BBC Philharmonic
Encyclopedia
The BBC Philharmonic is a British broadcasting symphony orchestra
based at Media City UK, Salford
, England. It is one of five radio orchestra
s maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation
. The orchestra's primary concert venue is the Bridgewater Hall
.
. It gave the first broadcast performances of many famous English
works, including Elgar's Dream of Gerontius and Enigma Variations
and Holst
's The Planets
. The orchestra was part-funded by the British Broadcasting Company
(precursor of the BBC
), and re-named the Northern Wireless Orchestra in 1926.
When the BBC Symphony Orchestra
was established in London
in 1930, the new Corporation
cut its regional orchestras' funding. The Northern Wireless Orchestra was downsized to just 9 players, and renamed the Northern Studio Orchestra.
Three years later, however, the BBC reversed its decision and maintained a full orchestra again - this time called the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra. This was the beginning of the orchestra in its present form.
The orchestra played at its first Prom in 1961, and enjoyed popularity with performances at the Free Trade Hall
, a venue it shared with the Hallé.
In 1982, the orchestra received a vote of confidence from the BBC
, who expanded the orchestra and changed its name to the BBC Philharmonic. The name conveyed the message that the ensemble was no longer a Northern orchestra - it was an orchestra based in the North
. A musician's joke at the time referred to it as the BBC Enharmonic
, as it had changed its name but sounded the same.
Yan Pascal Tortelier
was principal conductor of the orchestra from 1992 to 2002, and now holds the title of conductor laureate. Gianandrea Noseda
became principal conductor of the orchestra in September 2002. In October 2006, the orchestra changed Noseda's title to chief conductor, in conjunction with his contract extension through 2010. Noseda concluded his tenure as chief conductor in 2011 and now has the title of conductor laureate along with Tortelier. In July 2010, the orchestra announced the appointment of Juanjo Mena
as its next chief conductor, effective with the 2011-2012 season, with an initial contract of 3 years. Since 1996, Vassily Sinaisky
has served as the orchestra's principal guest conductor. Sinaisky is scheduled to relinquish the principal guest conductorship of the orchestra in January 2012 and to take the title of conductor emeritus. In March 2011, the orchestra announced the appointment of John Storgårds
as its next principal guest conductor, effective January 2012..
Since September 2007, the orchestra has been in a major partnership with Salford City Council, enabling the Orchestra to build active links with Salford
and its communities. In 2011, the BBC Philharmonic moved to their new dedicated studio at Media City, Salford Quays
, along with a number of other BBC departments that made the move.
, recording at Studio 7 of New Broadcasting House on Oxford Road, Manchester
. Since 1996, most of the orchestra's live performances have been at the city's Bridgewater Hall
, although it frequently tours the UK
and internationally.
Anecdotally, the 'BBC Phil' is known as the most adventurous of the BBC
orchestras, and has a younger demographic of players. It has always embraced contemporary composer
s, working with Copland
, Walton
and Berio
amongst others. Whilst not having a formal "composer in residence", since 1991, the orchestra has appointed major composers to collaborate in programs of contemporary music, including Peter Maxwell Davies
, James MacMillan
, and HK Gruber.
The BBC Philharmonic has made over 150 recordings, and for the most part, it has steered clear of orchestral 'warhorses'. Series of British film music, the music of George Enescu
, and Stokowski
's Bach
transcriptions
have been featured, all on the Chandos label.
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
based at Media City UK, Salford
City of Salford
The City of Salford is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Salford, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Eccles, Swinton-Pendlebury, Walkden and Irlam which apart from Irlam each have a population of over...
, England. It is one of five radio orchestra
Radio orchestra
A radio orchestra is an orchestra employed by a radio network in order to provide programming as well as sometimes perform incidental or theme music for various shows on the network. In the heyday of radio such orchestras were numerous, performing classical, popular, light music and jazz...
s maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. The orchestra's primary concert venue is the Bridgewater Hall
Bridgewater Hall
The Bridgewater Hall is an international concert venue in Manchester city centre, England. It cost around £42 million to build and currently hosts over 250 performances a year....
.
History
The 2ZY Orchestra was formed in 1922 for a Manchester radio station of the same name2ZY
2ZY was the name of a radio station broadcast by the British Broadcasting Company from Manchester, England, between 1922 and 1927. It had its first test transmission on 450 metres on 17 May 1922 and began regular broadcasts on 15 November 1922, one day after sister station 2LO started daily...
. It gave the first broadcast performances of many famous English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
works, including Elgar's Dream of Gerontius and Enigma Variations
Enigma Variations
Variations on an Original Theme for orchestra , Op. 36, commonly referred to as the Enigma Variations, is a set of a theme and its fourteen variations written for orchestra by Edward Elgar in 1898–1899. It is Elgar's best-known large-scale composition, for both the music itself and the...
and Holst
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
's The Planets
The Planets
The Planets, Op. 32, is a seven-movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1916. Each movement of the suite is named after a planet of the Solar System and its corresponding astrological character as defined by Holst...
. The orchestra was part-funded by the British Broadcasting Company
British Broadcasting Company
The British Broadcasting Company Ltd was a British commercial company formed on 18 October 1922 by British and American electrical companies doing business in the United Kingdom and licensed by the British General Post Office...
(precursor of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
), and re-named the Northern Wireless Orchestra in 1926.
When the BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Symphony Orchestra
The BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain.-History:...
was established in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1930, the new Corporation
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
cut its regional orchestras' funding. The Northern Wireless Orchestra was downsized to just 9 players, and renamed the Northern Studio Orchestra.
Three years later, however, the BBC reversed its decision and maintained a full orchestra again - this time called the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra. This was the beginning of the orchestra in its present form.
The orchestra played at its first Prom in 1961, and enjoyed popularity with performances at the Free Trade Hall
Free Trade Hall
The Free Trade Hall, Peter Street, Manchester, was a public hall constructed in 1853–6 on St Peter's Fields, the site of the Peterloo Massacre and is now a hotel. The hall was built to commemorate the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. The architect was Edward Walters The hall subsequently was...
, a venue it shared with the Hallé.
In 1982, the orchestra received a vote of confidence from the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, who expanded the orchestra and changed its name to the BBC Philharmonic. The name conveyed the message that the ensemble was no longer a Northern orchestra - it was an orchestra based in the North
Northern England
Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...
. A musician's joke at the time referred to it as the BBC Enharmonic
Enharmonic
In modern musical notation and tuning, an enharmonic equivalent is a note , interval , or key signature which is equivalent to some other note, interval, or key signature, but "spelled", or named, differently...
, as it had changed its name but sounded the same.
Yan Pascal Tortelier
Yan Pascal Tortelier
Yan Pascal Tortelier is an internationally renowned French conductor and violinist and is the son of the late cellist Paul Tortelier.-Biography:...
was principal conductor of the orchestra from 1992 to 2002, and now holds the title of conductor laureate. Gianandrea Noseda
Gianandrea Noseda
Gianandrea Noseda is an Italian conductor. He studied piano, composition and conducting in Milan. He furthered his conducting studies with Donato Renzetti, Myung-Whun Chung and Valery Gergiev....
became principal conductor of the orchestra in September 2002. In October 2006, the orchestra changed Noseda's title to chief conductor, in conjunction with his contract extension through 2010. Noseda concluded his tenure as chief conductor in 2011 and now has the title of conductor laureate along with Tortelier. In July 2010, the orchestra announced the appointment of Juanjo Mena
Juanjo Mena
Juanjo Mena is a Spanish conductor. His brother Carlos is a countertenor and his sister Elena is a research chemist....
as its next chief conductor, effective with the 2011-2012 season, with an initial contract of 3 years. Since 1996, Vassily Sinaisky
Vassily Sinaisky
Vassily Serafimovich Sinaisky is a Russian conductor and pianist. He studied conducting with Ilya Musin at the Leningrad Conservatory and began his career as Assistant to Kirill Kondrashin at the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra...
has served as the orchestra's principal guest conductor. Sinaisky is scheduled to relinquish the principal guest conductorship of the orchestra in January 2012 and to take the title of conductor emeritus. In March 2011, the orchestra announced the appointment of John Storgårds
John Storgårds
John Gunnar Rafael Storgårds is a Finnish violinist and conductor.Storgårds studied violin with Esther Raitio and Jouko Ignatius at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and continued his violin studies with Chaim Taub in Israel. He was a founding member of the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra...
as its next principal guest conductor, effective January 2012..
Since September 2007, the orchestra has been in a major partnership with Salford City Council, enabling the Orchestra to build active links with Salford
City of Salford
The City of Salford is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Salford, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Eccles, Swinton-Pendlebury, Walkden and Irlam which apart from Irlam each have a population of over...
and its communities. In 2011, the BBC Philharmonic moved to their new dedicated studio at Media City, Salford Quays
Salford Quays
Salford Quays is an area of Salford in Greater Manchester, England, near the end of the Manchester Ship Canal. Previously the site of Manchester Docks, it became one of the first and largest urban regeneration projects in the United Kingdom following the closure of the dockyards in...
, along with a number of other BBC departments that made the move.
Performances
Like all BBC performing groups, the orchestra contributes to the schedule of Radio 3BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
, recording at Studio 7 of New Broadcasting House on Oxford Road, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
. Since 1996, most of the orchestra's live performances have been at the city's Bridgewater Hall
Bridgewater Hall
The Bridgewater Hall is an international concert venue in Manchester city centre, England. It cost around £42 million to build and currently hosts over 250 performances a year....
, although it frequently tours the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and internationally.
Anecdotally, the 'BBC Phil' is known as the most adventurous of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
orchestras, and has a younger demographic of players. It has always embraced contemporary composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
s, working with Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
, Walton
William Walton
Sir William Turner Walton OM was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera...
and Berio
Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...
amongst others. Whilst not having a formal "composer in residence", since 1991, the orchestra has appointed major composers to collaborate in programs of contemporary music, including Peter Maxwell Davies
Peter Maxwell Davies
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, CBE is an English composer and conductor and is currently Master of the Queen's Music.-Biography:...
, James MacMillan
James MacMillan (musician)
James MacMillan CBE is a Scottish classical composer and conductor.-Early life:MacMillan was born at Kilwinning, in North Ayrshire, but lived in the East Ayrshire town of Cumnock until 1977....
, and HK Gruber.
The BBC Philharmonic has made over 150 recordings, and for the most part, it has steered clear of orchestral 'warhorses'. Series of British film music, the music of George Enescu
George Enescu
George Enescu was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher.-Biography:Enescu was born in the village of Liveni , Dorohoi County at the time, today Botoşani County. He showed musical talent from early in his childhood. A child prodigy, Enescu created his first musical...
, and Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
's Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
transcriptions
Transcription (music)
In music, transcription can mean notating a piece or a sound which was previously unnotated, as, for example, an improvised jazz solo. Further examples include ethnomusicological notation of oral traditions of folk music, such as Béla Bartók's and Ralph Vaughan Williams' collections of the national...
have been featured, all on the Chandos label.
Principal conductors
- Charles GrovesCharles GrovesSir Charles Barnard Groves CBE was an English conductor. He was known for the breadth of his repertoire and for encouraging contemporary composers and young conductors....
: 1944–1951 - John HopkinsJohn Hopkins (conductor)John Hopkins OBE is a Yorkshire-born, British conductor and administrator. Hopkins moved to New Zealand in 1957 and to Australia in 1963. He conducted the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in 1987 in one of New Zealand's first Orchestral Composers' Reading Workshops...
: 1952–1957 - George HurstGeorge HurstGeorge Hurst is a British conductor.-Biography:Born in Edinburgh in 1926, Hurst studied at Bishops College School in Lennoxville, Quebec and the Royal Conservatory in Toronto Canada....
: 1958–1968 - Bryden ThomsonBryden ThomsonBryden Thomson was a Scottish conductor.Bryden Thomson was born in Ayr. He led several British orchestras, including the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra from 1977 to 1985...
: 1968–1973 - Raymond LeppardRaymond LeppardRaymond "Def" Leppard, CBE is a British conductor and harpsichordist.He was born in London and grew up in Bath, where he was educated at the City of Bath Boys' School, now known as the Beechen Cliff School...
: 1973–1980 - Edward DownesEdward DownesSir Edward Thomas "Ted" Downes, CBE was an English conductor, specialising in opera.He was associated with the Royal Opera House from 1952, and with Opera Australia from 1970. He was also well known for his long working relationship with the BBC Philharmonic and for working with the Netherlands...
: 1980–1991 - Yan Pascal TortelierYan Pascal TortelierYan Pascal Tortelier is an internationally renowned French conductor and violinist and is the son of the late cellist Paul Tortelier.-Biography:...
: 1992–2002 - Gianandrea NosedaGianandrea NosedaGianandrea Noseda is an Italian conductor. He studied piano, composition and conducting in Milan. He furthered his conducting studies with Donato Renzetti, Myung-Whun Chung and Valery Gergiev....
: 2002–2011 - Juanjo MenaJuanjo MenaJuanjo Mena is a Spanish conductor. His brother Carlos is a countertenor and his sister Elena is a research chemist....
: 2011–present