London Philharmonic Orchestra
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The London Philharmonic Orchestra (frequently abbreviated to LPO), also known as the London Session Orchestra, based in London, is one of the major orchestras of the United Kingdom. It is based in the Royal Festival Hall.
It was formed in 1932 by Thomas Beecham, and played its first concert on October 7 of that year. In 1939 it became self-governing, with members of the orchestra themselves taking decisions on the organisation's affairs. During the Second World War the Orchestra was particularly active in touring the country and bringing orchestral music to places where it was not usually available. The LPO is the main resident orchestra of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera.
Other principal conductors of the orchestra have included Adrian Boult (1950-1957), Bernard Haitink (1967-1979) and Georg Solti (1979-1983).
The current LPO Principal Conductor is Kurt Masur, who began his tenure in 2000. He will step down from this post in 2007. Vladimir Jurowski became the LPO's principal guest conductor in March 2003. With the 2007-2008 season, he will become the LPO's new Principal Conductor.
As well as giving many classical concerts, the LPO has made several film soundtracks, including Lawrence of Arabia, Philadelphia, The Mission and The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, as well as some CD albums of the music from the Enix (now Square Enix) video game series Dragon Quest composed by Koichi Sugiyama, Symphonic Poem: Hope for Final Fantasy XII and the soundtrack for Xenosaga Episode I composed by Yasunori Mitsuda. They can also be heard in the 1993 television production of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, conducted by Simon Rattle, as well as the 1989 EMI recording of the opera. The orchestra also occasionally plays on popular music records like Nightwish's Once for example. In the mid-1990s the LPO even released tribute albums to rock bands like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and The Who with covers of the bands' songs, including an infamous rendition of “Kashmir", and a version of "Baba O'Riley", which was featured in the movie Slackers.
The LPO has recently begun to issue CDs under its own label[1] [2] [3].
Past managing directors of the LPO have included Thomas Russell and Serge Dorny. The current LPO Chief Executive and Artistic Director is Timothy Walker.[4]
[edit] Principal Conductors
- Sir Thomas Beecham (1932–1939)
- Eduard van Beinum (1947–1950)
- Sir Adrian Boult (1950–1957)
- William Steinberg (1958–1960)
- John Pritchard (1962–1966)
- Bernard Haitink (1967–1979)
- Sir Georg Solti (1979–1983)
- Klaus Tennstedt (1983–1990)
- Franz Welser-Möst (1990–1996)
- Kurt Masur (2000–2007)
- Vladimir Jurowski (designate, from 2007)
[edit] References
- ^ Charlotte Higgins, "London Philharmonic launches own label". The Guardian, 24 March 2005.
- ^ Andrew Clements, "Rachmaninov: The Isle of the Dead; Symphonic Dances: London Philharmonic/ Jurowski" (CD review). The Guardian, 29 April 2005.
- ^ Andrew Clements, "Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony, London Philharmonic O/ Jurowski" (CD review). The Guardian, 2 June 2006.
- ^ Erica Jeal, "Lord of the dings". The Guardian, 31 March 2003.
[edit] External links
- Home page
- London Philharmonic Choir
- Jessica Duchen, "Strings attached". The Guardian, 15 September 2000.
- London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Internet Movie Database
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