works that began as dramatic overtures. These were "at first undoubtedly intended to be played at
6798-527: A thorough knowledge of the work, he was content to let it speak for itself without having recourse to those aids to success which are a constant temptation to conductors." Sixty-five years later, in an obituary tribute, Peter Heyworth wrote in the same newspaper: "From Nikisch he had early acquired an immaculate stick technique and was quietly scathing about conductors who used their anatomy to indicate their artistic requirements. ... In an occupation ridden with inflated egos and circus tricksters Boult brought
7004-458: A trend toward donors finding other social causes more compelling. While government funding is less central to American than European orchestras, cuts in such funding are still significant for American ensembles. Finally, the drastic drop in revenues from recording, related to changes in the recording industry itself, began a period of change that has yet to reach its conclusion. U.S. orchestras that have gone into Chapter 11 bankruptcy include
7210-461: A trombone player changing to euphonium or a bassoon player switching to contrabassoon for a certain passage), orchestras typically hire freelance musicians to augment their regular ensemble. The 20th century orchestra was far more flexible than its predecessors. In Beethoven's and Felix Mendelssohn 's time, the orchestra was composed of a fairly standard core of instruments, which was very rarely modified by composers. As time progressed, and as
7416-495: A variety of amateur orchestras: Orchestras play a wide range of repertoire ranging from 17th-century dance suites , 18th century divertimentos to 20th-century film scores and 21st-century symphonies. Orchestras have become synonymous with the symphony , an extended musical composition in Western classical music that typically contains multiple movements which provide contrasting keys and tempos. Symphonies are notated in
7622-1039: A very short list of composers whose works Boult refused to conduct, "but it would be difficult to deduce who they were." Boult's pioneering work with the BBC included an early performance of Schoenberg 's Variations, Op. 31, British premières, including Alban Berg 's opera Wozzeck and Three Movements from the Lyric Suite , and world premières, including Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 4 in F minor and Bartók 's Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra. He introduced Mahler's Ninth Symphony to London in 1934, and Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra in 1946. Boult invited Anton Webern to conduct eight BBC concerts between 1931 and 1936. The excellence of Boult's 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 Willem Mengelberg . Arturo Toscanini , widely regarded at
7828-551: A whole programme, combined such nobility of style and brilliancy of execution – not the brilliancy that stops when it has made outward forms sparkle, but a quality that seems to work from within and to suffuse everything with a rich and glowing tone-colour. Beecham took the orchestra on a controversial tour of Germany in 1936. Throughout the tour, the orchestra ignored the custom of playing the Nazi anthem before concerts, but Beecham yielded to pressure from Hitler 's government not to play
8034-529: A wide variety of conducting jobs in the years following the war. In 1919, he succeeded Ernest Ansermet as musical director of Sergei Diaghilev 's ballet company. Although Ansermet gave Boult all the help he could in his preparations, there were fourteen ballets in the company's repertory – none of which Boult knew. In only a short period, Boult was required to master such scores as Petrushka , The Firebird , Scheherazade , La Boutique fantasque and The Good-Humoured Ladies . In 1921, Boult conducted
8240-585: A wider audience. Just before the Armistice, Gustav Holst burst into my office: "Adrian, the YMCA are sending me to Salonika quite soon and Balfour Gardiner , bless his heart, has given me a parting present consisting of the Queen's Hall, full of the Queen's Hall Orchestra for the whole of a Sunday morning. So we're going to do The Planets , and you've got to conduct." Adrian Boult In 1918, Boult conducted
8446-491: A woodwind player has to complain that he has already been blowing 'fit to burst' there is trouble for somebody." The trombonist Raymond Premru wrote forty years later, "One of the old school, like Boult, is so refreshing because he will reduce the dynamic level – 'No, no, pianissimo, strings, let the soloist through, less from everyone else.' That is the old idea of balance." As an educator, Boult influenced several generations of musicians, beginning with his conducting class at
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8652-400: Is Western classical music or opera. However, orchestras are used sometimes in popular music (e.g., to accompany a rock or pop band in a concert), extensively in film music , and increasingly often in video game music . Orchestras are also used in the symphonic metal genre. The term "orchestra" can also be applied to a jazz ensemble, for example in the performance of big-band music. In
8858-520: Is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: Other instruments such as the piano , harpsichord , pipe organ , and celesta may sometimes appear in a fifth keyboard section or may stand alone as soloist instruments, as may the concert harp and, for performances of some modern compositions, electronic instruments , and guitars . A full-size Western orchestra may sometimes be called
9064-417: Is called for in a string section, the section leader invariably plays that part. The section leader (or principal) of a string section is also responsible for determining the bowings, often based on the bowings set out by the concertmaster. In some cases, the principal of a string section may use a slightly different bowing than the concertmaster, to accommodate the requirements of playing their instrument (e.g.,
9270-694: The Italian Symphony by Mendelssohn , taboo to Nazi anti-Semites . There was disquiet among some of the players that their presence in Germany gave the Nazi regime a propaganda coup. As his sixtieth birthday approached in 1939, Beecham was advised by his doctors to take a year's break from conducting, and he planned to go abroad to rest in a warm climate, leaving the orchestra in other hands. The outbreak of war on 3 September 1939 obliged him to postpone his plans for several months, while he strove to secure
9476-604: The "Eroica" Symphony arrives to provide not only some harmonic flexibility but also the effect of "choral" brass in the Trio movement. Piccolo , contrabassoon , and trombones add to the triumphal finale of his Symphony No. 5 . A piccolo and a pair of trombones help deliver the effect of storm and sunshine in the Sixth , also known as the Pastoral Symphony . The Ninth asks for a second pair of horns, for reasons similar to
9682-662: The BBC 's Wireless Symphony Orchestra and Sir Henry Wood 's Queen's Hall Orchestra. All except the last of these were essentially ad hoc ensembles, with little continuity of personnel, and none approached the excellence of the best continental and American orchestras. This became obvious in 1927 when the Berlin Philharmonic , under Wilhelm Furtwängler , gave two concerts at the Queen's Hall. The chief music critic of The Times later commented, "the British public ...
9888-804: The BBC Symphony Orchestra and became its chief conductor. The orchestra set standards of excellence that were rivalled in Britain only by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), founded two years later. Forced to leave the BBC in 1950 on reaching retirement age, Boult became principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The orchestra had declined from its peak of the 1930s, but under his guidance its fortunes were revived. He retired as its chief conductor in 1957, and later accepted
10094-628: The Bach Choir in London, a position he held until 1931. Visits to London by the Hallé Orchestra and particularly the Berlin Philharmonic under Wilhelm Furtwängler in 1929, had highlighted the relatively poor standards of London orchestras. Sir Thomas Beecham and the director general of the BBC Sir John Reith were keen to establish a first-class symphony orchestra, and they agreed in principle to do so jointly. Only
10300-456: The Baroque music of, for example, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel , or Classical repertoire, such as that of Haydn and Mozart , tend to be smaller than orchestras performing a Romantic music repertoire such as the symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms . The typical orchestra grew in size throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, reaching a peak with
10506-636: The Bolshoi Opera and were guests at the composer Dmitri Shostakovich 's 50th birthday party. After the Russian tour, Boult told the LPO that he wished to step down from the principal conductorship. He continued to be the orchestra's main conductor until his successor William Steinberg took up the post in 1959. After the sudden resignation of Andrzej Panufnik from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), Boult returned as principal conductor of
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#173277237726410712-407: The Cold War began some influential members of the LPO felt that Russell's private political affiliations compromised the orchestra, and pressed for his dismissal. Boult, as the orchestra's chief conductor, stood up for Russell, but when matters came to a head Boult ceased to protect him. Deprived of that crucial support, Russell was forced out. Kennedy speculates that Boult's change of mind was due to
10918-645: The London Classical Players under the direction of Sir Roger Norrington and the Academy of Ancient Music under Christopher Hogwood , among others. In the United States, the late 20th century saw a crisis of funding and support for orchestras. The size and cost of a symphony orchestra, compared to the size of the base of supporters, became an issue that struck at the core of the institution. Few orchestras could fill auditoriums, and
11124-531: The London Symphony Orchestra in a series of concerts that included important recent British works. Among them was the première of a revised version of Vaughan Williams's A London Symphony , a performance which was "rather spoilt by a Zeppelin raid". His best-known première of this period was Holst's The Planets . Boult conducted the first performance on 29 September 1918 to an invited audience of about 250. Holst later wrote on his copy of
11330-1113: The Philadelphia Orchestra (April 2011), and the Louisville Orchestra (December 2010); orchestras that have gone into Chapter 7 bankruptcy and have ceased operations include the Northwest Chamber Orchestra in 2006, the Honolulu Orchestra in March ;2011, the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra in April 2011, and the Syracuse Symphony in June ;2011. The Festival of Orchestras in Orlando, Florida, ceased operations at
11536-507: The Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic orchestras. Although he had worked extensively in the studio for the BBC, Boult had, up to this point, recorded only a part of his large repertoire for the gramophone. With the LPO he began a series of commercial recordings that continued at a varying rate for the rest of his working life. Their first recordings together were Elgar's Falstaff , Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with
11742-558: The Philharmonia Orchestra and RPO. After a seven-year interregnum, the LPO engaged a new principal conductor, Eduard van Beinum , in 1947. He was initially able to work with the orchestra for only six months of the year, because of restrictions on work permits for foreign nationals. Guest conductors stood in during his absences. In 1947, the London Philharmonic Choir was founded as the chorus for
11948-599: The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO). Among the conductors making guest appearances in the early post-war period were Walter, Furtwängler, Victor de Sabata and Sergiu Celibidache . Such starry events were the exception; as a rule the orchestra worked with less eminent conductors, giving an unprecedented number of performances. In 1949–50 they gave 248 concerts, compared with 103 by the London Symphony Orchestra and 32 each by
12154-477: The bassline ), played an important role; the second is a typical classical period orchestra (e.g., early Beethoven along with Mozart and Haydn ), which used a smaller group of performers than a Romantic music orchestra and a fairly standardized instrumentation; the third is typical of an early/mid-Romantic era (e.g., Schubert , Berlioz , Schumann , Brahms ); the fourth is a late-Romantic/early 20th-century orchestra (e.g., Wagner , Mahler , Stravinsky ), to
12360-440: The concert harp and electric and electronic instruments. The orchestra, depending on the size, contains almost all of the standard instruments in each group. In the history of the orchestra, its instrumentation has been expanded over time, often agreed to have been standardized by the classical period and Ludwig van Beethoven 's influence on the classical model. In the 20th and 21st century, new repertory demands expanded
12566-469: The mezzo-soprano Blanche Thebom , and Beethoven's First Symphony . The work of the new team was greeted with approval by the reviewers. Of the Elgar, The Gramophone wrote, "I have heard no other conductor approach [Boult's] performance. ... His newly adopted orchestra responds admirably". In The Manchester Guardian , Neville Cardus wrote, "Nobody is better able than Sir Adrian Boult to expound
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#173277237726412772-426: The "Eroica" (four horns has since become standard); Beethoven's use of piccolo, contrabassoon, trombones, and untuned percussion—plus chorus and vocal soloists—in his finale, are his earliest suggestion that the timbral boundaries of the symphony might be expanded. For several decades after his death, symphonic instrumentation was faithful to Beethoven's well-established model, with few exceptions. The invention of
12978-469: The "great unmentionable [topics] of orchestral playing" is " faking ", the process by which an orchestral musician gives the false "... impression of playing every note as written", typically for a very challenging passage that is very high or very fast, while not actually playing the notes that are in the printed music part. An article in The Strad states that all orchestral musicians, even those in
13184-527: The 1930 Promenade Concerts under Sir Henry 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 the new orchestra were enthusiastic. The Times wrote of its "virtuosity" and of Boult's "superb" conducting. The Musical Times commented, "The boast of
13390-755: The 1930s affected Wilson's career but not Boult's: Wilson was barred from performing in English cathedrals at the Three Choirs Festival but Boult was invited to conduct the orchestra at Westminster Abbey for the coronation of George VI in 1937. During the Second World War the BBC Symphony Orchestra was evacuated first to Bristol , where it suffered from bombing, and later to Bedford . Boult strove to maintain standards and morale as he lost key players. Between 1939 and
13596-399: The 1930s the BBC Symphony Orchestra became renowned for its high standard of playing and for Boult's capable performances of new and unfamiliar music. Like Henry Wood before him, Boult regarded it as his duty to give the best possible performances of a wide range of composers, including those whose works were not personally congenial to him. His biographer, Michael Kennedy, writes that there was
13802-539: The 1950s and 1960s the orchestra was contracted to two companies at once, and consequently appeared under the name "the Philharmonic Promenade Orchestra" in some of its recordings. In the 1960s and 1970s the orchestra was particularly associated with Lyrita , an independent company specialising in neglected British repertoire. In most LPO recordings for Lyrita the conductor was Boult; in the same period he also recorded extensively for EMI, with
14008-469: The 1951–52 season other than Boult included Ralph Vaughan Williams , Benjamin Britten and William Walton . In 1952, the LPO negotiated a five-year contract with Decca Records that was unusually rewarding for the orchestra, giving it a 10 percent commission on most sales. On top of this, Boult always contributed his share of the recording fees to the orchestra's funds. In the same year, the LPO survived
14214-617: The 19th century is generally attributed to the forces called for by Beethoven after Haydn and Mozart. Beethoven's instrumentation almost always included paired flutes , oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets. The exceptions are his Symphony No. 4 , Violin Concerto , and Piano Concerto No. 4 , which each specify a single flute. Beethoven carefully calculated the expansion of this particular timbral "palette" in Symphonies 3, 5, 6, and 9 for an innovative effect. The third horn in
14420-406: The 2000s, all tenured members of a professional orchestra normally audition for positions in the ensemble. Performers typically play one or more solo pieces of the auditionee's choice, such as a movement of a concerto, a solo Bach movement, and a variety of excerpts from the orchestral literature that are advertised in the audition poster (so the auditionees can prepare). The excerpts are typically
14626-406: The B.B.C. that it intended to get together a first-class orchestra was not an idle one" and spoke of "exhilaration" at the playing. The Observer called the playing "altogether magnificent" and said that Boult "deserves an instrument of this fine calibre to work on, and the orchestra deserves a conductor of his efficiency and insight." After the initial concerts Reith was told by his advisers that
14832-470: The BBC Symphony Orchestra, giving concerts in Brussels, Paris, Zurich, Budapest and Vienna, where they were especially well received. During his BBC years, Boult did not entirely lose contact with the world of opera and his performances of Die Walküre at Covent Garden in 1931 and Fidelio at Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1930 were considered outstanding. For many years, Boult had been a close friend of
15038-424: The BBC having attracted a large number of the finest musicians from other orchestras, many in the musical world doubted that Beecham could find enough good players. He was fortunate in the timing of the enterprise: the depressed economy had severely reduced the number of freelance dates available to orchestral players. Moreover, Beecham himself was a strong attraction to many musicians: he later commented, "I always get
15244-407: The BBC in 1938 and his promise carried no weight with his successors. In 1948 Steuart Wilson was appointed head of music at the BBC, the post previously occupied by Boult and Bliss. He made it clear from the start of his appointment that he intended that Boult should be replaced as chief conductor, and he used his authority to insist on Boult's enforced retirement. The director general of the BBC at
15450-786: The Berlin Philharmonic under Bernard Haitink, the New York Philharmonic under Kurt Masur, and the Concentus Musicus Wien under Nikolaus Harnoncourt , in a gala series of concerts celebrating the reign of Krakow as the European Cultural Capital in the Millennium Year. The concert was broadcast internationally including on PBS marking the orchestra's television debut in the United States. Jurowski had first conducted
15656-640: The Birmingham Festival Choral Society. This led to his becoming musical director of the City of Birmingham Orchestra , where he remained in charge for six years, attracting widespread attention with his adventurous programmes. The advantage of the Birmingham post was that for the first time in his life Boult not only had his own orchestra, but sole control of programming as well; the only time in his life, he later said, when that
15862-621: The British Symphony Orchestra for Vladimir Rosing 's Opera Week at Aeolian Hall. He also took on an academic post. When Hugh Allen succeeded Sir Hubert Parry as principal of the Royal College of Music , he invited Boult to start a conducting class along the lines of Leipzig – the first such class in England. Boult ran the classes from 1919 to 1930. In 1921 he received a Doctorate of Music. When Raymond Roze ,
16068-414: The British premiere of Mahler's Third Symphony . The Times later said of this period, "The Third Programme could not possibly have had the scope which made it world-famous musically without Boult." Nevertheless, Boult's BBC days were numbered. When he was appointed in 1930, Reith had informally promised him that would be exempt from the BBC's rule that staff must retire at age 60. However, Reith had left
16274-657: The CBSO for the 1959–60 season. That was his last chief conductorship, though he remained closely associated with the LPO as its president and a guest conductor until his retirement. After stepping down from the chief conductorship of the LPO, Boult was, for a few years, less in demand in the recording studio and the concert hall. Nevertheless, he was invited to conduct in Vienna, Amsterdam and Boston. In 1964 he made no recordings, but in 1965 he began an association with Lyrita records, an independent label specialising in British music. In
16480-687: The Classical era, as composers increasingly sought out financial support from the general public, orchestra concerts were increasingly held in public concert halls , where music lovers could buy tickets to hear the orchestra. Aristocratic patronage of orchestras continued during the Classical era, but this went on alongside public concerts. In the 20th and 21st century, orchestras found a new patron: governments. Many orchestras in North America and Europe receive part of their funding from national, regional level governments (e.g., state governments in
16686-569: The Far East. The conductors were Sargent and John Pritchard . The latter was appointed the LPO's chief conductor in 1962, presiding over what one player described as "an era of supremely good taste". From its outset in 1932, harpists (traditionally female) excepted, the orchestra had maintained Beecham's "men only" regime; in 1963 the rule was dropped, the first woman violinist was recruited, and within two years female players achieved equal conditions of membership with their male colleagues. Pritchard
16892-463: The LPO and the Philharmonia began negotiations that went on for years following an Arts Council proposal to name one London orchestra as the principal resident orchestra of the Festival Hall, with concomitant extra funding. The two orchestras were interested in making a counter-proposal for a joint residency, but the matter was not resolved until 1995 when their plan was finally implemented. From
17098-490: The LPO and the Philharmonia, but the idea was quickly abandoned, and in 1995, with the consent of the Arts Council, the two orchestras agreed to share the residency at the Festival Hall. In 1993, with the government of South Africa now moving towards majority rule, the orchestra accepted an invitation to tour there. Welser-Möst concluded his LPO tenure in 1996, after what The Guardian called "a fraught few years in which
17304-414: The LPO announced the extension of Canellakis' contract as principal guest conductor for an additional three years. In September 2024, the LPO announced the extension of Gardner's contract as principal conductor for an additional two years. In its early years, the LPO recorded exclusively for Columbia, a division of EMI. The orchestra's first gramophone set was made before its debut concert; with Sargent and
17510-662: The LPO at the Royal Festival Hall in December 2001, as an emergency substitute for Yuri Temirkanov . Jurowski became principal guest conductor in 2003, and conducted the orchestra in June 2007 during the concerts marking the re-opening of the refurbished Festival Hall. In September 2007, Jurowski became the LPO's eleventh principal conductor. Like his LPO predecessors Pritchard and Haitink, Jurowski also served as music director of Glyndebourne (2001–2013), where he conducted
17716-405: The LPO has ever played so beautifully, even in the days of Beecham". Solti stepped down at the end of the jubilee season, and was succeeded by Klaus Tennstedt, of whom The Times commented, "Tennstedt found the orchestra sensitive and flexible, and his players regarded him with a warmth that is by no means universally extended by musicians to their conductors". His time as chief conductor (1983–87)
17922-610: The LPO has had its own record label, issuing live recordings of concerts. The orchestra has played on numerous film soundtracks, including Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and the Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–03). In the 1920s, the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) was the city's best-known concert and recording orchestra. Others were the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra, the orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society ,
18128-638: The LPO his preferred orchestra. The LPO plays on many opera recordings, some taped live at Glyndebourne and the Festival Hall and others in the studios of Decca and EMI. They range from early works such as Cavalli's L'Ormindo (recorded 1968) and Glydebourne's staging of Handel's Theodora (1996) to central repertoire such as Così fan tutte (1974), Carmen (1975 and 2002) and Die Meistersinger (2011), and première recordings of 20th-century works including Vaughan Williams's The Pilgrim's Progress (1972), Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1979) and Eötvös 's Love and Other Demons (2008). In
18334-413: The LPO negotiated a five-year contract with Decca Records , which was unusually rewarding for the orchestra, giving it a 10 per cent commission on most sales. On top of this, Boult always contributed his share of the recording fees to the orchestra's funds. In the same year, the LPO survived a crisis when Russell was dismissed as its managing director. He was an avowed member of the Communist party ; when
18540-415: The LPO there in operas by Britten, Mozart, Puccini , Richard Strauss, Verdi , Wagner , and others. During Jurowski's LPO tenure, principal guest conductors of the LPO have included Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Andrés Orozco-Estrada . Jurowski concluded his LPO tenure at the close of the 2020-2021 season, and now has the title of conductor emeritus of the LPO. In 2003, Edward Gardner first guest-conducted
18746-548: The LPO's business manager, and the management board included the orchestra's principal benefactors: Courtauld, Mayer and d'Erlanger. After twelve rehearsals, the orchestra made its debut at the Queen's Hall on 7 October 1932, conducted by Beecham. but now he assumed a new seriousness, always arriving punctually. After the first item, Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture , the audience went wild, some of them standing on their seats to clap and shout. In The Sunday Times Ernest Newman wrote, "Nothing so electrifying has been heard in
18952-427: The LPO. Van Beinum's poor health obliged him to resign in 1950. Sir Adrian Boult accepted an invitation from the LPO's managing director, Thomas Russell, to take up the principal conductorship. With Boult the LPO began a series of commercial recordings, beginning with Elgar's Falstaff , Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with the mezzo-soprano Blanche Thebom , and Beethoven's First Symphony . The work of
19158-448: The LPO. In July 2019, the LPO announced the appointment of Gardner as its next principal conductor, effective with the 2021-2022 season, with an initial contract of five years. In October 2018, Karina Canellakis first guest-conducted the LPO. In April 2020, the LPO announced the appointment of Canellakis as its new principal guest conductor, the first female conductor ever named to the post, effective from September 2020. In February 2024,
19364-522: The Romantic period saw changes in accepted modification with composers such as Berlioz and Mahler; some composers used multiple harps and sound effect such as the wind machine . During the 20th century, the modern orchestra was generally standardized with the modern instrumentation listed below. Nevertheless, by the mid- to late 20th century, with the development of contemporary classical music , instrumentation could practically be hand-picked by
19570-687: The Royal Choral Society the LPO recorded choruses from Messiah and The Creation at Kingsway Hall in September 1932. The first Abbey Road recording was in October, under Sir Henry Wood. Beecham's first discs with the orchestra were made in January 1933, with his ballet suite The Origin of Design , arranged from music by Handel . From then until his last LPO recording in December 1945 Beecham recorded ninety-nine 78-rpm sets with
19776-444: The Royal College of Music, London, which he ran from 1919 to 1930. As no such classes had been held before in Britain, Boult "created its curriculum from out of his own experience. ... From that first small class has come all the later formal training for conductors throughout Britain." In the 1930s Boult ran a series of "conferences for conductors" at his country house near Guildford , sometimes helped by Vaughan Williams who lived
19982-736: The Royal Philharmonic Society, played for Beecham's opera seasons at Covent Garden, and made more than 300 gramophone records. The total number of works, as opposed to discs, recorded by the LPO and Beecham was less than a hundred. There were a few guest conductors for the Sunday concerts, but most were conducted by Beecham. In the Courtauld-Sargent series the LPO played not only under Sargent but under many guests including Bruno Walter , George Szell , Fritz Busch and Igor Stravinsky . In addition to London engagements,
20188-613: The Royal Philharmonic Society, the Royal Choral Society , the Courtauld-Sargent Concerts, Mayer's concerts for children, and the international opera season at Covent Garden . During his earlier negotiations with the BBC, Beecham had proposed the title "London Philharmonic Orchestra", which was now adopted for the new ensemble. With the aid of the impresario Harold Holt and other influential and informed contacts he recruited 106 players. They included
20394-476: The Second World War the LPO was widely judged to have succeeded in this regard. After the outbreak of war, the orchestra's private backers withdrew and the players reconstituted the LPO as a self-governing cooperative. In the post-war years, the orchestra faced challenges from two new rivals, the Philharmonia and the Royal Philharmonic . Founded respectively in 1945 and 1946, these orchestras achieved
20600-507: The Second World War, and then did little soundtrack work until the 1970s, with the major exception of Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Later scores have included those for Antony and Cleopatra (1972), Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), Disney's Tron (1982), The Fly (1986), Dead Ringers (1988), In the Name of the Father (1993), the Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–03) and most of
20806-472: The U.S.) or city governments. These government subsidies make up part of orchestra revenue, along with ticket sales, charitable donations (if the orchestra is registered as a charity) and other fundraising activities. With the invention of successive technologies, including sound recording , radio broadcasting , television broadcasting and Internet-based streaming and downloading of concert videos, orchestras have been able to find new revenue sources. One of
21012-525: The US, Western Europe, the Soviet Union, and, in 1972, China, long inaccessible to Western musicians, where the orchestra met an enthusiastic welcome. In 1973, the LPO was caught up in a recurring phenomenon of London orchestral life: the conviction in official circles that having four independent orchestras is too much for one city, and that two or more of the existing ensembles should merge. On this occasion
21218-808: The VPO now uses completely screened blind auditions . In 2013, an article in Mother Jones stated that while "[m]any prestigious orchestras have significant female membership — women outnumber men in the New York Philharmonic 's violin section — and several renowned ensembles, including the National Symphony Orchestra , the Detroit Symphony , and the Minnesota Symphony, are led by women violinists",
21424-813: The Wagner operas in the 1970s. Having conducted several ballets at Covent Garden during the 1970s, Boult gave his last public performance conducting Elgar's ballet The Sanguine Fan for the London Festival Ballet at the London Coliseum on 24 June 1978. His final record, completed in December 1978, was of music by Hubert Parry. Boult formally retired from conducting in 1981. He died in London in 1983, aged 93, leaving his body to medical science . A review in The Observer of Boult's second London concert, in 1918, said, "Having, apparently,
21630-469: The calling card of the orchestra and conductor. With Vladimir Ashkenazy , Haitink and the LPO gave a six-concert cycle of the Beethoven symphonies and piano concertos, for which the Festival Hall was full to capacity. In The Times , Joan Chissell described the orchestra's playing as "worthy of any festival". There was some discontent within the LPO that Haitink's prolific recordings were almost always with
21836-410: The case of the first violins, an assistant concertmaster, who often plays a tutti part in addition to replacing the principal in their absence. A section string player plays in unison with the rest of the section, except in the case of divided ( divisi ) parts, where upper and lower parts in the music are often assigned to "outside" (nearer the audience) and "inside" seated players. Where a solo part
22042-416: The classical era, the orchestra became more standardized with a small to medium-sized string section and a core wind section consisting of pairs of oboes, flutes, bassoons and horns, sometimes supplemented by percussion and pairs of clarinets and trumpets. The so-called "standard complement" of doubled winds and brass in the orchestra pioneered in the late 18th century and consolidated during the first half of
22248-498: The common complement of a 2010-era modern orchestra (e.g., Adams , Barber , Aaron Copland , Glass , Penderecki ). Among the instrument groups and within each group of instruments, there is a generally accepted hierarchy. Every instrumental group (or section) has a principal who is generally responsible for leading the group and playing orchestral solos. The violins are divided into two groups, first violin and second violin, with
22454-406: The composer (e.g., to add electric instruments such as electric guitar, electronic instruments such as synthesizers, ondes martenot , or trautonium , as well as other non-Western instruments, or other instruments not traditionally used in orchestras including the: bandoneon , free bass accordion , harmonica , jews harp , mandola and water percussion. With this history in mind,
22660-455: The composer wrote to him: "With the sounds ringing in my ears I send a word of thanks for your splendid conducting of the Sym. ... I feel that my reputation in the future is safe in your hands." Elgar's friend and biographer, the violinist W. H. Reed , wrote that Boult's performance of Elgar's neglected work brought "the grandeur and nobility of the work" to wider public attention. Boult took
22866-551: The concertmaster, or by a chord-playing musician performing the basso continuo parts on a harpsichord or pipe organ , a tradition that some 20th-century and 21st-century early music ensembles continue. Orchestras play a wide range of repertoire, including symphonies, opera and ballet overtures , concertos for solo instruments, and pit ensembles for operas, ballets, and some types of musical theatre (e.g., Gilbert and Sullivan operettas ). Amateur orchestras include youth orchestras made up of students from an elementary school,
23072-413: The conductor and the panel to compare the best candidates. Performers may be asked to sight read orchestral music. The final stage of the audition process in some orchestras is a test week , in which the performer plays with the orchestra for a week or two, which allows the conductor and principal players to see if the individual can function well in an actual rehearsal and performance setting. There are
23278-662: The conductor of the theatre orchestra, as he elaborated in his influential work On Conducting . This brought about a revolution in orchestral composition and set the style for orchestral performance for the next eighty years. Wagner's theories re-examined the importance of tempo , dynamics , bowing of string instruments and the role of principals in the orchestra. At the beginning of the 20th century, symphony orchestras were larger, better funded, and better trained than previously; consequently, composers could compose larger and more ambitious works. The works of Gustav Mahler were particularly innovative; in his later symphonies, such as
23484-443: The core orchestral complement, various other instruments are called for occasionally. These include the flugelhorn and cornet . Saxophones and classical guitars, for example, appear in some 19th- through 21st-century scores. While appearing only as featured solo instruments in some works, for example Maurice Ravel 's orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky 's Pictures at an Exhibition and Sergei Rachmaninoff 's Symphonic Dances ,
23690-482: The coronation of Elizabeth II . During the proceedings, he conducted the first performances of Bliss's Processional and Walton's march Orb and Sceptre . In the same year he returned to the Proms after a three-year absence, conducting the LPO. The notices were mixed: The Times found a Brahms symphony "rather colourless, imprecise and uninspiring", but praised Boult and the orchestra's performance of The Planets . In
23896-436: The double bass, brass, and percussion sections of major orchestras "... are still predominantly male." A 2014 BBC article stated that the "... introduction of 'blind' auditions, where a prospective instrumentalist performs behind a screen so that the judging panel can exercise no gender or racial prejudice, has seen the gender balance of traditionally male-dominated symphony orchestras gradually shift." There are also
24102-400: The double-bass section). Principals of a string section will also lead entrances for their section, typically by lifting the bow before the entrance, to ensure the section plays together. Tutti wind and brass players generally play a unique but non-solo part. Section percussionists play parts assigned to them by the principal percussionist. In modern times, the musicians are usually directed by
24308-428: The end of March 2011. One source of financial difficulties that received notice and criticism was high salaries for music directors of US orchestras, which led several high-profile conductors to take pay cuts in recent years. Music administrators such as Michael Tilson Thomas and Esa-Pekka Salonen argued that new music, new means of presenting it, and a renewed relationship with the community could revitalize
24514-477: The end of the 1978–79 season, Solti, who had been principal guest conductor since 1971, agreed to succeed him. In 1982, the orchestra celebrated its golden jubilee . At the anniversary concert Solti conducted the programme with which Beecham had inaugurated the LPO. Pirouet comments that with the exception of Delius 's Brigg Fair , the music was as ideally suited to Solti's musical persona as to Beecham's. In The Guardian , Edward Greenfield wrote, "I doubt if
24720-515: The end of the war Boult "found a changed attitude to the orchestra in the upper echelons of the BBC". Reith was no longer director general, and without his backing Boult had to fight hard to restore the orchestra to its pre-war glory. On 29 September 1946 Boult conducted Britten 's new Festival Overture , to inaugurate the BBC Third Programme . For this innovative cultural channel, Boult was concerned in pioneering ventures including
24926-482: The end of the war, forty players left for active service or other activities. In 1942 Boult resigned as the BBC's director of music, while remaining chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. This move, made as a favour to the composer Arthur Bliss to provide a suitable war-time job for him, later came to be Boult's undoing at the BBC. Meanwhile, he made recordings of Elgar's Second Symphony, Holst's The Planets and Vaughan Williams's Job, A Masque for Dancing . At
25132-426: The ensemble. The conductor also prepares the orchestra by leading rehearsals before the public concert, in which the conductor provides instructions to the musicians on their interpretation of the music being performed. The leader of the first violin section – commonly called the concertmaster – also plays an important role in leading the musicians. In the Baroque music era (1600–1750), orchestras were often led by
25338-533: The final and most glorious period of his career developed." He ceased to accept overseas invitations, but conducted in the major British cities, as well as at the Festival and Albert Halls and began what is frequently called his "Indian Summer" in the concert hall and recording studio. He was featured in a 1971 film The Point of the Stick , in which he illustrated his conducting technique with musical examples. At
25544-460: The first season included the singer Eva Turner and the pianists Harriet Cohen and Clifford Curzon . In November 1932 the sixteen-year-old Yehudi Menuhin played a programme of violin concertos; those by Bach and Mozart were conducted by Beecham, and the Elgar concerto was conducted by the composer. During the next eight years, the LPO appeared nearly a hundred times at the Queen's Hall for
25750-434: The first systematic treatise on using instrumental sound as an expressive element of music. The next major expansion of symphonic practice came from Richard Wagner 's Bayreuth orchestra, founded to accompany his musical dramas. Wagner's works for the stage were scored with unprecedented scope and complexity: indeed, his score to Das Rheingold calls for six harps . Thus, Wagner envisioned an ever-more-demanding role for
25956-811: The founder of the British Symphony Orchestra died in March 1920, Boult took over. He conducted the orchestra, made up of professional musicians who had served in the Army during the First World War, in a series of concerts at the Kingsway Hall . In 1923 Boult conducted the first season of the Robert Mayer concerts for children, but his participation in the following season was prevented by his appointment in 1924 as conductor of
26162-439: The full range of orchestral sounds and timbres during the performance of orthodox Western classical music. The terms symphony orchestra and philharmonic orchestra may be used to distinguish different ensembles from the same locality, such as the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra . A symphony or philharmonic orchestra will usually have over eighty musicians on its roster, in some cases over
26368-522: The future of the orchestra, whose financial guarantees had been withdrawn by its backers when war was declared. The original LPO company was liquidated and Beecham raised large sums of money for the orchestra, helping its members to form themselves into a self-governing body. During the war, the LPO played in the capital and on continual tours of Britain, under Sargent and other conductors, including 50 under Richard Tauber , bringing orchestral concerts to places where they had rarely if ever been given. Many of
26574-543: The head of a programme". In the 1850s the concert overture began to be supplanted by the symphonic poem. Orchestras also play with instrumental soloists in concertos. During concertos, the orchestra plays an accompaniment role to the soloist (e.g., a solo violinist or pianist) and, at times, introduces musical themes or interludes while the soloist is not playing. Orchestras also play during operas, ballets, some musical theatre works and some choral works (both sacred works such as Masses and secular works). In operas and ballets,
26780-400: The high hopes placed in him were somehow not fulfilled." After the departure of Welser-Möst, the LPO was without a principal conductor for four years. During the interregnum, the orchestra inaugurated its "Roots Classical Fusions" series, which aimed to combine musical traditions from around the world; this was part of an education and community programme launched by the orchestra. Kurt Masur
26986-503: The instrumentation of the orchestra, resulting in a flexible use of the classical-model instruments and newly developed electric and electronic instruments in various combinations. In the mid 20th century, several attempts were made in Germany and the United States to confine the instrumentation of the symphonic orchestra exclusively to groups of one instrument. In this configuration, the symphonic orchestra consisted entirely of free-reed chromatic accordions which were modified to recreate
27192-467: The label's releases. The orchestra lists among its best-selling recordings Mahler's Eighth Symphony , conducted by Tennstedt, and works by Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky with Jurowski. Although not rivalling the LSO's total of more than 200 film score recordings, the LPO has played for a number of soundtracks, starting in 1936 with Whom the Gods Love . The orchestra played for ten films made during
27398-411: The label, Stravinsky's Petrushka , conducted by Ernest Ansermet , was followed by a large number of sessions as the company rebuilt its catalogue after the war. Among those who recorded with the orchestra for Decca were van Beinum, Sargent, de Sabata, Furtwängler, Charles Munch , Clemens Krauss , Hans Knappertsbusch , Erich Kleiber and the young Solti. The orchestra's first stereophonic recording
27604-641: The lack of good rehearsal space and facilities. In 1973, acting jointly with the LSO, the LPO acquired and began restoring a disused church in Southwark , converting it into the Henry Wood Hall , a convenient and acoustically excellent rehearsal space and recording studio, opened in 1975. Guest conductors in the 1970s included Erich Leinsdorf , Carlo Maria Giulini , Eugen Jochum , Riccardo Chailly , Klaus Tennstedt and Solti. When Haitink announced in 1977 that he would step down as principal conductor at
27810-411: The large orchestras of as many as 120 players called for in the works of Richard Wagner and later Gustav Mahler . Orchestras are usually led by a conductor who directs the performance with movements of the hands and arms, often made easier for the musicians to see by using a short wooden rod known as a conductor's baton . The conductor unifies the orchestra, sets the tempo , and shapes the sound of
28016-479: The limelight, Boult felt as comfortable in the recording studio as on the concert platform, making recordings throughout his career. From the mid-1960s until his retirement after his last sessions in 1978 he recorded extensively for EMI . As well as a series of recordings that have remained in the catalogue for three or four decades, Boult's legacy includes his influence on prominent conductors of later generations, including Sir Colin Davis and Vernon Handley . Boult
28222-526: The mammoth Symphony No. 8 , Mahler pushes the furthest boundaries of orchestral size, employing large forces. By the late Romantic era, orchestras could support the most enormous forms of symphonic expression, with huge string and brass sections and an expanded range of percussion instruments. With the recording era beginning, the standards of performance were pushed to a new level, because a recorded symphony could be listened to closely and even minor errors in intonation or ensemble, which might not be noticeable in
28428-405: The military in his appearance ... he seemed the personification of the English gentleman. But recipients of his cutting wit and occasional sarcasm knew that this was not the whole picture." Grove's Dictionary similarly said of him: Of the leading British conductors of his time, Boult was the least sensational but not the least remarkable. He made no attempt to cultivate a public image. He
28634-445: The most technically challenging parts and solos from the orchestral literature. Orchestral auditions are typically held in front of a panel that includes the conductor, the concertmaster , the principal player of the section for which the auditionee is applying, and possibly other principal players. The most promising candidates from the first round of auditions are invited to return for a second or third round of auditions, which allows
28840-402: The music as a whole, produced results equally satisfying in the classics and the British music he understood so well. Boult, unlike many of his contemporaries, preferred the traditional orchestral layout , with first violins on the conductor's left and the seconds on the right. Of the modern layout with all violins on the left, he wrote, "The new seating is, I admit, easier for the conductor and
29046-623: The music for the three films derived from The Hobbit (2012–14). In 2013, the LPO recorded several new arrangements of rock songs by Japanese rock star Yoshiki on his studio album Yoshiki Classical . The orchestra has made many non-classical recordings, including such titles as Hawaiian Paradise (1959), Evita (1976), Broadway Gold (1978), Folk Music of the Region of Asturias (1984), Academy Award Themes (1984), Japanese Light Music (1993), The Symphonic Music of Pink Floyd (1994) and The Symphonic Music of The Who (1995). In May 2011
29252-800: The musical staff of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden , where his most important work was to assist with the first British production of Wagner 's Parsifal , and do "odd jobs with lighting cues" while Nikisch conducted the Ring cycle. Boult made his début as a professional conductor on 27 February 1914 at West Kirby Public Hall, with members of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra . His programme comprised orchestral works by Bach , Butterworth, Mozart , Schumann , Wagner and Hugo Wolf , interspersed with arias by Mozart and Verdi sung by Agnes Nicholls . Boult
29458-792: The new team was greeted with approval by reviewers. Of the Elgar, the reviewer in The Gramophone wrote, "I have heard no other conductor approach [Boult's] performance. ... His newly adopted orchestra responds admirably". In January 1951, Boult and the LPO made a tour of Germany, described by Boult's biographer Michael Kennedy as "gruelling", with twelve concerts in as many days. The symphonies they played were Beethoven's Seventh , Haydn's London , No 104 , Brahms's First , Schumann's Fourth and Schubert's Great C major . The other works were Elgar's Introduction and Allegro , Holst's The Perfect Fool ballet music, Richard Strauss 's Don Juan , and Stravinsky's Firebird . Conductors of
29664-408: The next months Beecham and the orchestra gave further concerts with considerable success, but the LPO players, now their own employers, declined to give him the unfettered control that he had exercised in the 1930s. If he were to become chief conductor again it would be as a paid employee of the orchestra. Beecham, unwilling to be answerable to anybody, left the LPO and in 1946 founded a rival orchestra,
29870-525: The orchestra "was at best marking time". In 1958, the LPO appointed William Steinberg , also music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra , as chief conductor. He was a noted orchestral trainer, and did much to restore playing standards to their former levels. Steinberg resigned the LPO post after two seasons, advised by his doctor to restrict his activities. In 1962, the LPO undertook its first tour of India, Australia, and
30076-436: The orchestra accompanies the singers and dancers, respectively, and plays overtures and interludes where the melodies played by the orchestra take centre stage. In the Baroque era, orchestras performed in a range of venues, including at the fine houses of aristocrats, in opera halls and in churches. Some wealthy aristocrats had an orchestra in residence at their estate, to entertain them and their guests with performances. During
30282-408: The orchestra and repertoire than the BBC was willing to concede, and his priorities were the opera house and the concert hall rather than the broadcasting studio. The BBC went ahead without him, and under its director of music, Adrian Boult , launched the BBC Symphony Orchestra in October 1930, to immense acclaim. In 1931, Beecham was approached by the rising young conductor Malcolm Sargent with
30488-514: The orchestra can be analysed in five eras: the Baroque era , the Classical era , early/mid- Romantic music era, late-Romantic era and combined Modern/Postmodern eras . The first is a Baroque orchestra (i.e., J.S. Bach , Handel , Vivaldi ), which generally had a smaller number of performers, and in which one or more chord-playing instruments, the basso continuo group (e.g., harpsichord or pipe organ and assorted bass instruments to perform
30694-556: The orchestra celebrated its 21st birthday, giving a series of concerts at the Festival Hall and the Albert Hall in which Boult was joined by guest conductors including Paul Kletzki , Jean Martinon , Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt , Georg Solti , Walter Susskind and Vaughan Williams. In 1956 the LPO toured the Soviet Union , the first British orchestra to do so; the conductors were Boult, Anatole Fistoulari and George Hurst , and
30900-464: The orchestra gathered [on 28 February 1997] in an extraordinary meeting on the eve of their departure and agreed to admit a woman, Anna Lelkes, as harpist." As of 2013, the orchestra has six female members; one of them, violinist Albena Danailova, became one of the orchestra's concertmasters in 2008, the first woman to hold that position in that orchestra. In 2012, women made up 6% of the orchestra's membership. VPO president Clemens Hellsberg said
31106-422: The orchestra gave fund-raising concerts in which guests from outside the world of classical music appeared, including Danny Kaye , Duke Ellington and Tony Bennett . Its regular complement at the end of the decade was 88 players. In 1967, the LPO appointed Bernard Haitink as its principal conductor. He remained with the orchestra for twelve years, to date (2018) the longest tenure of the post. His concerts made
31312-487: 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. He later said that this was a rash decision, and that he could not have sustained the two roles at once without the efforts of his staff in the music department, which included Edward Clark , Julian Herbage and Kenneth Wright . During
31518-521: The orchestra played regularly in the larger provincial cities and towns. Its first tour, in March and April 1933, started in Bristol and ended in Manchester, taking in thirteen other venues in England, Ireland and Scotland. After the last concert, The Manchester Guardian's reviewer wrote: Never before in our experience of concert-going in Manchester have we heard orchestral playing which, throughout
31724-516: The orchestra recorded the 205 national anthems to be used at medal ceremonies at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London the following year. The LPO performed a version of " Move Closer to Your World " by WPVI-TV for a brief period in 1996. The LPO has been condemned by health experts for accepting sponsorship from Japan Tobacco International ( JTI ). Orchestra An orchestra ( / ˈ ɔːr k ɪ s t r ə / ; OR -ki-strə )
31930-427: The orchestra was then associated were committed to other projects until the 1990s, and those possible contenders such as Semyon Bychkov and Franz Welser-Möst were largely unknown in London. No successor was appointed until 1990 when Welser-Möst was named as the new principal conductor. His tenure was controversial; he received the nickname "Frankly Worse than Most" and many harshly critical reviews. He brought with him
32136-479: The orchestra's "youthful dash and virtuosity ... at last we have an independent orchestra which rivals the BBC Symphony Orchestra". In its first season, the LPO played at eighteen concerts in the Courtauld-Sargent series; ten Royal Philharmonic Society concerts; fifteen "International Celebrity Tours" and sixteen Sunday afternoon concerts for Holt's agency, as well as Robert Mayer's children's concerts, Royal Choral Society evenings and other engagements. Soloists in
32342-676: The orchestra's press secretary wrote that "compensating for the expected leaves of absence" of maternity leave would be a problem. In 1997, the Vienna Philharmonic was "facing protests during a [US] tour" by the National Organization for Women and the International Alliance for Women in Music . Finally, "after being held up to increasing ridicule even in socially conservative Austria, members of
32548-474: The orchestra. Other conductors who worked in the EMI studios with the orchestra in its early years included Elgar, Felix Weingartner , John Barbirolli , and Serge Koussevitzky . Soloists in concerto recordings included the pianists Artur Schnabel and Alfred Cortot and the violinists Fritz Kreisler and Jascha Heifetz . In 1946, the orchestra began recording for Decca, EMI's rival. The LPO's first recording for
32754-600: The other orchestra of which he was the chief conductor, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Pirouet comments that as Haitink recorded exclusively for the Dutch firm Philips it was to be expected that the Amsterdam orchestra would be preferred, and in any case the LPO was recording extensively with Boult, Solti, Daniel Barenboim and many others. In the 1970s international tours continued, with itineraries taking in
32960-527: The outset of the LPO's existence as a self-governing co-operative in 1939, its chief executive had always been appointed from within the orchestra's ranks. In 1985 this tradition was broken with the recruitment of John Willan, a qualified accountant as well as an alumnus of the Royal Academy of Music and a successful recording producer for EMI. In August 1987 Tennstedt, taken ill at a rehearsal, felt so unequal to continuing in his post that he resigned on
33166-446: The piston and rotary valve by Heinrich Stölzel and Friedrich Blühmel , both Silesians , in 1815, was the first in a series of innovations which impacted the orchestra, including the development of modern keywork for the flute by Theobald Boehm and the innovations of Adolphe Sax in the woodwinds, notably the invention of the saxophone. These advances would lead Hector Berlioz to write a landmark book on instrumentation , which were
33372-456: The players' instruments were lost when the Queen's Hall was destroyed by German bombing in May 1941; an appeal was broadcast by the BBC, the response to which was enormous, with instruments donated by the public enabling the orchestra to continue. On Beecham's return to England in 1944, the LPO welcomed him back, and in October they gave a concert together that drew superlatives from the critics. Over
33578-595: The players. Among other considerations, they are so good they refuse to play under anybody but me." In a study of the foundation of the LPO, David Patmore writes, "The combination of steady work, occasionally higher than usual rates, variety of performance and Beecham's own magnetic personality would make such an offering irresistible to many orchestral musicians." Beecham and Sargent had financial backing from leading figures in commerce, including Samuel Courtauld , Robert Mayer and Baron Frédéric d'Erlanger , and secured profitable contracts to record for Columbia and play for
33784-484: The post of president. Although in the latter part of his career he worked with several other orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra , the Philharmonia Orchestra , the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra , and his former orchestra, the BBC Symphony, it was the LPO with which he was primarily associated, conducting it in concerts and recordings until 1978, in what was widely called his " Indian summer ". Boult
33990-403: The post of principal conductor of the LPO in succession to Eduard van Beinum . In the 1930s the LPO had flourished, but since Beecham's departure in 1940, it had struggled to survive. Boult was well known to the orchestra, having been among the musicians who came to its aid in 1940. He took over as chief conductor of the LPO in June 1950, immediately after leaving the BBC, and threw himself into
34196-419: The pre-concert tuning and handles musical aspects of orchestra management, such as determining the bowings for the violins or the entire string section. The concertmaster usually sits to the conductor's left, closest to the audience. There is also a principal second violin, a principal viola, a principal cello, and a principal bass. The principal trombone is considered the leader of the low brass section, while
34402-528: The principal trumpet is generally considered the leader of the entire brass section. While the oboe often provides the tuning note for the orchestra (due to a 300-year-old convention), there is generally no designated principal of the woodwind section (though in woodwind ensembles, the flute is often the presumptive leader). Instead, each principal confers with the others as equals in the case of musical differences of opinion. Most sections also have an assistant principal (or co-principal or associate principal), or in
34608-590: The repertoire expected by the regular concert-goers depressed the box-office takings, requiring subsidies from private benefactors, including Boult's family. While at Birmingham Boult had the opportunity to conduct a number of operas, chiefly with the British National Opera Company , for which he conducted Die Walküre and Otello . He also conducted a diverse range of operas from such composers as Purcell , Mozart and Vaughan Williams. In 1928 he succeeded Vaughan Williams as conductor of
34814-725: The residency has been jointly held with the Philharmonia. In addition to its work at the Festival Hall and Glyndebourne, the LPO performs regularly at the Congress Theatre , Eastbourne and the Brighton Dome , and tours nationally and internationally. Since Beecham, the orchestra has had ten principal conductors, including Sir Adrian Boult , Bernard Haitink , Sir Georg Solti , Klaus Tennstedt and Vladimir Jurowski . The orchestra has been active in recording studios since its earliest days, and has played on hundreds of sets made by EMI , Decca and other companies. Since 2005
35020-425: The same year he resumed recording for EMI after a six-year break. Celebrations for his eightieth birthday in 1969 also raised his profile in the musical world. After the death of his colleague Sir John Barbirolli in 1970, Boult was seen as "the sole survivor of a great generation" and a living link with Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Holst. In the words of The Guardian , "it was when he reached his late seventies that
35226-568: The same year the orchestra celebrated its 21st birthday, giving a series of concerts at the Festival Hall and the Royal Albert Hall in which Boult was joined by guest conductors including Paul Kletzki , Jean Martinon , Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt , Georg Solti , Walter Susskind and Vaughan Williams. In 1956 Boult and the LPO visited Russia. Boult had not wished to go on the tour because flying hurt his ears, and long land journeys hurt his back. The Soviet authorities threatened to cancel
35432-593: The saxophone is included in other works, such as Ravel's Boléro , Sergei Prokofiev 's Romeo and Juliet Suites 1 and 2 , Vaughan Williams ' Symphonies No. 6 and No. 9 , and William Walton 's Belshazzar's Feast , and many other works as a member of the orchestral ensemble. The euphonium is featured in a few late Romantic and 20th century works , usually playing parts marked "tenor tuba", including Gustav Holst 's The Planets , and Richard Strauss 's Ein Heldenleben . The Wagner tuba ,
35638-473: The score, "This copy is the property of Adrian Boult who first caused The Planets to shine in public and thereby earned the gratitude of Gustav Holst." Elgar was another composer who had cause to be grateful to Boult. His Second Symphony had, since its premiere nine years earlier, received few performances. When Boult conducted it at the Queen's Hall in March 1920 to "great applause" and "frantic enthusiasm",
35844-413: The second violins playing in lower registers than the first violins, playing an accompaniment part, or harmonizing the melody played by the first violins. The principal first violin is called the concertmaster (or orchestra "leader" in the U.K.) and is not only considered the leader of the string section, but the second-in-command of the entire orchestra, behind only the conductor. The concertmaster leads
36050-563: The second violins, but I firmly maintain that the second violins themselves sound far better on the right. ... When the new fashion reached us from America somewhere about 1908 it was adopted by some conductors, but Richter, Weingartner, Walter, Toscanini and many others kept what I feel is the right balance." This care for balance was an important feature of Boult's music-making. Orchestral players across decades commented on his insistence that every important part should be heard without difficulty. His BBC principal violist wrote in 1938, "If
36256-486: The sole resident orchestra of the Festival Hall. This proved a mixed blessing: the Southbank Centre management now had a say over concert programming, and insisted on the inclusion of works by obscure composers which did severe damage to box-office receipts. In 1993 another official attempt to create a "super-orchestra" at the expense of one or more of the existing London ensembles briefly damaged relations between
36462-457: The soloists were Alfredo Campoli and Moura Lympany . After the tour Boult retired as principal conductor, but remained closely associated with the orchestra, and was made its President in 1965. Most of his stereophonic recordings for EMI were made with the LPO. Through the middle and late 1950s, the LPO worked with new conductors including Constantin Silvestri and Josef Krips . This was
36668-419: The spot. He continued to appear with the LPO as a guest, with the title of "conductor laureate"; in 1989 Richard Morrison of The Times wrote that the LPO still played better for Tennstedt than for anyone else. Tennstedt's resignation was a severe blow to the orchestra, and there was no obvious successor: Morrison observed that the best-known conductors – Barenboim, Riccardo Muti and Simon Rattle – with whom
36874-514: The subtly mingled contents of this master work." In January 1951 Boult and the LPO made a tour of Germany, described by Kennedy as "gruelling", with 12 concerts on 12 successive days. The symphonies they played were Beethoven's Seventh , Haydn's London , No 104 , Brahms's First , Schumann's Fourth and Schubert's Great C major . The other works were Elgar's Introduction and Allegro , Holst's The Perfect Fool ballet music, Richard Strauss's Don Juan , and Stravinsky's Firebird . In 1952
37080-459: The symphony orchestra. The American critic Greg Sandow has argued in detail that orchestras must revise their approach to music, performance, the concert experience, marketing, public relations, community involvement, and presentation to bring them in line with the expectations of 21st century audiences immersed in popular culture. Adrian Boult Sir Adrian Cedric Boult , CH ( / b oʊ l t / ; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983)
37286-468: The targets were the LPO and the New Philharmonia; the latter, a self-governing body formed under its new name when the Philharmonia was disbanded in 1964, was going through a bad patch, professionally and financially. The proposed merger would inevitably have led to redundancies, and the player-owners of both orchestras rejected the plan. One of the constant difficulties of London orchestras was
37492-418: The task of rebuilding it. In the early years of his conductorship, the finances of the LPO were perilous, and Boult subsidised the orchestra from his own funds for some time. The need to earn money obliged the orchestra to play many more concerts than its rivals. In the 1949–50 season, the LPO gave 248 concerts, compared with 55 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, 103 by the London Symphony Orchestra, and 32 apiece by
37698-593: The tenor Steuart Wilson and his wife Ann, née Bowles. When, in the late 1920s, Wilson began to mistreat his wife, Boult took her side. She divorced Wilson in 1931. In 1933, Boult astonished those who knew his notorious shyness with women by marrying her and becoming a much-loved stepfather to her four children; the marriage lasted for the rest of his life. The enmity it provoked in Wilson had repercussions in Boult's later career. The stigma attached to divorce in Britain in
37904-422: The time as the world's leading conductor, conducted the BBC orchestra in 1935 and said that it was the finest he had ever directed. He returned to conduct the orchestra in 1937, 1938 and 1939. During this period, Boult accepted some international guest conductorships, appearing with the Vienna Philharmonic , Boston Symphony , and New York Philharmonic orchestras. In 1936 and 1937 he headed European tours with
38110-425: The time, Sir William Haley , was unaware of Wilson's animus against Boult and later acknowledged, in a broadcast tribute to Boult, that he "had listened to ill-judged advice in retiring him." By the time of his retirement in 1950, Boult had made 1,536 broadcasts. After it became clear that Boult would have to leave the BBC, Thomas Russell, the managing director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), offered him
38316-411: The time-honored season-subscription system became increasingly anachronistic, as more and more listeners would buy tickets on an ad-hoc basis for individual events. Orchestral endowments and — more centrally to the daily operation of American orchestras — orchestral donors have seen investment portfolios shrink, or produce lower yields, reducing the ability of donors to contribute; further, there has been
38522-406: The top orchestras, occasionally fake certain passages. One reason that musicians fake is because there are not enough rehearsals. Another factor is the extreme challenges in 20th century and 21st century contemporary pieces; some professionals said "faking" was "necessary in anything from ten to almost ninety per cent of some modern works". Professional players who were interviewed were of
38728-461: The tour if he did not lead it, and he felt obliged to go. The LPO gave nine concerts in Moscow and four in Leningrad . Boult's assistant conductors were Anatole Fistoulari and George Hurst . Boult's four Moscow programmes included Vaughan Williams's Fourth and Fifth Symphonies, Holst's The Planets , Walton's Violin Concerto (with Alfredo Campoli as soloist), and Schubert's Great C major Symphony. While in Moscow, Boult and his wife visited
38934-530: The various European regions. The Baroque orchestra ranged from smaller orchestras (or ensembles) with one player per part, to larger-scale orchestras with many players per part. Examples of the smaller variety were Bach's orchestras, for example in Koethen, where he had access to an ensemble of up to 18 players. Examples of large-scale Baroque orchestras would include Corelli's orchestra in Rome which ranged between 35 and 80 players for day-to-day performances, being enlarged to 150 players for special occasions. In
39140-409: The world's top five by Gramophone in 2008). The last major orchestra to appoint a woman to a permanent position was the Berlin Philharmonic . In February 1996, the Vienna Philharmonic's principal flute, Dieter Flury , told Westdeutscher Rundfunk that accepting women would be "gambling with the emotional unity ( emotionelle Geschlossenheit ) that this organism currently has". In April 1996,
39346-411: The year 1910, but his interests were not wholly confined to music: he was a keen rower, stroking his college boat at Henley , and all his life he remained a member of the Leander Club . Boult graduated in 1912, with a basic "pass" degree. He continued his musical education at the Leipzig Conservatory in 1912–13. Musician Hans Sitt was in charge of the conducting class, but Boult's main influence
39552-404: Was Nikisch. He later recalled, "I went to all his [Nikisch's] rehearsals and concerts in the Gewandhaus. ... He had an astonishing baton technique and great command of the orchestra: everything was indicated with absolute precision. But there were others who were greater interpreters." Boult admired Nikisch "not so much for his musicianship but his amazing power of saying what he wanted with
39758-428: Was a British conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig , Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev 's ballet company. His first prominent post was conductor of the City of Birmingham Orchestra in 1924. When the British Broadcasting Corporation appointed him director of music in 1930, he established
39964-405: Was also music director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera in Sussex, and it was partly due to his influence that in 1964 the LPO replaced the RPO as Glyndebourne's resident orchestra, providing the players with stable guaranteed work in the slack summer months. The number of LPO concerts in the provinces fell during the 1960s, and ceased to be a major factor in the orchestra's finances. During the 1960s
40170-411: Was born in Chester , Cheshire , the second child and only son of Cedric Randal Boult (1853–1950), and his wife, Katharine Florence ( née Barman; d. 1927). Cedric Boult was a Justice of the Peace and a successful businessman connected with Liverpool shipping and the oil trade; Cedric and his family had "a Liberal Unitarian outlook on public affairs" with a history of philanthropy. When Boult
40376-434: Was celebrated for its musical achievements, but was marked by his failing health and frequent cancellations. As with Haitink and Solti, Bruckner and Mahler were prominent in the LPO's concerts with Tennstedt. Unlike his two predecessors Tennstedt preferred to record with the LPO rather than major continental or American orchestras; among the many sets they made together was a complete cycle of Mahler's symphonies for EMI. In 1984
40582-415: Was declared medically unfit for active service during the First World War , and until 1916 he served as an orderly officer in a reserve unit. He was recruited by the War Office as a translator (he spoke good French, German and Italian). In his spare time he organised and conducted concerts, some of which were subsidised by his father, with the aims of giving work to orchestral players and bringing music to
40788-452: 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 Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam under Willem Mengelberg and the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York under Arturo Toscanini . Among those determined that London should have
40994-409: Was forced out. Kennedy speculates that Boult's change of mind was due to a growing conviction that the orchestra would be "seriously jeopardized financially" if Russell remained in post. A later writer, Richard Witts , suggests that Boult sacrificed Russell because he believed doing so would enhance the LPO's chance of being appointed resident orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall . The following year,
41200-417: Was known for his championing of British music. He gave the first performance of his friend Gustav Holst 's The Planets , and introduced new works by, among others, Elgar , Bliss , Britten , Delius , Rootham , Tippett , Vaughan Williams and Walton . In his BBC years, he introduced works by foreign composers, including Bartók , Berg , Stravinsky , Schoenberg and Webern . A modest man who disliked
41406-416: Was made for Decca in 1956, with Boult in Vaughan Williams's Eighth Symphony . Unlike its London rivals, the RPO and the Philharmonia (both of whom recorded for many years only for EMI and its associates, with the rarest of exceptions), the post-war LPO was not exclusively associated with one company, and as well as Decca it recorded for Philips, CBS , RCA , Chandos and many other labels. For some years in
41612-449: Was made president of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music . In the north choir aisle of Westminster Abbey is a small memorial stone to Boult which was unveiled on 8 April 1984. Boult's old school, Westminster, has a music centre named in his honour, and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire included in its home building the Adrian Boult Hall . The hall was used for classical concerts, other musical performances, and conferences. The hall
41818-420: Was neither oracle, orator nor professional wit, but he expressed himself with trenchancy, and his gentlemanly self-control was occasionally ruffled by storms of anger. ... [T]here were nights when the physical impact of his conducting was low, and there was little beyond faithfulness to the notes. There were others when precise, sensitive stick technique, loyalty to the composer, selflessness and ability to see
42024-462: Was so. The disadvantages were that the orchestra was inadequately funded, the available venues (including the Town Hall) were unsatisfactory, the Birmingham Post ' s music critic, A. J. Symons, was a constant thorn in Boult's side, and the local concert-going public had conservative tastes. Despite this conservatism, Boult programmed as much innovative music as was practical, including works by Mahler , Stravinsky and Bruckner . Such departures from
42230-461: Was the LPO's principal conductor from 2000 to 2007. Under Masur, known for his performances of the German symphonic repertoire, the orchestra regained its musical form, and the critic Richard S Ginell commented that Vladimir Jurowski , who took over in 2007 "has inherited an LPO in splendid technical shape, probably having been drilled to a fare-thee-well under Masur". In 2000, the LPO performed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony under Gilbert Levine , joining
42436-622: Was two years old the family moved to Blundellsands , where he was given a musical upbringing. From an early age he attended concerts in Liverpool, conducted mostly by Hans Richter . He was educated at Westminster School in London, where in his free time he attended concerts conducted by, among others, Sir Henry Wood , Claude Debussy , Arthur Nikisch , Fritz Steinbach , and Richard Strauss . His biographer, Michael Kennedy , writes, "Few schoolboys can have attended as many performances by great artists as Boult heard between 1901 and October 1908, when he went up to Christ Church, Oxford." While still
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