The
London Symphony Orchestra
(
LSO) is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom,
as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world.
Since
1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre
.
History
The LSO was founded in 1904 as an independent, self governing
organisation, the first such orchestra in the UK. It played its
first concert on 9 June of that year, with
Hans Richter conducting. He
remained principal conductor until 1911, when
Edward Elgar took over for a year, leading six
concerts as principal conductor.
More recently, its principal conductors have included
Pierre Monteux (1961–64),
István Kertész (1965–68),
André Previn (1968–79) and
Claudio Abbado (1979–88). From 1988-1995, the
American
Michael Tilson Thomas
took over, and in 1995, became principal guest conductor. Sir
Colin Davis served as the LSO's
Principal Conductor from 1995-2006, and in 2007 took the post of
President of the orchestra. On 1 January 2007,
Valery Gergiev became the LSO's Principal
Conductor. Previn holds the title of Conductor Laureate. In 2006,
Daniel Harding became the
co-principal guest conductor alongside Tilson Thomas.
The LSO became the first British orchestra to play overseas when it
went to Paris in 1906. The LSO was due to sail on the for a concert
in New York in April 1912 but fortunately had to change the booking
at the last minute. It was also the first to play in the United
States, in 1912, and in 1973 it was the first to be invited to take
part in the
Salzburg Festival. It
continues to make tours around the world.
In 1956,
the orchestra appeared in Alfred
Hitchcock's film The Man Who Knew Too Much, conducted
by composer Bernard Herrmann in the
climactic scene, filmed in Royal Albert Hall
.
In 1966, the
London Symphony
Chorus (LSC) was formed to complement the work of the LSO. With
more than two hundred amateur singers, the LSC maintains a close
association with the LSO; however it has developed an independent
life, which allows it to partner other leading orchestras.
The LSO has long been considered the most extroverted of the London
orchestras. For most of its life it refused to allow women to
become members, ostensibly on the grounds that women would affect
the sound of the orchestra (there has been a similar controversy at
the
Vienna Philharmonic). One of
the first women to join the orchestra was the oboist
Evelyn Rothwell. There is an air of
youthful high spirits to much of its music-making that is shown off
in performances of such composers as
Berlioz and
Prokofiev. The LSO has often had
internationally-known players as wind soloists, including such
artists as
James Galway (flute),
Gervase de Peyer (clarinet),
Roger Lord (oboe),
Osian Ellis (harp),
John Georgiadis (violin) and
Barry Tuckwell (horn). Like most ensembles,
the orchestra has a great ability to vary its sound, producing very
different tone colours under such diverse conductors as
Leopold Stokowski (with whom it made a
series of memorable recordings),
Adrian
Boult,
Jascha Horenstein,
Georg Solti,
André Previn,
George Szell,
Claudio
Abbado,
Leonard Bernstein,
John Barbirolli, and
Karl Böhm, who developed a close relationship
with the orchestra late in his life. Böhm and Bernstein each held
the title of LSO President in their later years.
Clive Gillinson, a former cellist
with the orchestra, served as the LSO's Managing Director from 1984
to 2005, and is widely credited with bringing great stability to
the LSO's organisation after severe fiscal troubles. Since 2005,
Kathryn McDowell is the Managing Director of the LSO.
Recordings
The LSO has made recordings since the early days of recording,
including some acoustic performances with
Arthur Nikisch. It recorded extensively for
HMV and
EMI for many years.
In the early 1960s, the veteran French conductor
Pierre Monteux made a series of stereophonic
recordings with the orchestra for
Philips Records, many of which been reissued
on CD.
The LSO is also famous for recording many motion picture film
scores down the years.
These include, under the baton of such noted
composers as John Williams, Alan Silvestri, and James Horner, all the Star Wars films (with Maurice Murphy playing the main trumpet theme
in all of them), Who Framed
Roger Rabbit, The
Queen, Raiders of
the Lost Ark,The Land
Before Time, Braveheart, Harry Potter and
the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire, Eragon and Superman, as well as the innovative
IllumiNations:
Reflections of Earth at the American theme park, Epcot
. It
has also performed on many pop recordings, including
The Beatles'
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts
Club Band,
Neil Young's
Harvest,
Grace Slick's
Manhole, and songs from the
Thriller and
Bad albums by
Michael Jackson. On television the LSO has
featured on, among others,
André Previn's Music Night and
as a small cameo role in
The
Simpsons. The LSO also made recordings for popular anime
shows composed and conducted by
Toshihiko Sahashi. More recently, the
orchestra was used in the video game
Lara Croft Tomb
Raider: The Angel of Darkness, providing much of the
background music in the game.
LSO has recorded a series of "
Classic Rock albums" with
arrangements of some rock/pop classics.
Since 2000, the LSO has been issuing commercial CD recordings on
its own label,
LSO Live, which was established under
Gillinson's watch.
The LSO also made a very popular rendition of Samuel Barber's
Adagio for Strings, which was one of the most popular pieces on
Apple's iTunes.
The LSO was also featured on Tempo's latest album "
Free Tempo".
Principal Conductors
The LSO had no principal conductor between 1922 and 1930.
References
External links
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