The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by
Walter Legge
Harry Walter Legge (1 June 1906 – 22 March 1979) was an English classical music record producer, most especially associated with EMI. His recordings include many sets later regarded as classics and reissued by EMI as "Great Recordings of the ...
, a classical music record producer for
EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic music, Romantic and early Modernism (music), modern eras, he has been descr ...
,
Wilhelm Furtwängler
Gustav Heinrich Ernst Martin Wilhelm Furtwängler ( , , ; 25 January 188630 November 1954) was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. He was a major ...
and
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orche ...
; of the Philharmonia's younger conductors, the most important to its development was
Herbert von Karajan who, though never formally chief conductor, was closely associated with the orchestra in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Philharmonia became widely regarded as the finest of London's five symphony orchestras in its first two decades.
From the late 1950s to the early 1970s the orchestra's chief conductor was
Otto Klemperer, with whom the orchestra gave many concerts and made numerous recordings of the core orchestral repertoire. During Klemperer's tenure Legge, citing the difficulty of maintaining the orchestra's high standards, attempted to disband it in 1964, but the players, backed by Klemperer, formed themselves into a self-governing ensemble as the New Philharmonia Orchestra. After thirteen years under this title, they negotiated the rights to revert to the original name.
In Klemperer's last years the orchestra suffered a decline, both financial and artistic, but recovered under his successor,
Riccardo Muti, who revitalised the orchestra in his ten-year term, 1972–1982. The orchestra's standards remained high throughout the controversial chief conductorship of
Giuseppe Sinopoli from 1984 to 1994, and the more orthodox tenure of
Christoph von Dohnányi between 1997 and 2008.
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Esa-Pekka Salonen (; born 30 June 1958) is a Finnish orchestral conductor and composer. He is principal conductor and artistic advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and music dir ...
, principal conductor from 2008 to 2021 was succeeded by
Santtu-Matias Rouvali.
The Philharmonia has had many celebrated players in its ranks and has commissioned more than 100 compositions. It gives more than 160 concerts a year, tours widely, and from its inception has been known for its many recordings.
History
Background
The name "Philharmonia" was adopted by the impresario and recording producer
Walter Legge
Harry Walter Legge (1 June 1906 – 22 March 1979) was an English classical music record producer, most especially associated with EMI. His recordings include many sets later regarded as classics and reissued by EMI as "Great Recordings of the ...
for a
string quartet he brought together in 1941, comprising
Henry Holst,
Jean Pougnet,
Frederick Riddle and
Anthony Pini. The name was taken from the title page of the published score Legge used for the first work they recorded.
[Pettitt, p. 21] Temporarily augmented to a
septet, the ensemble gave its first concert in the
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadi ...
, the main item being
Ravel's ''
Introduction and Allegro''.
[ With several changes of personnel the quartet continued to play in concert and in the recording studio during the ]Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
.[ In 1942 the editor of '' The Gramophone'', Compton Mackenzie, wrote that he had no hesitation in calling the Philharmonia the best string quartet in the country.][
During the war, Legge was in charge of the music division of ENSA, which provided entertainment for British and allied armed forces. In this role he was in close touch with many first-rate musicians in the armed services, from whom he intended to draw when creating a new orchestra after the end of the war. He later set out his guiding principles:
Before the war, Legge had been assistant to Sir Thomas Beecham at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Both men wrongly assumed that they would be able to resume their control of the opera house after the war, and Legge conceived of a new orchestra based there, operating on the lines of the Vienna Philharmonic – playing in the pit for the opera and also giving concerts and making records on its own account.][ The committee appointed by the British government to re-establish opera and ballet at Covent Garden abandoned the pre-war system of opera seasons, in favour of a permanent year-round company. Neither Beecham nor Legge was invited to run it. Legge nevertheless decided to go ahead with his plans to form an orchestra. Although London already had three permanent symphony orchestras – the ]London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...
(LSO), BBC Symphony Orchestra
The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. T ...
(BBC SO) and London Philharmonic (LPO), their personnel and standards had declined during the war and he was convinced he could do better.[Pettitt, pp. 26–27]
First concerts
Legge secured the services of many talented young musicians still serving in the armed forces. He first assembled a "Philharmonia String Orchestra" for recordings in 1945, composed of musicians from the RAF orchestra. He then recruited wind and percussion players, including some of the country's top instrumentalists who had been playing in other orchestras during the war.[ At the Philharmonia Orchestra's first concert, on 27 October 1945, more than sixty per cent of the players were still officially in the services. Beecham conducted the concert (for the fee of one cigar), but as he refused to be Legge's employee and Legge refused to cede control of the orchestra, they went their separate ways. Beecham founded the ]Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London, that performs and produces primarily classic works.
The RPO was established by Thomas Beecham in 1946. In its early days, the orchestra secured profitable ...
(RPO) the following year.
Unlike the existing London orchestras, but like Beecham's Royal Philharmonic, the early Philharmonia was not a permanent ensemble: it was convened ''ad hoc'' from available players on Legge's list. Several of those players were also on Beecham's list, and were able to play for both orchestras, including the horn player, Dennis Brain, the clarinettist Reginald Kell and the timpanist James Bradshaw. Although this gave both orchestras access to the finest players, a review of the London orchestral scene of the late 1940s commented, "The Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic share a very serious disability: that neither is a permanently constituted orchestra. Both assemble and disperse more or less at random ... there is no style which is distinctively RPO or Philharmonia." It was widely felt in musical circles that the Philharmonia was essentially a recording orchestra that also gave concerts, although Legge firmly denied this.[ Nevertheless, the orchestra played far fewer concerts than the older London orchestras: in 1949–50 the Philharmonia gave 32 concerts compared with 55 by the BBC SO, 103 by the LSO, and 248 by the LPO.
From its early years the orchestra played under prominent conductors including ]Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic music, Romantic and early Modernism (music), modern eras, he has been descr ...
for a single concert in 1947, and from 1948 onwards, Wilhelm Furtwängler
Gustav Heinrich Ernst Martin Wilhelm Furtwängler ( , , ; 25 January 188630 November 1954) was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. He was a major ...
and Herbert von Karajan for concerts and recordings.[ Until the opening of the ]Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I l ...
in 1951, London lacked a suitable hall for symphony concerts. Filling the vast Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...
was difficult, except for such sell-out performances as Strauss's concert, a cycle of the Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
piano concertos with Artur Schnabel as soloist (1946), or the world premiere of Strauss's '' Four Last Songs'' with Kirsten Flagstad
Kirsten Malfrid Flagstad (12 July 1895 – 7 December 1962) was a Norwegian opera singer, who was the outstanding Wagnerian soprano of her era. Her triumphant debut in New York on 2 February 1935 is one of the legends of opera. Giulio Gatti-Casa ...
as soloist and Furtwängler conducting (1950). For other, less popular, concerts in the orchestra's early years Legge was partly dependent on financial support from a musical benefactor, the last Maharaja of Mysore.
1950s: Karajan and Toscanini
By the early 1950s the conductor most associated with the orchestra was Karajan, although he was not, officially or even unofficially, its chief conductor.[ He chose to work mainly with the Philharmonia and came to London for long spells twice or three times a year giving concerts and making recordings.][Leggatt, p. 55] Legge's practice of tying concerts in with studio recordings ensured longer than usual rehearsal time, paid for by EMI. In the early years, Karajan's concerts were criticised in the press for their unadventurous programming; but a financially hazardous tour of Europe in 1952 necessitated programmes that were box-office attractions. Karajan told the orchestra that he felt it his duty to show Europe "the exceptional qualities of tone, aristocracy and vitality" of the Philharmonia's playing. The violinist Joseph Szigeti commented that the Philharmonia "showed the Continent for the first time all the qualities of perfect chamber-music playing raised to the power of a great symphony orchestra."
While the orchestra was in Italy it so impressed Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orche ...
that he offered to come to London to conduct it. His two concerts at the Festival Hall in September 1952 (the four symphonies of Brahms) were a critical and commercial success. In the same year, Furtwängler conducted the orchestra and soloists headed by Flagstad in a recording of ''Tristan und Isolde
''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the 12th-century romance Tristan and Iseult by Gottfried von Strassburg. It was compos ...
'' that has remained in the catalogues ever since. Legge realised that Furtwängler was in declining health and that sooner or later Karajan would succeed him as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic and Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival (german: Salzburger Festspiele) is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer (for five weeks starting in late July) in the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Ama ...
and be lost to the Philharmonia. Legge began to seek out suitable successors.
1950s: Karajan to Klemperer
As Legge had expected, Karajan succeeded to the Berlin and Salzburg positions after Furtwängler died in 1954. Karajan remained under contract to EMI, but he quickly reduced his commitments to the Philharmonia. Among alternatives favoured by Legge and the orchestra was Guido Cantelli, who conducted some well-received recordings and concerts; his death in a plane crash in 1956 at the age of thirty-six deprived the Philharmonia of a potential replacement for Karajan.[Pettit, p. 86] Another of Legge's protégés, Carlo Maria Giulini
Carlo Maria Giulini (; 9 May 1914 – 14 June 2005) was an Italian conductor.
From the age of five, when he began to play the violin, Giulini's musical education was expanded when he began to study at Italy's foremost conservatory, the Conserva ...
, seemed promising, but had not at that point established himself with the orchestra or the public, and had a restricted repertory.[ Legge gradually built up a strong relationship with the veteran Otto Klemperer, who was admired by the players, the critics and the public.
The year after Cantelli's death, the orchestra suffered a still worse blow with the death in a car crash of Dennis Brain, not only a supremely gifted player, but the most popular member of the orchestra among his colleagues.][Pettitt, p. 90] He was succeeded as principal horn by his deputy, Alan Civil.[
In 1957 Legge launched the Philharmonia Chorus, an amateur body with a stiffening of professionals when needed.][ The chorus made its debut in Beethoven's ]Choral Symphony
A choral symphony is a musical composition for orchestra, choir, and sometimes solo vocalists that, in its internal workings and overall musical architecture, adheres broadly to symphonic musical form. The term "choral symphony" in this conte ...
conducted by Klemperer, and won extremely favourable reviews. In ''The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper Sunday editions, published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group, Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. ...
'' Peter Heyworth wrote that with so fine a choir and "our best orchestra" and a great conductor, Legge had given London "a Beethoven cycle that any city in the world, be it Vienna or New York, would envy". In 1959 Legge abandoned his policy that the orchestra should have no permanent conductor, and appointed Klemperer "conductor-for-life".
1960–1964
In the early 1960s the Philharmonia continued to be widely regarded as London's best orchestra. The RPO went through difficult times after Beecham's death in 1961; neither the BBC SO or the LPO had yet regained its pre-war excellence; and the LSO was only in the early stages of its return to eminence. The Philharmonia entered into a new three-year contract with EMI on advantageous terms in 1960; the number of players applying to join the orchestra was increasing; its records sold well; and its concerts under Klemperer, Giulini, Sir John Barbirolli and others (occasionally including Karajan, who made his last appearance with the orchestra in 1960) were well received by the public and the critics. Unknown to the public, and to a considerable extent the players, a combination of factors beyond the orchestra's control was leading to a crisis. First, to avoid clashes of repertoire the Festival Hall management set up a committee to co-ordinate programming by the London orchestras. Secondly, at EMI a similar rationalisation was taking place, with an internal committee deciding which works producers, including Legge, could schedule. Legge, an autocrat by temperament, resented any curtailment of his personal control, and found committees intolerable. Finance also started to become a problem. The Philharmonia's lucrative recording contract depended on regular work in the studio, and having by now recorded most of the standard repertoire first in mono and again in stereo the orchestra's prospects for recording were diminishing. This meant that Legge's scope for having concert rehearsals subsidised by EMI was also shrinking.
Although few agreed with him, Legge contended that the quality of the orchestra was declining. Looking back in 1975 at the heyday of his orchestra, he singled out for particular mention not only Brain and Civil, Kell and Bradshaw, but also Clement Lawton (tuba), Arthur Gleghorn (piccolo), Gareth Morris (flute), Sidney ("Jock") Sutcliffe (oboe), Frederick Thurston
Frederick John Thurston (21 September 1901 – 12 December 1953) was an English clarinettist.
Career
From the age of 7 he was taught by his father and he won an open scholarship to the Royal College of Music, becoming a pupil of Charles Drap ...
and Bernard Walton
Bernard Walton (24 March 1917 – 3 June 1972) was a British classical clarinettist.
Biography
Walton was born into a musical family. His grandfather was a cellist with the Hallé Orchestra under the eponymous founder Charles Hallé, an ...
(clarinets), Gwydion Brooke (bassoon), and two leaders, Manoug Parikian and Hugh Bean
Hugh Cecil Bean (22 September 1929 – 26 December 2003) was an English violinist.
He was born in Beckenham. After lessons from his father from the age of five, he became a pupil of Albert Sammons (and Ken Piper) when he was nine years old. La ...
.[ Legge maintained retrospectively that in the absence of enough recording work to attract the finest new orchestral players to follow such stars he had no alternative to disbanding the Philharmonia.][
In March 1964, with no advance warning to the orchestra, Legge issued a press statement announcing that "after the fulfilment of its present commitments the activities of the Philharmonia Orchestra will be suspended for an indefinite period." The historian of the orchestra Stephen Pettitt comments, "If Legge thought that by suspending the Philharmonia Orchestra he was killing it, he had reckoned without the players". They formed themselves into a self-governing company, led by Bernard Walton, the principal clarinet, and adopted the name New Philharmonia Orchestra (NPO). Hitherto, the players had been technically freelance, paid by Legge for each performance, but they now became employees of the company they collectively owned, with security of employment.][Pettitt, p. 127]
Klemperer, Giulini and Barbirolli gave the new orchestra their strong backing, as did Sir Adrian Boult, who incensed Legge by addressing the audience at a Philharmonia concert a few days later: "Do you want to see this great orchestra snuffed out like a candle? It must not be allowed to die!" He urged the public to support the orchestra by going to all its concerts, whatever the programmes. The music critic of ''The Times'' commented that Boult's point was underlined by "the resplendent, intense sound he drew from choir and orchestra during the concert."
1964–1977: New Philharmonia
In its early years as an independent body the New Philharmonia flourished, in the concert hall and the recording studio. As well as its existing regular conductors, the orchestra worked with Ernest Ansermet
Ernest Alexandre Ansermet (; 11 November 1883 – 20 February 1969)"Ansermet, Ernest" in '' The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 435. was a Swiss conductor.
Biography
Ansermet ...
, Pierre Boulez
Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music.
Born in Mon ...
, Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...
and James Levine
James Lawrence Levine (; June 23, 1943 – March 9, 2021) was an American conductor and pianist. He was music director of the Metropolitan Opera from 1976 to 2016. He was terminated from all his positions and affiliations with the Met on March ...
and many others. It reciprocated Klemperer's loyalty and appointed him its president and chief conductor, but this led to a decline in orchestral discipline and standards as Klemperer grew older, frailer and less in command. Giulini became disillusioned and began to distance himself; Barbirolli remained firmly loyal until his death in 1970. Klemperer's decline led to a diminution in recording sessions, and the orchestra's finances became difficult by the late 1960s and early 1970s. There were serious but inconclusive discussions about a merger with the LPO, which was also in some difficulties at the time. The NPO was rescued from financial disaster by two musical philanthropists, one anonymous and the other Ian Stoutzker, a prominent banker, who offered either to buy the orchestra outright or, as occurred, to underwrite its finances.
Leading players of the early 1970s included Raymond Cohen, Desmond Bradley, Carlos Villa (violins), Herbert Downes (viola), Gareth Morris (flute), John McCaw (clarinet), Gwydion Brooke (bassoon) and Nicholas Busch (horn).[ The Philharmonia was ahead of some of its London rivals in admitting female players. By 1972, seventeen of the sixty-six string players were women, although the other three sections remained exclusively male, except for the veteran harpist, ]Sidonie Goossens
Annie Sidonie Goossens OBE (19 October 1899 – 15 December 2004) was one of Britain's most enduring harpists. She made her professional debut in 1921, was a founder member of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and went on to play for more than half ...
.[New Philharmonia programme booklet, Royal Festival Hall, 17 February 1972]
In Klemperer's later years the orchestra appointed Lorin Maazel
Lorin Varencove Maazel (, March 6, 1930 – July 13, 2014) was an American conductor, violinist and composer. He began conducting at the age of eight and by 1953 had decided to pursue a career in music. He had established a reputation in th ...
, nominally as "associate principal conductor", from 1970, although in practice his role was more like a chief conductorship, with Klemperer as a figurehead, albeit one still capable of inspiring magnificent performances on occasion. Maazel sought more control than the self-governing orchestra was willing to concede, and resigned from his post in early 1972, although he continued to accept invitations to conduct the orchestra. Shortly afterwards, Klemperer announced his retirement; he died, aged 88, the following year. The orchestra recognised that a strong chief conductor was needed to restore its standards and finances, but there was no immediately obvious candidate. Although Legge no longer had any stake in the orchestra he watched its progress benevolently, and having spotted the potential of Riccardo Muti he recommended him to the New Philharmonia's general manager, Terence McDonald. Other potential candidates were considered, but Muti was appointed as the orchestra's chief conductor from 1973.[Pettitt, p. 179]
Muti, although he disclaimed such a description, was a firm disciplinarian, and under his conductorship the orchestra restored its standards. Richard Morrison later wrote in ''The Times'' that in his ten years in charge, Muti turned a struggling orchestra into "a great ensemble". Critics at the time commented on the orchestra's "superb performance", "immense virtuosity", its "astoundingly delicate" string playing and "woodwind phrasing even more magical than their Berlin colleagues". Muti was under contract to EMI, which brought the orchestra much valuable studio work. With Muti the orchestra recorded opera (''Aida
''Aida'' (or ''Aïda'', ) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 Decemb ...
'', 1974; '' Un ballo in maschera'', 1975; ''Nabucco
''Nabucco'' (, short for Nabucodonosor ; en, " Nebuchadnezzar") is an Italian-language opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal tra ...
'', 1977; '' I puritani'', 1979; '' Cavalleria rusticana'', 1979; ''La traviata
''La traviata'' (; ''The Fallen Woman'') is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on '' La Dame aux camélias'' (1852), a play by Alexandre Dumas ''fils'' adapted from his o ...
'', 1980; ''Orfeo ed Euridice
' (; French: '; English: ''Orpheus and Eurydice'') is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck, based on the myth of Orpheus and set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the '' azione teatrale'', meaning an ...
'', 1981; and ''Don Pasquale
''Don Pasquale'' () is an opera buffa, or comic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti with an Italian libretto completed largely by Giovanni Ruffini as well as the composer. It was based on a libretto by Angelo Anelli for Stefano Paves ...
'', 1982); a wide range of the symphonic repertoire including Schumann
Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...
and Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most pop ...
cycles; concertos with soloists including Sviatoslav Richter, Andrei Gavrilov, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Gidon Kremer
Gidon Kremer ( lv, Gidons Krēmers; born 27 February 1947) is a Latvian classical violinist, artistic director, and founder of Kremerata Baltica.
Life and career
Gidon Kremer was born in Riga. His father was Jewish and had survived the Holo ...
; and choral music by Cherubini and Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lifetime was widespre ...
. After Legge's departure the orchestra was no longer exclusively tied to EMI, and made more than seventy recordings for Decca, starting in December 1964. Later Decca sessions were conducted by Boult, Britten, Giulini, Maazel, Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado (; 26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014) was an Italian conductor who was one of the leading conductors of his generation. He served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony ...
, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy (russian: Влади́мир Дави́дович Ашкена́зи, ''Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazi''; born 6 July 1937) is an internationally recognized solo pianist, chamber music performer, and conductor. He i ...
, Charles Munch, Leopold Stokowski, and in 1967 Christoph von Dohnányi, who three decades later became the orchestra's chief conductor.[Stuart, Philip]
''Decca Classical, 1929–2009''
, AHRC Research Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music, retrieved 2 July 2018
During Muti's tenure, the orchestra recovered its original title, after prolonged and complex negotiations. From September 1977 the "New" was dropped, and the orchestra has been the Philharmonia since then. Walter Legge died in 1979, and the orchestra dedicated a Tchaikovsky symphony cycle at the Festival Hall to his memory; reviewing one of the concerts in ''The Guardian'', Edward Greenfield
Edward Harry Greenfield OBE (3 July 1928 – 1 July 2015) was an English music critic and broadcaster.
Early life
Edward Greenfield was born in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. His father, Percy Greenfield, was a manager in a labour exchange, while his ...
commented that Muti had brought the orchestra's playing "within reach of that earlier peerless example".
Late 20th century
Leading members of the orchestra in the later years of Muti's tenure included Raymond Ovens (leader), Gordon Hunt (oboe), Adrian Leaper (horn), John Wallace (trumpet) and David Corkhill (percussion). Clement Relf, singled out for praise by Legge in his memoirs, remained the orchestral librarian as he had been since 1945. In 1980 the orchestra received royal recognition when the Prince of Wales accepted an invitation to be the Philharmonia's honorary patron.
Muti stepped down as chief conductor in 1982. Giuseppe Sinopoli succeeded him in 1984 and, like Muti, served for ten years. Although the orchestra's standards remained high during Sinopoli's tenure, the conductor had what David Nice has described in ''The Guardian'' as "a love-hate relationship" with the public and critics, because of his "slow speeds and mannered, sometimes lifeless phrasing".[Nice, David]
"Obituary: Giuseppe Sinopoli"
''The Guardian'', 23 April 2001 The same writer continues that the Philharmonia players did not take to "Sinopoli's peculiarly Italian brand of intellectualism; London musicians never like too much talk, let alone an analytic seminar on the work in question".[ By 1990 it was far from certain that Sinopoli's appointment would last until 1994 as scheduled, but he brought to the orchestra a lucrative recording contract with ]Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family o ...
and tours to countries including Japan and Germany where the conductor was held in very much higher regard than in Britain. Although Sinopoli's Philharmonia performances of works such as Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...
's Second Symphony attracted much disparaging criticism, he was felt to be more successful in opera. Nice comments that the Philharmonia players "lent an unprecedented degree of tonal beauty" to their opera recordings with Sinopoli;[ they included '' Manon Lescaut'', 1983; '']La forza del destino
' (; ''The Power of Fate'', often translated ''The Force of Destiny'') is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, ' (1835), by Ángel de Saavedra, 3rd Duke of Rivas, ...
'', 1985; '' Madama Butterfly'', 1987; '' Cavalleria Rusticana'', 1990; and ''Tosca
''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1887 French-language dr ...
'', 1992.
In 1995 the orchestra celebrated its 50th anniversary and launched its UK and international residency programme, with residencies at the Southbank Centre, London, and the Corn Exchange, Bedford. The orchestra developed further long-term partnerships, beginning with De Montfort Hall
De Montfort Hall is the largest music and performance venue in Leicester, England. It is situated adjacent to Victoria Park, Leicester, Victoria Park and is named after the "Father of Parliament", Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, Simon ...
in Leicester (from 1997). Further partnerships followed in later decades.[
It was three years before the Philharmonia recruited a chief conductor to replace Sinopoli: Christoph von Dohnányi took up the position in 1997. The music critic Andrew Clements commented that the Philharmonia's players had "maintained their coherence remarkably well through the long interregnum", but that securing "a conductor of Dohnányi's pedigree" was a major achievement, and that the conductor's skill as an orchestral trainer, combined with his excellence in interpretation augured well for the orchestra's future. Dohnányi's conducting was regarded as reliable and musically admirable, although sometimes rather cool.][ His commitment to modern music influenced the orchestra's programming and won approval from the press.][Billington, Michael. "New master for an old complex", ''The Guardian'', 27 November 1996, p. 2; Ashley, Tim. "Philharmonia/Dohnanyi", ''The Guardian'', 2 March 1999, p. A10; and Ashley Tim.]
Dohnanyi's maze of sound"
, ''The Guardian'' 7 April 2001, p. 25. With Dohnányi the Philharmonia played in Vienna, Salzburg
Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872.
The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...
, Amsterdam, Lucerne and Paris. For several seasons they were in residence at the Théâtre du Châtelet, where they took part in new productions of six operas: '' Arabella'', ''Die Frau ohne Schatten
' (''The Woman without a Shadow''), Op. 65, is an opera in three acts by Richard Strauss with a libretto by his long-time collaborator, the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It was written between 1911 and either 1915 or 1917. When it premiered at the ...
'', ''Die schweigsame Frau
''Die schweigsame Frau'' (''The Silent Woman''), Op. 80, is a 1935 comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss with libretto by Stefan Zweig after Ben Jonson's '' Epicoene, or the Silent Woman''.
Composition history
Since ''Elektra'' and '' D ...
'', '' Moses und Aron'', '' Oedipus Rex'' and ''Hänsel und Gretel
"Hansel and Gretel" (; german: Hänsel und Gretel ) is a German fairy tale collected by the German Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in Grimms' Fairy Tales, ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (KHM 15). It is also known as Little Step Brother and Little ...
''.["Christoph von Dohnanyi"]
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, retrieved 4 July 2018
In 1999 the orchestra took part in what was described as a "fly-on-the-wall" television documentary, giving the public glimpses of day-to-day orchestral life. It showed the efforts to which individual players went to secure sponsorship for the orchestra, and the heavy workload they sustained.
In 2000, under the direction of Gilbert Levine, the Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus performed Haydn's '' The Creation'' in a series of concerts in Baltimore, London, and Rome, including televised concerts in Baltimore and at the Vatican, as part of the "Millennium Creation Series"
21st century
In a survey of British orchestras in 2006, Morrison described the current Philharmonia as "a serious, high-quality orchestra". He praised its "astute and canny" management, and commented that the orchestra had a large, loyal following in London, and had gained additional support elsewhere in Britain by extending its touring programme while the Festival Hall was closed for renovation between 2005 and 2007. Since 2000 the orchestra has established further residencies: at The Anvil, Basingstoke (from 2001), the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury
Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...
and the Three Choirs Festival.["Philharmonia Orchestra"]
, Three Choirs Festival, 2016, retrieved 1 July 2018 Dohnányi's final tour with the orchestra as chief conductor was of the US, where they gave concerts in Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...
, Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
, San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
and Costa Mesa, California.[
]
In 2008 Esa-Pekka Salonen
Esa-Pekka Salonen (; born 30 June 1958) is a Finnish orchestral conductor and composer. He is principal conductor and artistic advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and music dir ...
became the Philharmonia's fifth principal conductor. He first conducted the orchestra in 1983, when he was 25, and from 1985 to 1994 he was its principal guest conductor. Vladimir Ashkenazy
Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy (russian: Влади́мир Дави́дович Ашкена́зи, ''Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazi''; born 6 July 1937) is an internationally recognized solo pianist, chamber music performer, and conductor. He i ...
is the orchestra's conductor laureate; Dohnányi is its honorary conductor for life. From 2017 Jakub Hrůša and Santtu-Matias Rouvali have been the orchestra's principal guest conductors. The orchestra's website reported in 2018 that Salonen and the orchestra had experimented in "groundbreaking ways to present music". The examples quoted were:
The Philharmonia performs more than 160 concerts a year, more than 35 of them at the Festival Hall. It has commissioned more than a hundred works. It also records music for films, computer games and commercial CD releases. Under Salonen the orchestra has taken part in a series of projects at the Festival Hall: "City of Light: Paris 1900–1950" (2015), "City of Dreams: Vienna 1900–1935" (2009), "Bill Viola's Tristan und Isolde" (2010), "Infernal Dance: Inside the World of Béla Bartók" (2011), "Woven Words", a centenary celebration of Witold Lutosławski
Witold Roman Lutosławski (; 25 January 1913 – 7 February 1994) was a Polish composer and conductor. Among the major composers of 20th-century classical music, he is "generally regarded as the most significant Polish composer since Szyma ...
(2013) and "Myths and Rituals", a five-concert festival of music by Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...
(2015–17).[ In recent years the Philharmonia's extensive international touring schedule has included appearances in China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Iceland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.][ Since 2017, the Philharmonia has been a resident orchestra at the Garsington Opera festival.
Salonen is set to conclude his principal conductorship after the 2020–2021 season, and Helen Sprott is to stand down as its managing director. The orchestra has announced the appointment of Santtu-Matias Rouvali as its next principal conductor, effective with the 2021–2022 season, with an initial contract of 5 years. Salonen is to take the title of conductor emeritus and to become an honorary member of the orchestra.
]
Recordings
The orchestra's first recording, a sinfonia by J. C. Bach
Johann Christian Bach (September 5, 1735 – January 1, 1782) was a German composer of the Classical era, the eighteenth child of Johann Sebastian Bach, and the youngest of his eleven sons. After living in Italy for several years, Bach move ...
, made in July 1945, was never released. Wolf
The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...
's ''Italian Serenade
The ''Italian Serenade'' is a piece of music written by Hugo Wolf in 1887. It was originally written for string quartet and named simply "Serenade in G major". By April 1890, he was referring to it in his letters as ''Italian Serenade''. In 1892, h ...
'' recorded at the same sessions, was the Philharmonia's first published record. It was conducted by Walter Susskind, who made many recordings with the orchestra over the next fifteen years. In the same period, others who worked regularly with the orchestra were Alceo Galliera and Paul Kletzki. For Viennese operettas, Lovro von Matačić and Otto Ackermann were Legge's favoured conductors.
Many of the orchestra's highest-profile releases were operas. Within days of its inauguration the Philharmonia played in a complete recording of Purcell
Henry Purcell (, rare: September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer.
Purcell's style of Baroque music was uniquely English, although it incorporated Italian and French elements. Generally considered among the greatest E ...
's '' Dido and Aeneas'' conducted by Constant Lambert. Among the opera sets in which the orchestra played in the 1950s were the 1952 ''Tristan und Isolde'' mentioned above, and six sets conducted by Karajan: ''Hansel and Gretel
"Hansel and Gretel" (; german: Hänsel und Gretel ) is a German fairy tale collected by the German Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (KHM 15). It is also known as Little Step Brother and Little Step Sister.
Hanse ...
'' (1953), '' Così fan tutte'' (1954), ''Ariadne auf Naxos
(''Ariadne on Naxos''), Opus number, Op. 60, is a 1912 opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The opera's unusual combination of elements of low commedia dell'arte with those of high opera seria points up one o ...
'' (1954), ''Die Fledermaus
' (, ''The Flittermouse'' or ''The Bat'', sometimes called ''The Revenge of the Bat'') is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée, which premiered in 1874.
Background
The original li ...
'' (1955), '' Der Rosenkavalier'' (1956) and ''Falstaff
Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays '' Henry IV, Part 1'' and ''Part 2'', wh ...
'' (1956). Later sets from the 1950s were '' The Barber of Seville'' (Galliera, 1957); '' Capriccio'' (Sawallisch, 1957); '' Lucia di Lammermoor'' (Serafin, 1959), '' Le nozze di Figaro'' and '' Don Giovanni'' (both Giulini, 1959).
Other recordings by the Philharmonia in the 1940s and 1950s include Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...
as soloist and conductor in Ravel's Piano Concerto in G
Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major, was composed between 1929 and 1931. The concerto is in three movements, with a total playing time of a little over 20 minutes. Ravel said that in this piece he was not aiming to be profound but to enterta ...
, a series of Walton's major works, conducted by the composer, Schumann's Piano Concerto with Dinu Lipatti as soloist and Karajan conducting (his first recording with the orchestra), Mozart's Horn Concertos with Brain as soloist and Karajan conducting, and cycles of Beethoven and Brahms symphonies conducted by Klemperer.
In the 1960s and 1970s the orchestra made many recordings. Of those made for EMI, the company later reissued many in the series "Great Recordings of the Century". They include piano concertos by Beethoven with Emil Gilels and Daniel Barenboim
Daniel Barenboim (; in he, דניאל בארנבוים, born 15 November 1942) is an Argentine-born classical pianist and conductor based in Berlin. He has been since 1992 General Music Director of the Berlin State Opera and "Staatskapellmeist ...
as soloists, Chopin with Maurizio Pollini and Mozart with Annie Fischer; symphonies by Bruckner and Mahler conducted by Barbirolli and Klemperer; orchestral music by Debussy
(Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most infl ...
(conducted by Giulini) and Wagner (Klemperer); choral works including Bach's Mass in B minor, '' St Matthew Passion'', Beethoven's '' Missa solemnis'' and Brahms's '' German Requiem'' under Klemperer, and Verdi's Requiem under Giulini; Mahler's orchestral songs sung by Christa Ludwig and Janet Baker; and in the operatic repertoire '' Così fan tutte'' conducted by Karl Böhm
Karl August Leopold Böhm (28 August 1894 – 14 August 1981) was an Austrian conductor. He was best known for his performances of the music of Mozart, Wagner, and Richard Strauss.
Life and career
Education
Karl Böhm was born in Graz. T ...
and ''Fidelio
''Fidelio'' (; ), originally titled ' (''Leonore, or The Triumph of Marital Love''), Op. 72, is Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto was originally prepared by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, w ...
'' and '' Der fliegende Holländer'' conducted by Klemperer.
In the 1980s, in addition to the recordings made with its chief conductors, mentioned above, the orchestra recorded extensively. Recordings from this decade include the symphonies of Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Walton, conducted by Bernard Haitink for EMI; a Sibelius symphony cycle conducted by Ashkenazy and the Mozart piano concertos with Ashkenazy directing from the keyboard, for Decca; ''Madama Butterfly'' with Maazel (CBS) and Fauré's Requiem with Giulini (DG).["Philharmonia Orchestra"]
Discogs, retrieved 4 July 2018 In the last decade of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st, the orchestra's recordings included more discs conducted by Ashkenazy, including symphonies by Beethoven and Tchaikovsky for Decca; Beethoven and Schumann symphonies with Christian Thielemann for DG, and a series of recordings of the major works of Stravinsky, and another of those of Schoenberg, conducted by Robert Craft, released on the Naxos label.[
Live recordings of some of the orchestra's early concerts have been issued on CD, including Strauss conducting the ''Sinfonia Domestica'', Furtwängler and Flagstad in the first performance of the ''Four Last Songs'', and Toscanini's Brahms cycle. A later live recording was the last concert conducted by Klemperer (September 1971: Beethoven Overture: '' King Stephen'', and Fourth Piano Concerto with ]Daniel Adni
Daniel Adni (born 6 December 1951) is an Israeli classical pianist.
He began his training in Haifa, where he made his debut at age 12. He studied with Vlado Perlemuter at the Paris Conservatory, winning the Premier Prix 3 times. Afterwards he st ...
; and Brahms's Third Symphony).
In 2009 the orchestra began a collaboration with the record label Signum, with the release of a live recording of Schoenberg's ''Gurrelieder
' is a large cantata for five vocal soloists, narrator, chorus and large orchestra, composed by Arnold Schoenberg, on poems by the Danish novelist Jens Peter Jacobsen (translated from Danish to German by ). The title means "songs of Gurre", ref ...
''; later recordings by the Philharmonia on Signum have ranged from the symphonic repertoire (including symphonies by Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Elgar, Mahler, Rachmaninoff, Schubert and Tchaikovsky) to opera and ballet ( Bartók's ''Duke Bluebeard's Castle
''Duke Bluebeard's Castle'' ( hu, A kékszakállú herceg vára, link=no, or ''The Blue-Bearded Duke's Castle'') is a one-act expressionist opera by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. The libretto was written by Béla Balázs, a poet and friend of ...
'' and '' The Miraculous Mandarin'').
Film scores
The British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...
lists more than a hundred films with soundtrack scores played by the Philharmonia. They include '' The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby'' (1946); ''Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depi ...
'', '' Oliver Twist'' and '' Scott of the Antarctic'' (1948); '' Kind Hearts and Coronets'' and '' Passport to Pimlico'' (1949); '' The Cruel Sea'' (1953); ''Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted from 16 December 1944 to 28 January 1945, towards the end of the war in ...
'' (1965); '' Lady Caroline Lamb'' (1972); '' King David'' (1985); ''The King and I
''The King and I'' is the fifth musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on Margaret Landon's novel '' Anna and the King of Siam'' (1944), which is in turn derived from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, governess to the child ...
'' (1999); '' Great Expectations'' (2012); and '' The Lady in the Van'' (2015).
Voyager Golden Record
In 1977, a recording of the First Movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Klemperer was selected by NASA to be included on the Voyager Golden Record, a gold-plated copper record that was sent into space on the Voyager space craft. The record contained sounds and images which had been selected as examples of the diversity of life and culture on Earth.
Notes, references and sources
Notes
References
Sources
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External links
Philharmonia Orchestra official website
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{{Authority control
British symphony orchestras
London orchestras
Musical groups established in 1945
1945 establishments in England
Erato Records artists
Albany Records artists