Resource id #75
Image Source: Wikipedia

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

= Recordings are available for online listening.
= 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 4, 2024, https://adpprod2.library.ucsb.edu/names/102647.

BBC Symphony Orchestra. (2024). In Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved October 4, 2024, from https://adpprod2.library.ucsb.edu/names/102647.

"BBC Symphony Orchestra." Discography of American Historical Recordings. UC Santa Barbara Library, 2024. Web. 4 October 2024.

DAHR Persistent Identifier

URI: https://adpprod2.library.ucsb.edu/names/102647

Wikipedia content provided under the terms of the Creative Commons BY-SA license

Feedback

Send the Editors a message about this record.