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 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 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 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's principal conductors have included Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Vladimir Jurowski. The orchestra's current principal conductor is Edward Gardner, since 2021. 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 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).
History Background 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, the BBC's Wireless Symphony Orchestra and Sir Henry Wood's Queen's Hall Orchestra."The B.B.C.", The Musical Times, 1 January 1928, p. 70. ; and Elkin, p. 93. 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.Elkin, p. 93. The chief music critic of The Times later commented, "the British public ... was electrified when it heard the disciplined precision of the Berlin Philharmonic ... This apparently was how an orchestra could, and, therefore, ought to sound".Quoted in Elkin, p. 49. 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.Patmore, David. "EMI, Sir Thomas Beecham, and the formation of the London Philharmonic Orchestra", ARSC Journal, 32(1), 2001, pp. 11–27.
Among those determined that London should have 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 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.Kenyon, Nicholas. "Beecham and the BBC Symphony Orchestra: A Collaboration that Never Happened", The Musical Times, October 1980, pp. 625–628. 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."Music", The Times, 23 October 1930, p. 12; "London Concerts", The Musical Times, December 1930, pp. 1124–1127. ; and "Music", The Observer, 26 October 1930, p. 14.
In 1931, Beecham was approached by the rising young conductor Malcolm Sargent with a proposal to set up a permanent, salaried orchestra with a subsidy guaranteed by Sargent's patrons, the Courtauld family.Aldous, p. 68. 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.Reid (1968), p. 202. With 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.Russell, p. 16; and Jenkins, p. 99. He was fortunate in the timing of the enterprise: the depressed economy had severely reduced the number of freelance dates available to orchestral players.Russell, p. 17. Moreover, Beecham himself was a strong attraction to many musicians: he later commented, "I always get the players. Among other considerations, they are so good they refuse to play under anybody but me."Jenkins, p. 99. 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,"London Philharmonic Orchestra", The Times, 9 September 1932, p. 8. and secured profitable contracts to record for Columbia and play for 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.Russell, p. 19.
During his earlier negotiations with the BBC, Beecham had proposed the title "London Philharmonic Orchestra",Kenyon, pp. 20–22 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 a few young musicians straight from music college, many established players from provincial orchestras, and 17 of the LSO's leading members.Morrison, p. 79. 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.Russell, pp. 135–141. Holt became the LPO's business manager, and the management board included the orchestra's principal benefactors: Courtauld, Mayer and d'Erlanger.
Early years
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.Reid (1961), p. 205. After the first item, Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture, the audience went wild, some of them standing on their seats to clap and shout.Russell, p. 18. In The Sunday Times Ernest Newman wrote, "Nothing so electrifying has been heard in 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."Newman, Ernest, The Sunday Times, 9 October 1932, quoted in Moore (unnumbered page). 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 the orchestra's "youthful dash and virtuosity ... at last we have an independent orchestra which rivals the BBC Symphony Orchestra"."Royal Philharmonic Society", The Times, 8 October 1932, p. 10; Cardus, Neville. "London's new orchestra", The Manchester Guardian, 8 October 1932, p. 18; and Turner, W J. "The World of Music", The Illustrated London News, 22 October 1932, p. 638.
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 the first season included the singer Eva Turner and the pianists Harriet Cohen and Clifford Curzon."London Philharmonic Orchestra", The Times, 22 September 1932, p. 8 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."Concert", The Times, 22 November 1932, p. 10.
During the next eight years, the LPO appeared nearly a hundred times at the Queen's Hall for the Royal Philharmonic Society, played for Beecham's opera seasons at Covent Garden, and made more than 300 gramophone records.Jefferson, p. 89 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.Russell, p. 22. 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."Courtauld-Sargent Concerts – Herr Walter's Visit", The Times, 17 January 1933, p. 10; "Courtauld-Sargent Concerts", The Times, 2 October 1933, p. 8; "Courtauld-Sargent Concerts", The Times, 31 July 1934, p. 12; and "Courtauld-Sargent Concerts", The Times, 19 October 1937, p. 14.
In addition to London engagements, 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.Russell, p. 23. After the last concert, The Manchester Guardian's reviewer wrote:
First recording on magnetic tape
Beecham took the orchestra on a controversial tour of Germany in 1936.Russell, p. 39. 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 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.Russell, pp. 39–40, and 42.
On this 1936 tour, the orchestra inadvertently made the first recognised full sound recording on magnetic tape on 19 November 1936, at the BASF Feierabendhaus (the company auditorium), but the sound was not as good as wax transcription discs, due to DC bias.Magnetic Recording: The First 100 Years, page 58 The orchestra played Symphony No. 39 (Mozart) and Delius's On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring.
After a renovation of the BASF building in 2011, the orchestra performed at the reopening, in Germany, on 27 November 2011, with Vladimir Jurowski. It was 75 years after that first recording.
War and post-war years