Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - History

History

In 1946, Sir Thomas Beecham founded the RPO, which played its first concert in Croydon on 15 September of that year. Beecham was the RPO's music director until his death in 1961. Rudolf Kempe, who became assistant conductor in 1960, became principal conductor in 1961 and music director in 1962. The RPO gave him the title of Conductor for Life in 1970, and he stepped down from the orchestra in 1975. Subsequent music directors and principal conductors have been Antal Doráti, Walter Weller, André Previn, Vladimir Ashkenazy, and Yuri Temirkanov. Daniele Gatti was music director from 1996 to 2009. In 2009, Charles Dutoit became artistic director and principal conductor of the RPO.

The orchestra toured the United States in 1950, thus becoming the first British orchestra to visit America since the London Symphony Orchestra in 1912.

A review of the orchestral scene of 1950 said of the RPO:

Leader David McCallum … Royal Philharmonic Society concerts (Beecham 4, Celibidache, Sargent). Number of concerts: 32 (approx)…. The Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic share a very serious disability: that neither is a permanently constituted orchestra. Both assemble and disperse more or less at random…there is no style which is distinctively RPO or Philharmonia.

Later the orchestra began to develop its own character, particularly in the woodwind section, led by Jack Brymer (clarinet), Gwydion Brooke (bassoon), Terence McDonagh (oboe), and Gerald Jackson (flute), sometimes referred to as ‘The Royal Family’.

After Beecham's death, the orchestra reorganised itself as a self-governing limited company and soon encountered difficulties. The Royal Philharmonic Society decided not to engage the RPO for its concerts in 1963, Glyndebourne engaged the London Philharmonic instead of the RPO from 1964 onwards and the management of the Royal Festival Hall also severed its connections with the orchestra. Some senior players left, and Kempe resigned as chief conductor, though he returned shortly afterwards. Helped by strong support from Sir Malcolm Sargent, the orchestra successfully mounted its own concerts at a cinema in the London inner suburb, Swiss Cottage.

In 1969 Malcolm Arnold conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the recording of Deep Purple's Concerto for Group and Orchestra composed by the group's organist, Jon Lord.

A further threat to the orchestra's existence came in 1984, when a review carried out on behalf of the Arts Council by the journalist William Rees-Mogg opined that England lacked 'a great eastern symphony orchestra': the suggestion was that the RPO should move to Nottingham. However, another Arts Council report of the same period recommended that the RPO should supplement the London Symphony Orchestra as resident orchestra at the Barbican Centre; neither proposal came to fruition.

In 1987, the RPO performed the score and the theme to "The Chipmunk Adventure" for both the movie and its soundtrack.

In 1992 the orchestra appointed Peter Maxwell Davies as associate conductor and composer. The same year, UEFA commissioned the orchestra and the AMSF chorus to record the UEFA Champions League Hymn.

On April 7, 1994, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of Sir Gilbert Levine performed at the Vatican in the historic "Papal Concert to Commemorate the Holocaust", with the cellist Lynn Harrell as soloist and the actor Richard Dreyfuss as narrator.

In July 2008, the RPO announced that it would continue its residency in Lowestoft for a fifth year, bringing four concerts a year to England's most easterly town. In the autumn of 2009 it was announced that the residency would continue for a record sixth year.