London Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) has held a prominent place in British music-making for more than seven decades. With a wide reach across Britain, in addition to its regular concerts in London's Cadogan Hall, including concerts in places where access to orchestral music is limited, the RPO can lay claim to the title of Britain's national orchestra. The RPO incorporates the pops-oriented Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, the avant-garde Sharp Edge group, and RPO Resound, a community and educational outreach program.
The RPO's broad contemporary appeal, which has included appearances with popular music stars and on film, television, and video game soundtracks, would have been lauded by its founder and first conductor, Sir Thomas Beecham, who set up the RPO in 1946 and helped lead a vital revival in the U.K.'s orchestral life after World War II. The new orchestra prospered, beginning a long summer residency at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1948 and touring the U.S. in 1950, becoming the first English orchestra to do so since 1912. Rudolf Kempe became principal conductor upon Beecham's death in 1961. The orchestra hit a rough patch in the early '60s under the leadership of Beecham's widow; Kempe departed (and then returned), and the orchestra temporarily lost the right to use the "royal" designation. That was restored by Queen Elizabeth II in 1966, and several strong conductors, Antal Doráti (1975-1978), André Previn (1985-1992), and Vladimir Ashkenazy (music director, 1987-1994), built the orchestra artistically. Later conductors have included Daniele Gatti, Yuri Temirkanov, Charles Dutoit, and Vasily Petrenko, who began his tenure as music director in 2021.
The RPO is especially notable for the depth and variety of its recording program, which in the first few years of its existence had already topped 100 items; by the early 2020s decade, the orchestra had issued many hundreds of recordings, stretching from pop (disco enthusiasts will remember it as the orchestra featured on the Hooked on Classics recordings of the 1980s) to new avant-garde music. Among these was a 125-album contract with the Tring label. The orchestra's RPO Records, formed in 1986, is thought to have been the first recording label owned by a symphony orchestra; such an arrangement is now commonplace. The following year, the RPO launched the light music (or pops in the U.S.) companion group, the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.
In 1993, the RPO inaugurated an educational and community outreach program titled RPO Resound. This program provides musical experiences outside of traditional concert settings, such as schools, prisons, and hospitals. Among the key projects for this program is the stroke rehabilitation project STROKESTRA. The RPO is the resident music ensemble of Cadogan Hall in Chelsea, becoming the first London orchestra to have a permanent home, giving its first concert there in 2004. In 2019, the RPO released Animal Requiem by rocker Pete Townshend's collaborator and marital partner, Rachel Fuller. That year, the RPO was named the associate orchestra of the Royal Albert Hall. Among the orchestra's 2022 albums are a recording of two Sibelius Symphonies and Air, featuring the music of Oliver Davis. The next year, they teamed with Joe Hisaishi for A Symphonic Celebration, which reimagined songs from beloved Studio Ghibli animated films.
© James Manheim & Keith Finke /TiVo
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Haydn: 12 "London" Symphonies
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Holst: A Winter Idyll - Elegy - Indra - A Song of the Night - Sita Interlude - Invocation - The Lure - Morning of the Year Dances
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Lorraine McAslan, Alexander Baillie, London Symphony Orchestra, David Atherton
Classical - Released by Lyrita on 1 Jan 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Solti - Richard Strauss - The Operas
Sir Georg Solti, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 22 Oct 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Double Concerto, Op. 102 & Horn Trio, Op. 40
Frank Peter Zimmermann, Heinrich Schiff, Marie-Luise Neunecker, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 14 Oct 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Symphony No. 6
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Klaus Tennstedt
Classical - Released by London Philharmonic Orchestra on 1 Jun 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Coleridge-Taylor & Harrison: Works for Violin & Orchestra
Lorraine McAslan, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Nicholas Braithwaite
Classical - Released by Lyrita on 1 Sep 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 - Lutoslawski: Concerto for Orchestra
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Jukka-Pekka Saraste
Classical - Released by London Philharmonic Orchestra on 1 Oct 2011
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: "Pastorale" Symphony No.6 & "Egmont" Overture
James Loughran, London Philharmonic Orchestra
Classical - Released by Collins Classics on 13 Sep 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Scott: Piano Concerto Nos. 1 & 2 - Early One Morning
John Ogdon, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bernard Herrmann
Concertos - Released by Lyrita on 1 Jan 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Johannes Brahms : Symphony n°1 - Tragic Overture - Academic Festival Overture
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Marin Alsop
Classical - Released by Naxos on 1 Feb 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
De Curtis: Torna a Surriento (Arr. Chiaramello)
Freddie De Tommaso, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Renato Balsadonna
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 28 Jan 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Marches from the Opera (2023 Remaster from the Original Somerset Tapes)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Reinhard Linz
Classical - Released by Somerset on 5 May 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Kathleen Ferrier: Récital Bach & Haendel
Kathleen Ferrier, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1960
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Conductor's Gallery, Vol. 8: Grzegorz Fitelberg
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Grzegorz Fitelberg
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 25 Aug 2023
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Saint-Saëns: Overture to La Princesse Jaune, Requiem, Symphony No. 3
Catherine Wyn-Rogers, London Philharmonic Orchestra, James O'Donnell
Classical - Released by Signum-Cala on 26 Apr 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
British Horn Concertos
David Pyatt, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Nicholas Braithwaite
Classical - Released by Lyrita on 1 Feb 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Haydn Variations, Schicksalslied & Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 18 Aug 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Messiah (Complete Version, Original Instrumentation)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
Classical - Released by Tam-Tam Media on 1 Jan 1955
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: The Love Of Three Oranges
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Enrique Batiz
Classical - Released by imp on 1 Jan 1983
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bax: Orchestral Works, Vol. 5
Bryden Thomson, London Philharmonic Orchestra
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on 1 Oct 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wagner: Die Walkure, Act 1
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Klaus Tennstedt
Opera - Released by London Philharmonic Orchestra on 1 Oct 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo