Formation of London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London’s symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood’s Queen’s Hall Orchestra because of a new rule requiring players to give the orchestra their exclusive services.
The LSO itself later introduced a similar rule for its members. From the outset the LSO was organized on co-operative lines, with all players sharing the profits at the end of each season. This practice continued for the orchestra’s first four decades.
Struggle Through the World War Times
The LSO underwent periods of eclipse in the 1930s and 1950s when it was regarded as inferior in quality to new London orchestras, to which it lost players and bookings: the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the 1930s and the Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic after the Second World War.
The profit-sharing principle was abandoned in the post-war era as a condition of receiving public subsidy for the first time. In the 1950s the orchestra debated whether to concentrate on film work at the expense of symphony concerts; many senior players left when the majority of players rejected the idea.
Symphony Regains its Position
By the 1960s the LSO had recovered its leading position, which it has retained subsequently. In 1966, to perform alongside it in choral works, the orchestra established the LSO Chorus, originally a mix of professional and amateur singers, later a wholly amateur ensemble.
As a self-governing body, the orchestra selects the conductors with whom it works. At some stages in its history it has dispensed with a principal conductor and worked only with guests. Among conductors with whom it is most associated are, in its early days, Hans Richter, Sir Edward Elgar, and Sir Thomas Beecham, and in more recent decades Pierre Monteux, André Previn, Claudio Abbado, Sir Colin Davis, and Valery Gergiev.
The Symphony Gains Prominence
Since 1982, the LSO has been based in the Barbican Centre in the City of London. Among its programmes there have been large-scale festivals celebrating composers as diverse as Berlioz, Mahler and Leonard Bernstein. The LSO claims to be the world’s most recorded orchestra; it has made gramophone recordings since 1912 and has played on more than 200 soundtrack recordings for the cinema, of which the best known include the Star Wars series. The LSO is consistently ranked as one of the world’s leading orchestras.
At the turn of the twentieth century there were no permanent salaried orchestras in London. The main orchestras were those of Covent Garden, the Philharmonic Society and the Queen’s Hall; their proprietors engaged players individually for each concert or for a season.
As there were competing demands for the services of the finest players it was an accepted practice that, even though under contract to play for a concert, a player was at liberty to accept a better-paid engagement if it were offered.
He would then engage another player to deputise for him at the original concert and the rehearsals for it. The treasurer of the Philharmonic Society described the system thus: “A, whom you want, signs to play at your concert. He sends B (whom you don’t mind) to the first rehearsal. B, without your knowledge or consent, sends C to the second rehearsal. Not being able to play at the concert, C sends D, whom you would have paid five shillings to stay away.”
There was much competition for good orchestral players, with well-paid engagements offered by more than fifty music halls, by pit bands in West End musical comedies, and by grand hotels and restaurants which maintained orchestras.
In 1904, the manager of the Queen’s Hall, Robert Newman and the conductor of his promenade concerts, Henry Wood, agreed that they could no longer tolerate the deputy system. After a rehearsal in which Wood was faced with dozens of unfamiliar faces in his own orchestra, Newman came to the platform and announced: “Gentlemen, in future there will be no deputies! Good morning!”
This caused a furore. Orchestral musicians were not highly paid, and removing their chances of better-paid engagements permitted by the deputy system was a serious financial blow to many of them. While travelling by train to play under Wood at a music festival in the north of England in May 1904, soon after Newman’s announcement, some of his leading players discussed the situation and agreed to try to form their own orchestra.
The principal movers were three horn players (Adolf Borsdorf, Thomas Busby, and Henri van der Meerschen) and a trumpeter, John Solomon
London Symphony Orchestra: Christmas Classics – Song List..
Jingle Bells (One Horse Open Sleigh)
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Deck The Halls (Welsh Melody)
Adeste Fideles (O come, All Ye Faithful)
Silent Night
Joy to the World
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem
The First Noel
O Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum)
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Away in a Manger
What Child Is This
God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen
Angels, We Have Heard On High
Every Year Again (Alle Jahre Wieder)
Good King Wenceslas
We Three Kings
Up on the House Top
Oh Come Little Children (Ihr Kinderlein, Kommet)
Jolly Old Saint Nicholas
Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming (Es ist ein Ros entsprungen)
While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night
From Heaven Above to Earth I Come (Vom Himmel Hoch)
Maria Walks Amid the Thorns (Maria Durch Ein’ Dornwald Geht)
Ich Steh an Deiner Krippen Hier
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