London Sinfonietta
The London Sinfonietta is among the leading ensembles in the U.K., devoted largely to contemporary music. The group has a large recording catalog stretching back to the LP era, much of it on major labels.
The London Sinfonietta was formed in 1968 by administrator Nicholas Snowman and conductor David Atherton. Atherton served as music director until 1973, and he remained active with the group after that, conducting it on early recordings, including a 1980 release of Michael Tippett's opera King Priam. The orchestra has a core of 11 Principal Players, augmented each year by guest performers as needed according to the repertory being performed. The group has commissioned more than 450 new works and given world premieres of hundreds of others. The orchestra's programming is eclectic; it has programmed works by such composers as Luciano Berio, Harrison Birtwistle, Steve Reich, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and it has also performed mainstream repertory, including Bach, Britten, and Stravinsky, and even jazz pieces and works of musical theater. The London Sinfonietta has an artistic director; since 2007, it has been Andrew Burke. It is also often led by guest conductors, which include Markus Stenz and composer Oliver Knussen, among others. Knussen also served as artistic director from 1998 to 2002.
The London Sinfonietta has London's Southbank Centre as its home base, performing several concerts there annually, including an annual concert for schools. The group also appears at other British venues and has toured regularly across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. It has developed novel methods of communicating its work digitally, including a Clapping Music mobile phone game app based on Reich's work of that name. The London Sinfonietta is notable for the depth and variety of its recording catalog, which numbers well over 80 items in the digital era, plus LPs before that. Some of the group's albums have appeared on major labels such as Deutsche Grammophon, CBS/Sony Classical, Decca, and EMI, while others have been issued by smaller contemporary music specialist labels, including the group's own London Sinfonietta label. The London Sinfonietta was heard on the album Luke Bedford: In the Voices of the Living, issued on the NMC label in 2023.
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Piano Concertos by Mozart, Bach & Haydn
Alicia de Larrocha, London Sinfonietta, David Zinman
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 14 May 1981
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Spohr: Clarinet Concertos
Antony Pay, London Sinfonietta, David Atherton
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1979
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Torke: The Yellow Pages
Michael Torke, Double Edge, London Sinfonietta, David Miller, Kent Nagano
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Viaduct
Marius Neset, London Sinfonietta
Jazz - Released by ACT Music on 22 Nov 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Durand: La terre et le feu
Gareth Hulse, Hans-Ola Ericsson, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Paul Silverthorne, Pierre-André Valade
Classical - Released by Mode Records on 21 Sep 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Benjamin: Antara - Boulez: Dérive and Memoriale - Harvey: Song Offerings
Classical - Released by Nimbus Records on 1 Mar 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gershwin/Porter/Kern Overtures and Film Music
John McGlinn, Alexander Faris, New Princess Theater Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, National Philharmonic Orchestra
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 6 Jan 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Julian Anderson: The Comedy of Change & Heaven Is Shy of Earth
London Sinfonietta, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Susan Bickley, Oliver Knussen, BBC Symphony Chorus
Classical - Released by Ondine on 5 Oct 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopped & Screwed
Micachu & The Shapes, London Sinfonietta
Alternative & Indie - Released by Rough Trade on 15 Mar 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Knussen: Higglety, Pigglety, Pop! & Where the Wild Things are
London Sinfonietta, Oliver Knussen
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Harrison Birtwistle: Melencolia I, Ritual Fragment & Meridian
London Sinfonietta, Oliver Knussen
Classical - Released by NMC Recordings on 1 May 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Walton: Façade / Stravinsky: Renard
Riccardo Chailly, Peggy Ashcroft, Jeremy Irons, London Sinfonietta
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1989
The Qobuz Essential Discography16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Humet: Niwa
London Sinfonietta, Ramon Humet
Classical - Released by Neu Records on 15 Jun 2012
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Henze: Undine
London Sinfonietta, Oliver Knussen
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Henze: Voices
Hans Werner Henze, Sarah Walker, Paul Sperry, London Sinfonietta
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 3 Dec 1978
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Porter: Overtures & Within the Quota
London Sinfonietta, John McGlinn
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 19 Nov 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Michael Torke: Color Music
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, David Zinman, London Sinfonietta, Kent Nagano
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Torke: Music On The Floor; 4 Proverbs; Monday & Tuesday
Michael Torke, Catherine Bott, Lothar Zagrosek, London Sinfonietta, Argo Band
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Nov 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Birtwistle: The Fields of Sorrow, Verses for Ensembles & Nenia (The Death of Orpheus)
Jane Manning, London Sinfonietta, The Matrix, David Atherton, Alan Hacker
Classical - Released by Lyrita on 1 May 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Birtwistle: Angel Fighter, In Broken Images & Virelai (Sus une fontayne)
London Sinfonietta, David Atherton
Classical - Released by NMC Recordings on 18 May 2015
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
ANDERSON, J.: Alhambra Fantasy / Khorovod / The Stations of the Sun / The Crazed Moon / Diptych (London Sinfonietta, BBC Symphony, Knussen)
London Sinfonietta, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Oliver Knussen
Classical - Released by Ondine on 1 Jan 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo