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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The Greatest Classical Masterpieces! (Digitally Remastered)
Classical - Released by EMG Classical on 3 Dec 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bax: Symphony No. 7, 4 Songs
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Martyn Hill, Bryden Thomson
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Chandos on 1 Aug 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending; Fantasia On A Theme By Thomas Tallis; Symphony No.5
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Roger Norrington
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Don Giovanni
Bryn Terfel, Renée Fleming, Ann Murray, Michele Pertusi, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: Symphony No.5
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bernard Haitink
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1983
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Elgar: Enigma Variations; Pomp & Circumstance Marches; Cockaigne Overture
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1977
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 & Egmont Overture (Live)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Klaus Tennstedt
Classical - Released by London Philharmonic Orchestra on 1 May 2015
Gramophone Editor's Choice16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.5; Fantasia in C minor
Alfred Brendel, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bernard Haitink
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Molière (Bande originale du film)
Frédéric Talgorn, London Philharmonic Orchestra
Film Soundtracks - Released by Milan on 5 Feb 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sibelius: Orchestral Works
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, The BBC Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Beecham
Classical - Released by Biddulph Recordings on 1 May 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Symphony No. 4
Vladimir Jurowski, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sofia Fomina
Symphonies - Released by London Philharmonic Orchestra on 19 Jul 2019
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
LPO plays the Classical Period Favourites
Finghin Collins, London Philharmonic Orchestra, David Parry
Classical - Released by X5 Music Group on 28 Dec 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Noël !
Maurice André, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Michel Legrand
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 1 Jan 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vladimir Jurowski: 10 Years
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Jurowski
Classical - Released by London Philharmonic Orchestra on 1 Oct 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Complete Symphonies
London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Walter Weller
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Genius of Film Music: Hollywood 1960s - 1980s
London Philharmonic Orchestra, John Mauceri
Film Soundtracks - Released by London Philharmonic Orchestra on 1 Sep 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Massenet: Werther
Alfredo Kraus, Tatiana Troyanos, Michel Plasson, London Philharmonic Orchestra
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 1 Aug 1997
The Qobuz Essential Discography16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Messiah
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Karl Richter
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 1973
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: The Symphonies
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bernard Haitink
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 1 & Isle of the Dead
Vladimir Jurowski, London Philharmonic Orchestra
Symphonies - Released by London Philharmonic Orchestra on 15 Mar 2019
5 de Diapason24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Paganini : Violin Concertos Nos. 3 & 4
Salvatore Accardo, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Dutoit
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 1975
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo