BBC Symphony Orchestra
The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. The BBC SO is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The orchestra was originally conceived in 1928 as a joint enterprise by the BBC and the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, but the latter withdrew the next year and the task of assembling and training the orchestra fell to the BBC's director of music, Adrian Boult. Among its guest conductors in its first years was Arturo Toscanini, who judged it the finest orchestra he had ever conducted. During and after the Second World War, Boult strove to maintain standards, but the senior management of the post-war BBC did not allocate the orchestra the resources to meet competition from new and well-funded rivals. After Boult's retirement from the BBC in 1950, the orchestra went through a fallow period. Boult's successor, Sir Malcolm Sargent, was popular with the public but had poor rapport with his players, and orchestral morale dropped. Sargent's successor, Rudolf Schwarz, made relatively little impact, and although the BBC appointed high-profile chief conductors in the 1960s and 1970s – Antal Doráti, Colin Davis, Pierre Boulez and Gennady Rozhdestvensky – the BBC SO remained underfunded. However, because it was the sole symphony orchestra in London that offered its players full-time contracts, players of high repute, including Alan Civil (horn) and John Wilbraham (trumpet), enrolled as regular members. As a result of initiatives begun in the 1960s by the BBC controller of music William Glock, performing standards rose appreciably. Under Andrew Davis in the 1990s and Jiří Bělohlávek in the 2000s, the orchestra prospered. By the second decade of the 21st century, the BBC SO was regarded by critics as of first-class status. From the outset, the orchestra has been known for pioneering new music, and it continues to do so, at the Proms, in concerts at the Barbican Centre, and in studio concerts from its base at BBC Maida Vale studios. |
Birth and Death Data: Born Founded 1930
Date Range of DAHR Recordings: 1933 - 1937
Roles Represented in DAHR: Musical group
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= Recordings were issued from this master. No recordings issued from other masters.
Recordings
Company | Matrix No. | Size | First Recording Date | Title | Primary Performer | Description | Role | Audio |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gramophone | 2EA876 | 12-in. | 11/2/1934 | Light cavalry overture, part 1 | BBC Symphony Orchestra ; Adrian Boult | Orchestra | Musical group | |
Gramophone | 0B4168 | 10-in. | 4/6/1933 | Nocturne, part 1 | BBC Symphony Orchestra ; Adrian Boult ; Aubrey Brain | Orchestra, with horn soloist | Musical group | |
Gramophone | 0B4169 | 10-in. | 4/6/1933 | Nocturne, part 2 | Aubrey Brain | Orchestra, with horn soloist | Musical group | |
Gramophone | 0EA4633 | 10-in. | 1/28/1937 | Rule Britannia | BBC Symphony Orchestra ; Adrian Boult | Orchestra | Musical group | |
Gramophone | 0EA4634 | 10-in. | 1/28/1937 | God save the King | BBC Symphony Orchestra ; Adrian Boult | Orchestra | Musical group | |
Gramophone | 2EA4629 | 12-in. | 1/28/1937 | Polonaise from Eugen Onegin | BBC Symphony Orchestra ; Adrian Boult | Orchestra | Musical group | |
Gramophone | 2EA4632 | 12-in. | 1/28/1937 | March from Prince Igor | BBC Symphony Orchestra ; Adrian Boult | Orchestra | Musical group | |
Gramophone | 2B6851 | 12-in. | March 1934 | Merry wives of Windsor : Overture | BBC Symphony Orchestra ; Adrian Boult | Orchestra | Musical group | |
Gramophone | 2B6852 | 12-in. | March 1934 | Merry wives of Windsor : Overture | BBC Symphony Orchestra ; Adrian Boult | Orchestra | Musical group |
Citation
Discography of American Historical Recordings, s.v. "BBC Symphony Orchestra," accessed October 8, 2024, https://adpprod2.library.ucsb.edu/names/102647.
BBC Symphony Orchestra. (2024). In Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved October 8, 2024, from https://adpprod2.library.ucsb.edu/names/102647.
"BBC Symphony Orchestra." Discography of American Historical Recordings. UC Santa Barbara Library, 2024. Web. 8 October 2024.
DAHR Persistent Identifier
External Sources
Wikipedia: BBC Symphony Orchestra
Discogs: BBC Symphony Orchestra
Allmusic: BBC Symphony Orchestra
Britannica: BBC Symphony Orchestra
Linked Open Data Sources
LCNAR: BBC Symphony Orchestra - http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80001252
Wikidata: BBC Symphony Orchestra - http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q795630
VIAF: http://viaf.org/viaf/158489157
MusicBrainz: BBC Symphony Orchestra - https://musicbrainz.org/artist/5b13c665-88eb-4e80-9a06-218a660fcf6b
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