The BBC Concert Orchestra
Of the five orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Company, the BBC Concert Orchestra is the most oriented toward light music, popular music, and jazz. The orchestra's name is somewhat inaccurate: although it does often perform live concerts, the group's most important tasks are connected to radio broadcasting. The BBC Concert Orchestra grew out of the BBC Theatre Orchestra, which was formed in 1931 and was later renamed the BBC Opera Orchestra. In 1952, that group was reorganized as the BBC Concert Orchestra. The following year, it became the house orchestra for the BBC program Friday Night is Music Night, which as of the late 2010s, remained on the air as the world's longest-running radio program. The orchestra performed a variety of other light music on BBC programs, accompanied popular singers, sometimes teamed with the BBC Big Band, and at times performed operatic and symphonic works. For two decades, the group gave live concerts at London's Camden Theatre, moving to the Hippodrome in North London in 1972. The orchestra's first conductor was Gilbert Vinter. Subsequent conductors have included Charles Mackerras (1954-1956), Vilem Tausky (1956-1966), Marcus Dods (1966-1970), Ashley Lawrence (1970-1989), Barry Wordsworth (1989-2006), Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart (2010-2017, remaining as the principal guest conductor), and Bramwell Tovey (2018-). Composers associated with the BBC Concert Orchestra have sometimes been associated with popular music spheres; they include Radiohead guitarist and keyboardist Jonny Greenwood, who became the orchestra's composer-in-association in 2004. The orchestra's other responsibilities have included recording jingles for BBC News programs. The BBC Concert Orchestra has a large catalog of recordings, many of them covering British light music, film music, and symphonic music that has not been recorded elsewhere. Many of their recordings have appeared on the Bainbridge, Excalibur, Dutton Laboratories (which has issued a lengthy series of light music/easy listening recordings), Chandos, and Somm labels. In 2019, the orchestra issued an album on Regent of music by its new composer-in-residence, Dobrinka Tabakova.© James Manheim /TiVo Read more
Of the five orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Company, the BBC Concert Orchestra is the most oriented toward light music, popular music, and jazz. The orchestra's name is somewhat inaccurate: although it does often perform live concerts, the group's most important tasks are connected to radio broadcasting.
The BBC Concert Orchestra grew out of the BBC Theatre Orchestra, which was formed in 1931 and was later renamed the BBC Opera Orchestra. In 1952, that group was reorganized as the BBC Concert Orchestra. The following year, it became the house orchestra for the BBC program Friday Night is Music Night, which as of the late 2010s, remained on the air as the world's longest-running radio program. The orchestra performed a variety of other light music on BBC programs, accompanied popular singers, sometimes teamed with the BBC Big Band, and at times performed operatic and symphonic works. For two decades, the group gave live concerts at London's Camden Theatre, moving to the Hippodrome in North London in 1972. The orchestra's first conductor was Gilbert Vinter. Subsequent conductors have included Charles Mackerras (1954-1956), Vilem Tausky (1956-1966), Marcus Dods (1966-1970), Ashley Lawrence (1970-1989), Barry Wordsworth (1989-2006), Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart (2010-2017, remaining as the principal guest conductor), and Bramwell Tovey (2018-). Composers associated with the BBC Concert Orchestra have sometimes been associated with popular music spheres; they include Radiohead guitarist and keyboardist Jonny Greenwood, who became the orchestra's composer-in-association in 2004. The orchestra's other responsibilities have included recording jingles for BBC News programs.
The BBC Concert Orchestra has a large catalog of recordings, many of them covering British light music, film music, and symphonic music that has not been recorded elsewhere. Many of their recordings have appeared on the Bainbridge, Excalibur, Dutton Laboratories (which has issued a lengthy series of light music/easy listening recordings), Chandos, and Somm labels. In 2019, the orchestra issued an album on Regent of music by its new composer-in-residence, Dobrinka Tabakova.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Poulenc: Orchestral Works
The BBC Concert Orchestra, Bramwell Tovey
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on Nov 4, 2022
Diapason d'orWhen this album was recorded, in March 2022, no-one could have imagined that it would be Bramwell Tovey’s last recording. Chandos Records would like t ...
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Musique Orchestrale (Volume 3)
The BBC Concert Orchestra, Alasdair Malloy, Catherine Moore, Leonard Slatkin
Classical - Released by Naxos on Jun 12, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Musique Orchestrale (Volume 4)
The BBC Concert Orchestra, Kim Criswell, Leonard Slatkin, William Dazeley
Classical - Released by Naxos on Sep 19, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Musique Orchestrale (Volume 2)
The BBC Concert Orchestra, Alistair Young, David McCallum, Leonard Slatkin
Classical - Released by Naxos on Apr 28, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
British Light Music
The BBC Concert Orchestra, Philip Martin, Roderick Elms, Kenneth Alwyn
Classical - Released by Naxos on Jun 25, 2021
World-famous for the Warsaw Concerto from the film Dangerous Moonlight, Richard Addinsell was one of Britain’s leading composers for stage and screen. ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Alwyn, York Bowen & Hubert Parry
Classical - Released by Dutton on Jan 1, 2009
Neither the most ardent fan of 20th century English orchestral music, or even, one suspects, the composers themselves, would count the works on this 2 ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Frederick Converse: American Sketches
Classical - Released by Dutton Epoch on Oct 6, 2011
In the first decades of the 20th century, Frederick Converse (1871-1940) was known as one of the outstanding American composers of classical music, bu ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
John Foulds: Vol. 2
Classical - Released by Dutton Epoch on Nov 1, 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Braunfels: Symphonic Variations / Sinfonia Brevis
Classical - Released by Dutton Epoch on Feb 2, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
La Nuit de Noël
The BBC Concert Orchestra, Stephen Fry, BBC Singers, Rebecca Turner, Barry Wordsworth
Classical - Released by Naxos on Nov 1, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Elgar: The Longed-for Light
The BBC Concert Orchestra, Simon Callow, Susan Gritton, John Wilson
Classical - Released by SOMM Recordings on Nov 13, 2012
Gramophone Editor's Choice16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
John Foulds, Vol. 4
Classical - Released by Dutton Epoch on Jul 21, 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
York Bowen: Piano Concerto Nos 2 & 3
Classical - Released by Dutton on Jan 1, 2007
As Romantic as they are virtuosic, the three works on this disc by English composer York Bowen are certainly worth at least one hearing by enthusiasts ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
BBC Concert Orchestra Plays Songs from The Disney Movies
Pop - Released by Music Manager on Jul 30, 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
York Bowen Piano & Violin Concertos
Classical - Released by Dutton on Jan 1, 2006
The resurgence of the music of British composer York Bowen began in the mid-'90s with a single Hyperion disc featuring a selection of Bowen's short pi ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Loeffler: Divertissement Espagnol & La Villanelle Du Diable
Classical - Released by Dutton Epoch on Feb 2, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
John Foulds - Keltic Suite
Classical - Released by Dutton Epoch on Jul 26, 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Foulds: Undine, Chinese Suite & Miniature Suite
Classical - Released by Dutton Epoch on Dec 2, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Frederick Delius - Hiawatha, Tone Poem for Orchestra
Classical - Released by Dutton Epoch on Jun 1, 2009
If you love Delius and have to hear every work the composer wrote, you'll want to seek out this Dutton disc, which includes only rarities: his first t ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Richard Arnell - Ballet Music
Classical - Released by Dutton Epoch on Jul 21, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo