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
-
Hitchcock The Great Movie Thrillers
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bernard Herrmann
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 15 Dec 1969
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: Klavierkonzerte Nr. 1 & 2
Claudio Arrau, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Eliahu Inbal
Classical - Released by Decca on 1 Jan 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: Piano Concerti & Piano Quintet
Classical - Released by London Philharmonic Orchestra on 1 Apr 2011
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 & Egmont Overture (Live)
Klaus Tennstedt, London Philharmonic Orchestra
Symphonies - Released by London Philharmonic Orchestra on 1 May 2015
Gramophone Editor's Choice16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dvorak:Violin Concerto in A Minor/Romance/Sonatina/Four Romantic Pieces
Itzhak Perlman, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim, Samuel Sanders
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 1 Sep 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Holst: Orchestral Works
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Nicholas Braithwaite
Classical - Released by Lyrita on 1 Jan 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: Symphony No.15 "From Jewish Folk Poetry"
Elisabeth Söderström, Ortrun Wenkel, Ryszard Karcykowski, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bernard Haitink
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1986
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Elgar: The Symphonies; Cockaigne; In the South
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 2 "A London Symphony" & Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 25 Nov 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Soprano (Bonus Track)
Nicole Cabell, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 26 Mar 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn: Die Hebriden, Op.26 - Sinfonien Nr.3 & 4
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bernard Haitink
Classical - Released by Decca on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann & Schnittke: Cello Concertos
Natalia Gutman, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Kurt Masur
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 1 Jan 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Symphony No. 11 in G Minor "The Year 1905"
Vladimir Jurowski, London Philharmonic Orchestra
Symphonies - Released by London Philharmonic Orchestra on 25 Sep 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rossini: Ermione
Carmen Giannattasio, Patricia Bardon, Paul Nilon, Colin Lee, London Philharmonic Orchestra, David Parry
Opera - Released by Opera Rara on 1 Jan 2010
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Violin Concerto, Op. 61; Violin Romances, Op. 40 & Op.50
Pinchas Zukerman, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), London Philharmonic Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto; Bruch: Scottish Fantasy (Adrian Boult – The Decca Legacy III, Vol. 6)
Alfredo Campoli, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 1 Jan 1959
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 25 & 27
Alicia de Larrocha, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 8 Sep 1979
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wagner: Extraits orchestraux de La Walkyrie, Le crépuscule des dieux & Tristan et Isolde (Mono Version)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Artur Rodzinski
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1962
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Khachaturian: Piano Concerto / Franck: Symphonic Variations
Alicia de Larrocha, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 14 Jun 1973
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bellini: Il pirata
Ludovic Tezier, Carmen Giannattasio, David Parry, London Philharmonic Orchestra
Opera - Released by Opera Rara on 30 Apr 2012
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Alfred Brendel III (Great Pianists of the 20th Century Vol.14)
Claudio Abbado, Alfred Brendel, Bernard Haitink, Berliner Philharmoniker, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo