The London Philharmonic Orchestra
(LPO
), based in London, is one of the major orchestras of the United Kingdom, and is based in the Royal Festival Hall. In addition, the LPO is the main resident orchestra of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The LPO also performs concerts at the Congress Theatre, Eastbourne and the Brighton Dome.
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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA TICKETS
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History
Early years
The orchestra was formed in 1932 by
Sir Thomas Beecham, and played its first concert on 7 October 1932 at the
Queen's Hall, London. Its founding associate conductor was
Malcolm Sargent [1]. During the early years, the orchestra was led by Paul Beard and
David McCallum, and included leading players such as Anthony Pini,
Reginald Kell,
Léon Goossens,
Gwydion Brooke,
Geoffrey Gilbert, Bernard Walton and James Bradshaw.
[2]
At one of the orchestra's early concerts, 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
Elgar's Concerto in B minor was conducted by the composer.
In the 1930s the LPO was the orchestra for the international opera seasons at the
Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden, of which Beecham was artistic director.
Beecham conducted the orchestra in a series of 78-rpm recordings for
Columbia Records, including a critically-acclaimed 1939 recording of
Brahms'
2nd Symphony, which was later reissued on LP and CD.
War and post-war years
In 1939 the orchestra's sponsors withdrew their financial support and the orchestra became self-governing, with members of the orchestra themselves taking decisions on the organisation's affairs. During the
Second World War it was particularly active in touring the country and bringing orchestral music to places where it was not usually available. Many of the players' instruments were lost in an air-raid in the
Queen's Hall in May 1941, and an appeal was broadcast by the
BBC, the response to which was enormous, with instruments donated by the public enabling the orchestra to continue. During Beecham's absence, the orchestra was often conducted by Richard Tauber.
After the war, Beecham returned to the LPO for eighteen months, but left to found a new orchestra, the
Royal Philharmonic (RPO). Guest conductors in this period included
Victor de Sabata,
Bruno Walter,
Sergiu Celibidache and
Wilhelm Furtwängler. In 1949/50 the LPO gave 248 concerts, compared with 103 by the
London Symphony Orchestra and 32 each by the
Philharmonia and RPO.
[3]
After a period with no principal conductor, the orchestra engaged the
Dutch conductor
Eduard van Beinum in 1947. At that time, foreign nationals were allowed to work in Britain for only six months of the year. In van Beinum’s absences, a roster of conductors guest-conducted the LPO, including
Jean Martinon. Van Beinum’s health obliged him to resign in 1950. The LPO's managing director, Thomas Russell, then invited
Sir Adrian Boult to take up the principal conductorship, after Boult had retired from his chief conductorship with the
BBC Symphony Orchestra.
In 1947 the London Philharmonic Choir was founded as the chorus for the LPO.
The orchestra underwent a crisis between 1949 and 1952 because Russell, who had been the leading force in keeping the orchestra going during the war years, came under pressure in the
Cold War years because of his
communist beliefs. The
London County Council withdrew its understanding that the LPO would be the resident orchestra at the new
Royal Festival Hall, and eventually the orchestra voted to dismiss Russell.
Boult headed the LPO’s tour of the
Soviet Union in 1956.
[4]. He subsequently stood down 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 late 1950s the LPO worked with conductors including
Constantin Silvestri and
Josef Krips. This was 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.
In 1958 the LPO appointed
William Steinberg as chief conductor. He was a noted orchestral trainer, and did much to restore playing standards to their former levels.
The 1960s and 70s
In 1962 the orchestra undertook its first tour of
India,
Australia and the Far East. The conductors were Sir Malcolm Sargent and
John Pritchard. Pritchard was appointed the LPO’s chief conductor in 1962. He was also music director of the
Glyndebourne Festival, and in 1964 the LPO replaced the RPO as Glyndebourne’s resident orchestra.
In 1967 the LPO appointed
Bernard Haitink as its principal conductor. He remained with the orchestra for twelve years, bringing a continuity that had been lacking since Beecham’s departure in 1939.
During this period the orchestra gave fund-raising concerts in which guests from outside the world of classical music appeared, including
Danny Kaye,
Duke Ellington,
Tony Bennett,
Victor Borge,
Jack Benny and
John Dankworth.
In the 1970s the orchestra toured the
USA,
China, Western Europe, Russia and the USA for a second time. Guest conductors included
Erich Leinsdorf,
Carlo Maria Giulini and
Sir Georg Solti, who became the LPO’s chief conductor in 1979.
The 1980s and 90s
In 1982 the orchestra celebrated its
golden jubilee. A contemporaneous book listed the many famous musicians who had worked with the LPO in its fifty years. In addition to those mentioned above, others were conductors
Daniel Barenboim,
Leonard Bernstein,
Eugen Jochum,
Erich Kleiber,
Serge Koussevitzky,
Pierre Monteux,
André Previn and
Leopold Stokowski, and soloists
Janet Baker,
Dennis Brain,
Alfred Brendel,
Roberto Carnevale,
Pablo Casals,
Aldo Ciccolini,
Clifford Curzon,
Victoria de los Ángeles,
Jacqueline du Pré,
Kirsten Flagstad,
Beniamino Gigli,
Emil Gilels,
Jascha Heifetz,
Wilhelm Kempff,
Fritz Kreisler,
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli,
David Oistrakh,
Luciano Pavarotti,
Maurizio Pollini,
Leontyne Price,
Arthur Rubinstein,
Elisabeth Schumann,
Rudolf Serkin,
Joan Sutherland,
Richard Tauber,
Eva Turner and
Kevin McKlintock.
Klaus Tennstedt was principal conductor of the LPO from 1983 to 1987. After Tennstedt stood down because of ill-health, the orchestra was without a principal conductor for 3 years, until the accession of
Franz Welser-Möst in 1990. Welser-Möst's tenure was controversial, during which time he received the nickname "Frankly Worse than Most" and many harshly critical reviews.
[5] Welser-Möst did bring with him a recording contract with EMI Classics to his relationship with the LPO. However, 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.
[6] [7] Welser-Möst concluded his LPO tenure in 1996.
Present day
After the departure of Welser-Möst, the LPO was without a principal conductor for 4 years, until the appointment of
Kurt Masur, who served in the post from 2000 to 2007. In December 2001,
Vladimir Jurowski first conducted the LPO as a substitute guest conductor, to critical acclaim.
[8]. He subsequently became their Principal Guest Conductor in 2003. He conducted the LPO in June 2007 during the concerts marking the re-opening of the refurbished
Royal Festival Hall [9]. In September 2007, Jurowski became the LPO's 11th principal conductor. In November 2007, the LPO named
Yannick Nézet-Séguin as their new Principal Guest Conductor, effective with the 2008-2009 season.
[10] They also did a tour, with The Last Shadow Puppets, last year (2008).
The current LPO chief executive and artistic director is Timothy Walker.
[11] The LPO has begun to issue CDs under its own label.
[12]
Non-classical work
As well as giving its
classical concerts, the LPO has made several
film soundtracks, including
Lawrence of Arabia
,
Philadelphia
,
The Mission
and
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
, as well as some CD albums of the music from the
Square Enix video game series
Dragon Quest
composed by
Koichi Sugiyama,
Symphonic Poem: Hope
for
Final Fantasy XII
and the soundtrack for
Xenosaga Episode I
composed by
Yasunori Mitsuda. They can also be heard in the 1993 television production of
Gershwin's
Porgy and Bess
, conducted by
Simon Rattle, as well as the 1989 EMI recording of the opera. The orchestra also occasionally plays on
popular music and
heavy metal music records like
Nightwish's
Once
and
Dark Passion Play
, for example. In 1994, they featured in the 1994
Oasis hit "
Whatever", providing the string section. In the mid-1990s the LPO even released tribute albums to rock bands like
Pink Floyd,
Led Zeppelin, and
The Who with covers of the bands' songs, including a rendition of “
Kashmir", and a version of "
Baba O'Riley", which was featured in the movie
Slackers
. The Orchestra also recorded most of the 4 CD set "Simply Rock Moods" covers of Rock songs in classical, yet contemporary style, for example: "Everybody Hurts" by
R.E.M., and Sailing by
Rod Stewart. This orchestra has also featured on The Elkie Brooks album
|Screen Gems
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Porcupine Tree 2007 album
Fear of a Blank Planet
and is working with
no-man for their upcoming album
Schoolyard Ghosts
. They also did a tour, with The Last Shadow Puppets (Arctic monkeys lead singer and The rascals lead singer) last year (2008).
Principal conductors
- 1932-1939 Sir Thomas Beecham
- 1947-1950 Eduard van Beinum
- 1950-1957 Sir Adrian Boult
- 1958-1960 William Steinberg
- 1962-1966 Sir John Pritchard
- 1967-1979 Bernard Haitink
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- 1979-1983 Sir Georg Solti
- 1983-1987 Klaus Tennstedt
- 1990-1996 Franz Welser-Möst
- 2000-2007 Kurt Masur
- 2007-present
Vladimir Jurowski
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References
- Aldous, p 69
- Notes to EMI/WRC set SHB 201-204
- Hill, Ralph (ed) (1951). Music 1951. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books. OCLC 26147349
- Pepper, Maurice, "The London Philharmonic Orchestra in Russia" (February 1957). ''The Musical Times'', '''98''' (1368): pp. 67-69.
- Why all those insults made me stronger
- A Young Conductor Starts at the Top
- Battered but Unbowed, a Maestro Rebounds
- Last-minute stand-in makes an electrifying debut
- LPO/Jurowski
- Nézet-Séguin Named London Phil Principal Guest Conductor
- Lord of the dings
- London Philharmonic launches own label