Record producer Walter Legge founded the Philharmonia Orchestra in 1945 in London as a recording ensemble that would set standards of the highest musical caliber and of unparalleled technical perfection. Yet the Orchestra soon gained a reputation for its public concerts and tours as well, under such legendary figures as Thomas Beecham, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Arturo Toscanini, Richard Strauss, and Herbert von Karajan. Under such principal conductors as Otto Klemperer, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Giuseppe Sinopoli, and Christoph von Dohnányi, the Philharmonia Orchestra has toured throughout the music world, enjoying remarkable successes at such leading festivals as those in Lucerne, Berlin, Edinburgh, and Aix-en-Provence, as well as guest appearances performing in the opera house and concert hall at the Salzburg Festival. Since 2008 Esa-Pekka Salonen has headed the Philharmonia Orchestra, which performs some 200 concerts annually in its home, Royal Festival Hall, and in its residencies in various British cities and global tours. Over the course of decades, the Philharmonia Orchestra has been responsible for premiering more than 100 commissioned works, including compositions by Harrison Birtwistle, Peter Maxwell Davies, Mark-Anthony Turnage, and James MacMillan. In the 2008-09 season, with its “City of Dreams” project, the Orchestra developed a high-profile focus on works that emerged in Vienna in the period between 1900 and 1935; the 2009-10 season has included 30 performances during the Orchestra’s tours throughout the famous concert halls of Europe and in China and Japan. The Philharmonia Orchestra’s interactive Website, called “The Sound Exchange,” receives two million visits annually and offers attractions ranging from artist conversations to transmissions of concerts—an example of how the ensemble is embracing new media and the future of musical communication.
LUCERNE FESTIVAL (IMF) debut on August 8, 1954 in works by Mozart, Ravel, and Brahms under the baton of Herbert von Karajan.
May 2010