Editing London Philharmonic Orchestra (section)

==History==
===Background===
In the 1920s, the [[London Symphony Orchestra]] (LSO) was the city's best-known concert and recording orchestra. Others were the [[Royal Albert Hall]] Orchestra, the orchestra of the [[Royal Philharmonic Society]], the [[BBC]]'s Wireless Symphony Orchestra and [[Henry Wood|Sir Henry Wood]]'s [[Queen's Hall]] Orchestra.<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/917033 "The B.B.C."], ''[[The Musical Times]]'', 1 January 1928, p.&nbsp;70. {{subscription required}}; and Elkin, p.&nbsp;93.</ref> All except the last of these were essentially ''ad hoc'' ensembles, with little continuity of personnel,{{refn|Despite the efforts of Wood, Beecham and others, the deputy system remained a traditional part of the London orchestral scene. A player booked for a concert could accept a better-paid engagement and send a substitute in his stead. The treasurer of the Royal 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."<ref>Levien, John Mewburn, ''quoted'' in Reid (1961), p.&nbsp;50.</ref>|group=n}} and none approached the excellence of the best continental and American orchestras. This became obvious in 1927 when the [[Berlin Philharmonic]], under [[Wilhelm Furtwängler]], gave two concerts at the Queen's Hall.<ref>Elkin, p.&nbsp;93.</ref> The chief music critic of ''[[The Times]]'' later commented, "the British public&nbsp;... was electrified when it heard the disciplined precision of the Berlin Philharmonic&nbsp;... This apparently was how an orchestra could, and, therefore, ought to sound".<ref>''Quoted'' in Elkin, p.&nbsp;49.</ref> After the Berliners, London heard a succession of major foreign orchestras, including the [[Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra|Concertgebouw Orchestra]] of Amsterdam under [[Willem Mengelberg]] and the [[New York Philharmonic|Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York]] under [[Arturo Toscanini]].<ref name=patmore>Patmore, David. [https://www.proquest.com/docview/968184 "EMI, Sir Thomas Beecham, and the formation of the London Philharmonic Orchestra"], ''ARSC Journal'', 32(1), 2001, pp.&nbsp;11–27. {{subscription required}}</ref>

[[File:Sir-Thomas-Beecham-US-1948.jpg|thumb|left|[[Thomas Beecham|Sir Thomas Beecham]], founding father and first conductor of the LPO]]
Among those determined that London should have a permanent orchestra of similar excellence were [[John Reith, 1st Baron Reith|Sir John Reith]], director-general of the [[British Broadcasting Corporation]] (BBC), and the conductor [[Thomas Beecham|Sir Thomas Beecham]]. In 1928 they opened discussions about jointly setting up such an ensemble, but after 18 months of negotiations it became clear that the corporation and the conductor had irreconcilable priorities. Beecham demanded more personal control of the orchestra and repertoire than the BBC was willing to concede, and his priorities were the opera house and the concert hall rather than the broadcasting studio.<ref>Kenyon, Nicholas. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/961148 "Beecham and the BBC Symphony Orchestra: A Collaboration that Never Happened"], ''[[The Musical Times]]'', October 1980, pp.&nbsp;625–628. {{subscription required}}</ref> The BBC went ahead without him, and under its director of music, [[Adrian Boult]], launched the [[BBC Symphony Orchestra]] in October 1930, to immense acclaim.<ref>"Music", ''The Times'', 23 October 1930, p.&nbsp;12; [https://www.jstor.org/stable/914348 "London Concerts"], ''The Musical Times'', December 1930, pp.&nbsp;1124–1127. {{subscription required}}; and "Music", ''The Observer'', 26 October 1930, p.&nbsp;14.</ref>

In 1931, Beecham was approached by the rising young [[Conducting|conductor]] [[Malcolm Sargent]] with a proposal to set up a permanent, salaried orchestra with a subsidy guaranteed by Sargent's patrons, the [[Samuel Courtauld (art collector)|Courtauld]] family.<ref>Aldous, p.&nbsp;68.</ref> Originally Sargent and Beecham envisaged a reshuffled version of the LSO, but the orchestra, a self-governing body, balked at weeding out and replacing underperforming players. In 1932, Beecham lost patience and agreed with Sargent to set up a new orchestra from scratch.<ref>Reid (1968), p.&nbsp;202.</ref> With the BBC having attracted a large number of the finest musicians from other orchestras, many in the musical world doubted that Beecham could find enough good players.<ref>Russell, p.&nbsp;16; and Jenkins, p.&nbsp;99.</ref> He was fortunate in the timing of the enterprise: the depressed economy had severely reduced the number of freelance dates available to orchestral players.<ref>Russell, p.&nbsp;17.</ref> Moreover, Beecham himself was a strong attraction to many musicians: he later commented, "I always get the players. Among other considerations, they are so good they refuse to play under anybody but me."<ref>Jenkins, p.&nbsp;99.</ref> In a study of the foundation of the LPO, David Patmore writes, "The combination of steady work, occasionally higher than usual rates, variety of performance and Beecham's own magnetic personality would make such an offering irresistible to many orchestral musicians."<ref name="patmore" />

Beecham and Sargent had financial backing from leading figures in commerce, including [[Samuel Courtauld (art collector)|Samuel Courtauld]], [[Robert Mayer (philanthropist)|Robert Mayer]] and [[Frédéric Alfred d'Erlanger|Baron Frédéric d'Erlanger]],<ref name=t1>"London Philharmonic Orchestra", ''The Times'', 9 September 1932, p.&nbsp;8.</ref> and secured profitable contracts to record for [[Columbia Graphophone Company|Columbia]] and play for the Royal Philharmonic Society, the [[Royal Choral Society]], the Courtauld-Sargent Concerts, Mayer's concerts for children, and the international opera season at [[Royal Opera House|Covent Garden]].<ref>Russell, p.&nbsp;19.</ref>

During his earlier negotiations with the BBC, Beecham had proposed the title "London Philharmonic Orchestra",<ref>Kenyon, pp.&nbsp;20–22</ref> which was now adopted for the new ensemble. With the aid of the impresario [[Harold Holt]] and other influential and informed contacts he recruited 106 players. They included a few young musicians straight from music college, many established players from provincial orchestras, and 17 of the LSO's leading members.<ref>Morrison, p.&nbsp;79.</ref> During the early years, the orchestra was led by [[Paul Beard (violinist)|Paul Beard]] and [[David McCallum, Sr.|David McCallum]], and included leading players such as James Bradshaw, [[Gwydion Brooke]], [[Geoffrey Gilbert]], [[Léon Goossens]], [[Gerald Jackson]], [[Reginald Kell]], [[Anthony Pini]] and [[Bernard Walton]].<ref>Russell, pp.&nbsp;135–141.</ref> Holt became the LPO's business manager, and the management board included the orchestra's principal benefactors: Courtauld, Mayer and d'Erlanger.<ref name="t1" />

===Early years===
[[File:LPO-first-programme-1932.jpg|thumb|right|300px|alt=concert programme, listing Berlioz's Overture Roman Carnival; Mozart's Prague Symphony; Delius's Brigg Fair and Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben|Programme of the first LPO concert<br><small>(modern reconstruction of unavailable original)</small>]]

After twelve rehearsals, the orchestra made its debut at the Queen's Hall on 7 October 1932, conducted by Beecham.{{refn|In earlier years Beecham had been notoriously late for rehearsals, usually arriving an hour after the appointed time,<ref>Reid (1961), pp.&nbsp;84&nbsp;and&nbsp;92</ref>|}} but now he assumed a new seriousness, always arriving punctually.<ref>Reid (1961), p.&nbsp;205.</ref>  After the first item, Berlioz's ''[[Overtures by Hector Berlioz#Le carnaval romain|Roman Carnival Overture]]'', the audience went wild, some of them standing on their seats to clap and shout.<ref name="r18">Russell, p.&nbsp;18.</ref> In ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' [[Ernest Newman]] wrote, "Nothing so electrifying has been heard in a London concert room for years. The tone was magnificent, the precision perfect, the reading a miracle of fire and beauty, and the enthusiasm of the audience could not have been greater."<ref>Newman, Ernest, ''The Sunday Times'', 9 October 1932, ''quoted'' in Moore (unnumbered page).</ref> In ''The Times'' [[H. C. Colles|H C Colles]] said that the LPO was "as fine an instrument as could be wished for"; [[Neville Cardus]] wrote in ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'', "nothing more sumptuous and daring in orchestral playing could be heard in more than three other cities between New York and Vienna"; and [[Walter J. Turner|W J Turner]], of ''[[The Illustrated London News]]'', praised the orchestra's "youthful dash and virtuosity&nbsp;... at last we have an independent orchestra which rivals the BBC Symphony Orchestra".<ref>"Royal Philharmonic Society", ''The Times'', 8 October 1932, p.&nbsp;10; Cardus, Neville. "London's new orchestra", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 8 October 1932, p.&nbsp;18; and Turner, W J. "The World of Music", ''The Illustrated London News'', 22 October 1932, p.&nbsp;638.</ref>

In its first season, the LPO played at eighteen concerts in the Courtauld-Sargent series; ten Royal Philharmonic Society concerts; fifteen "International Celebrity Tours" and sixteen Sunday afternoon concerts for Holt's agency, as well as Robert Mayer's children's concerts, Royal Choral Society evenings and other engagements.<ref name=t1/> Soloists in the first season included the singer [[Eva Turner]] and the pianists [[Harriet Cohen]] and [[Clifford Curzon]].<ref>"London Philharmonic Orchestra", ''The Times'', 22 September 1932, p. 8</ref> In November 1932 the sixteen-year-old [[Yehudi Menuhin]] played a programme of violin concertos; those by [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]] and [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] were conducted by Beecham, and the [[Edward Elgar|Elgar]] [[Violin Concerto (Elgar)|concerto]] was conducted by the composer.<ref>"Concert", ''The Times'', 22 November 1932, p.&nbsp;10.</ref>

During the next eight years, the LPO appeared nearly a hundred times at the Queen's Hall for the Royal Philharmonic Society, played for Beecham's opera seasons at Covent Garden, and made more than 300 gramophone records.<ref name="jefferson89">Jefferson, p. 89</ref>{{refn|This figure refers to discs rather than whole works. The 78&nbsp;rpm recordings then in use required several discs to accommodate a symphony or concerto of even moderate length.<ref>Sackville-West and Shawe-Taylor, p.&nbsp;81.</ref>|group=n}} The total number of works, as opposed to discs, recorded by the LPO and Beecham was less than a hundred.<ref name="s443" /> There were a few guest conductors for the Sunday concerts, but most were conducted by Beecham.<ref>Russell, p.&nbsp;22.</ref> In the Courtauld-Sargent series the LPO played not only under Sargent but under many guests including [[Bruno Walter]], [[George Szell]], [[Fritz Busch]] and [[Igor Stravinsky]].<ref>"Courtauld-Sargent Concerts – Herr Walter's Visit", ''The Times'', 17 January 1933, p.&nbsp;10; "Courtauld-Sargent Concerts", ''The Times'', 2 October 1933, p.&nbsp;8; "Courtauld-Sargent Concerts", ''The Times'', 31 July 1934, p.&nbsp;12; and "Courtauld-Sargent Concerts", ''The Times'', 19 October 1937, p.&nbsp;14.</ref>

In addition to London engagements, the orchestra played regularly in the larger provincial cities and towns. Its first tour, in March and April 1933, started in Bristol and ended in Manchester, taking in thirteen other venues in England, Ireland and Scotland.<ref>Russell, p.&nbsp;23.</ref> After the last concert, ''The Manchester Guardian's'' reviewer wrote:
{{blockquote|Never before in our experience of concert-going in Manchester have we heard orchestral playing which, throughout a whole programme, combined such nobility of style and brilliancy of execution – not the brilliancy that stops when it has made outward forms sparkle, but a quality that seems to work from within and to suffuse everything with a rich and glowing tone-colour.<ref>"Sir Thomas Beecham's Orchestra", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 3 April 1933, p.&nbsp;8.</ref>}}

Beecham took the orchestra on a controversial tour of Germany in 1936.<ref>Russell, p.&nbsp;39.</ref> Throughout the tour, the orchestra ignored the custom of playing the [[Nazi]] anthem before concerts, but Beecham yielded to pressure from [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]'s government not to play the [[Symphony No. 4 (Mendelssohn)|''Italian'' Symphony]] by [[Felix Mendelssohn|Mendelssohn]], taboo to Nazi [[Antisemitism|anti-Semites]]. There was disquiet among some of the players that their presence in Germany gave the Nazi regime a propaganda coup.<ref>Russell, pp.&nbsp;39–40,&nbsp;and&nbsp;42.</ref>

===War and post-war years===
As his sixtieth birthday approached in 1939, Beecham was advised by his doctors to take a year's break from conducting, and he planned to go abroad to rest in a warm climate, leaving the orchestra in other hands.<ref name=Lucas239>Lucas, p. 239</ref> The outbreak of war on 3 September 1939 obliged him to postpone his plans for several months, while he strove to secure the future of the orchestra, whose financial guarantees had been withdrawn by its backers when war was declared.<ref name=reid218>Reid (1961), p. 218</ref> The original LPO company was liquidated and Beecham raised large sums of money for the orchestra, helping its members to form themselves into a self-governing body.<ref>Lucas, p.&nbsp;240.</ref>

[[File:Queen's Hall 1912 postcard.jpg|thumb|[[Queen's Hall]], destroyed, with many LPO instruments, by bombing in 1941]]

During the war, the LPO played in the capital and on continual tours of Britain, under Sargent and other conductors, including 50 under [[Richard Tauber]], bringing orchestral concerts to places where they had rarely if ever been given.<ref>Myers, Rollo. 'Music in Battle-dress', in ''Music Since 1939'' (1947), pp. 9-30</ref> Many of the players' instruments were lost when the Queen's Hall was destroyed by German bombing in May 1941; an appeal was broadcast by the BBC, the response to which was enormous, with instruments donated by the public enabling the orchestra to continue.<ref>Pirouet, pp. 43–44</ref>

On Beecham's return to England in 1944, the LPO welcomed him back, and in October they gave a concert together that drew superlatives from the critics.<ref>[[William Glock|Glock, William]], "Music", ''[[The Observer]]'' 8 October 1944, p. 2; and "Sir T. Beecham's Return", ''The Times'', 9 October 1944, p.&nbsp;8/</ref> Over the next months Beecham and the orchestra gave further concerts with considerable success, but the LPO players, now their own employers, declined to give him the unfettered control that he had exercised in the 1930s. If he were to become chief conductor again it would be as a paid employee of the orchestra.<ref>Reid (1961), p.&nbsp;230.</ref> Beecham, unwilling to be answerable to anybody, left the LPO and in 1946 founded a rival orchestra, the [[Royal Philharmonic Orchestra]] (RPO).<ref name="reid231">Reid (1961), p.&nbsp;231.</ref>

Among the conductors making guest appearances in the early post-war period were Walter, Furtwängler, [[Victor de Sabata]] and [[Sergiu Celibidache]].<ref>Pirouet, p.&nbsp;77.</ref> Such starry events were the exception; as a rule the orchestra worked with less eminent conductors, giving an unprecedented number of performances. In 1949–50 they gave 248 concerts, compared with 103 by the London Symphony Orchestra and 32 each by the [[Philharmonia Orchestra]] and RPO.<ref>Hill, pp.&nbsp;49–50</ref> After a seven-year interregnum, the LPO engaged a new principal conductor, [[Eduard van Beinum]], in 1947.  He was initially able to work with the orchestra for only six months of the year, because of restrictions on work permits for foreign nationals. Guest conductors stood in during his absences. In 1947, the [[London Philharmonic Choir]] was founded as the chorus for the LPO.<ref>[http://www.lpc.org.uk/about.html "About the Choir"] London Philharmonic Choir. Retrieved 4 September 2014</ref>

===1950s===
Van Beinum's poor health obliged him to resign in 1950. Sir Adrian Boult accepted an invitation from the LPO's managing director, Thomas Russell, to take up the principal conductorship.<ref>Kennedy, p.&nbsp;230.</ref> With Boult the LPO began a series of commercial recordings, beginning with Elgar's ''[[Falstaff (Elgar)|Falstaff]]'', Mahler's ''[[Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen]]'' with the [[mezzo-soprano]] [[Blanche Thebom]], and Beethoven's [[Symphony No. 1 (Beethoven)|First Symphony]].<ref name="Kennedy 231">Kennedy, p.&nbsp;231.</ref> The work of the new team was greeted with approval by reviewers. Of the Elgar, the reviewer in ''[[Gramophone (magazine)|The Gramophone]]'' wrote, "I have heard no other conductor approach [Boult's] performance.&nbsp;... His newly adopted orchestra responds admirably".<ref>''The Gramophone'', May 1951, p.&nbsp;17.</ref>

In January 1951, Boult and the LPO made a tour of Germany, described by Boult's biographer [[Michael Kennedy (music critic)|Michael Kennedy]] as "gruelling", with twelve concerts in as many days.<ref name="kb">Kennedy, p.&nbsp;232; and Boult, p.&nbsp;202.</ref>{{refn|Kennedy states that there were 11 concerts, but Boult lists 12 dates and venues.<ref name="kb" />|group=n}} The symphonies they played were Beethoven's [[Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven)|Seventh]], Haydn's [[Symphony No. 104 (Haydn)|''London'', No 104]], Brahms's [[Symphony No. 1 (Brahms)|First]], Schumann's [[Symphony No. 4 (Schumann)|Fourth]] and Schubert's [[Symphony No. 9 (Schubert)|''Great C major'']]. The other works were Elgar's [[Introduction and Allegro (Elgar)|Introduction and Allegro]], Holst's ''[[The Perfect Fool]]'' ballet music, [[Richard Strauss]]'s ''[[Don Juan (Strauss)|Don Juan]]'', and Stravinsky's ''[[The Firebird|Firebird]]''.<ref>Boult, p.&nbsp;202; and Kennedy, p.&nbsp;232.</ref> Conductors of the 1951–52 season other than Boult included [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]], [[Benjamin Britten]] and [[William Walton]].<ref>Pirouet, p.&nbsp;102.</ref>

[[File:Royal Festival Hall and Shot Tower c1959.jpg|thumb|left|The Royal Festival Hall in the 1950s: the LPO was among the orchestras striving for residency]]

In 1952, the LPO negotiated a five-year contract with [[Decca Records]] that was unusually rewarding for the orchestra, giving it a 10 percent commission on most sales. On top of this, Boult always contributed his share of the recording fees to the orchestra's funds.<ref>Kennedy, p.&nbsp;234.</ref> In the same year, the LPO survived a crisis when Russell was dismissed as its managing director. He was an avowed member of the [[Communist Party of Great Britain|Communist party]];<ref name="Kennedy 231" /> when the [[Cold War]] began, some influential members of the LPO felt that Russell's private political affiliations compromised the orchestra, and pressed for his dismissal. Boult, as the orchestra's chief conductor, initially stood up for Russell, but when matters came to a head Boult ceased to protect him. Deprived of that crucial support, Russell was forced out. Kennedy speculates that Boult's change of mind was due to a growing conviction that the orchestra would be "seriously jeopardized financially" if Russell remained in post.<ref>Kennedy, pp.&nbsp;215–222.</ref> A later writer, [[Richard Witts]], suggests that Boult sacrificed Russell because he believed doing so would enhance the LPO's chance of being appointed resident orchestra at the [[Royal Festival Hall]].{{refn|Witts concludes that it was not Russell but Boult – regarded by some as past his peak – who cost the LPO the Festival Hall residency.<ref>Witts, Richard. [http://www.richardwitts.com/pdf/Boult__Russell.pdf Boult, Russell & The London Philharmonic Orchestra 1952] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425163342/http://www.richardwitts.com/pdf/Boult__Russell.pdf |date=25 April 2012 }}. Music in Society Seminar, Institute of British History, 2002</ref>|group=n}}

The following year, the orchestra celebrated its 21st birthday, giving a series of concerts at the Festival Hall and the Albert Hall in which Boult was joined by guest conductors including [[Paul Kletzki]], [[Jean Martinon]], [[Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt]], [[Georg Solti]], [[Walter Susskind]] and Vaughan Williams.<ref>Mitchell, Donald. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/933482 "Promenade Concerts"], ''The Musical Times'', October 1953, p.&nbsp;472. {{subscription required}}</ref> In 1956 the LPO toured the [[Soviet Union]], the first British orchestra to do so; the conductors were Boult, [[Anatole Fistoulari]] and [[George Hurst (conductor)|George Hurst]], and the soloists were [[Alfredo Campoli]] and [[Moura Lympany]].<ref>Pepper, Maurice. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/936914 "The London Philharmonic Orchestra in Russia"], ''The Musical Times'', February 1957, pp.&nbsp;67–69. {{subscription required}}</ref> After the tour Boult retired as principal conductor, but remained closely associated with the orchestra, and was made its President in 1965. Most of his stereophonic recordings for [[EMI Classics|EMI]] were made with the LPO.<ref>Simeone and Mundy, pp.&nbsp;81–96; and Pirouet, p.&nbsp;116.</ref>

Through the middle and late 1950s, the LPO worked with new conductors including [[Constantin Silvestri]] and [[Josef Krips]]. This was a bad period financially for the orchestra, and it was forced to abandon fixed contracts for its players with holiday and sick pay and pensions, and revert to payment by engagement.<ref name=moore>Moore (unnumbered page)</ref> Financial disaster was averted thanks to an anonymous benefactor, generally believed to be Boult.<ref>Pirouet, p.&nbsp;119.</ref> A historian of the orchestra, Edmund Pirouet, writes that having been on an upward curve in the 1940s, by the mid-1950s the orchestra "was at best marking time".<ref>Pirouet, p.&nbsp;116.</ref>

In 1958, the LPO appointed [[William Steinberg]], also music director of the [[Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra]], as chief conductor. He was a noted orchestral trainer, and did much to restore playing standards to their former levels.<ref name="moore" /> Steinberg resigned the LPO post after two seasons, advised by his doctor to restrict his activities.<ref>"Dr Steinberg leaving London Philharmonic", ''The Guardian'', 1 August 1960.</ref>

===1960s and 70s===
[[File:Glyndebourne 2.jpg|thumb|Glyndebourne, where the LPO took over as resident orchestra in 1964]]

In 1962, the LPO undertook its first tour of India, Australia, and the Far East. The conductors were Sargent and [[John Pritchard (conductor)|John Pritchard]]. The latter was appointed the LPO's chief conductor in 1962, presiding over what one player described as "an era of supremely good taste".<ref name="moore" /> From its outset in 1932, harpists (traditionally female) excepted, the orchestra had maintained Beecham's "men only" regime; in 1963 the rule was dropped, the first woman violinist was recruited, and within two years female players achieved equal conditions of membership with their male colleagues.<ref>Pirouet, p.&nbsp;132.</ref>

Pritchard was also music director of [[Glyndebourne Festival Opera]] in Sussex, and it was partly due to his influence that in 1964 the LPO replaced the RPO as Glyndebourne's resident orchestra, providing the players with stable guaranteed work in the slack summer months.<ref>Pirouet, pp.&nbsp;132&nbsp;and&nbsp;134.</ref> The number of LPO concerts in the provinces fell during the 1960s, and ceased to be a major factor in the orchestra's finances.<ref>Pirouet, p.&nbsp;139.</ref> During the 1960s the orchestra gave fund-raising concerts in which guests from outside the world of classical music appeared, including [[Danny Kaye]], [[Duke Ellington]] and [[Tony Bennett]].<ref name="moore" /> Its regular complement at the end of the decade was 88 players.<ref>Peacock, p.&nbsp;8.</ref>

[[File:Bernard Haitink 1984b.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|left|[[Bernard Haitink]], principal conductor, 1967–79]]

In 1967, the LPO appointed [[Bernard Haitink]] as its principal conductor. He remained with the orchestra for twelve years, to date (2018) the longest tenure of the post. His concerts made a strong impression with the public, and within months the LPO was playing to ninety per cent capacity audiences at the Festival Hall, far outstripping the other London orchestras.<ref>Pirouet, p.&nbsp;138.</ref> Among the composers with whom Haitink was associated were [[Anton Bruckner|Bruckner]] and [[Gustav Mahler|Mahler]], whose symphonies featured frequently in the LPO's concerts during the Haitink period, as did those of [[Dmitri Shostakovich|Shostakovich]], particularly the [[Symphony No. 10 (Shostakovich)|Tenth]], which Pirouet describes as the calling card of the orchestra and conductor.<ref>Pirouet, p.&nbsp;149.</ref> With [[Vladimir Ashkenazy]], Haitink and the LPO gave a six-concert cycle of the Beethoven symphonies and piano concertos, for which the Festival Hall was full to capacity. In ''The Times'', Joan Chissell described the orchestra's playing as "worthy of any festival".<ref>Chissell, Joan. "LPO/Haitink", ''The Times'', 18 March 1974, p.&nbsp;9.</ref> There was some discontent within the LPO that Haitink's prolific recordings were almost always with the other orchestra of which he was the chief conductor, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Pirouet comments that as Haitink recorded exclusively for the Dutch firm [[Philips Records|Philips]] it was to be expected that the Amsterdam orchestra would be preferred, and in any case the LPO was recording extensively with Boult, Solti, [[Daniel Barenboim]] and many others.<ref>Pirouet, p.&nbsp;153.</ref> In the 1970s international tours continued, with itineraries taking in the US, Western Europe, the Soviet Union, and, in 1972, China, long inaccessible to Western musicians, where the orchestra met an enthusiastic welcome.<ref>Pirouet, p.&nbsp;150.</ref>

In 1973, the LPO was caught up in a recurring phenomenon of London orchestral life: the conviction in official circles that having four independent orchestras is too much for one city, and that two or more of the existing ensembles should merge.<ref name="p155" /> On this occasion the targets were the LPO and the New Philharmonia; the latter, a self-governing body formed under its new name when the Philharmonia was disbanded in 1964, was going through a bad patch, professionally and financially. The proposed merger would inevitably have led to redundancies, and the player-owners of both orchestras rejected the plan.<ref name="p155">Pirouet, p.&nbsp;155.</ref>

[[File:Sir George Solti 6 Allan Allan Warren.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Georg Solti|Sir Georg Solti]], principal conductor, 1979–83]]

One of the constant difficulties of London orchestras was the lack of good rehearsal space and facilities. In 1973, acting jointly with the LSO, the LPO acquired and began restoring a disused church in [[Southwark]], converting it into the [[Henry Wood Hall, London|Henry Wood Hall]], a convenient and acoustically excellent rehearsal space and recording studio, opened in 1975.<ref>[[William Mann (critic)|Mann, William]]. "The making of a rehearsal hall", ''The Times'', 17 June 1975, p.&nbsp;11.</ref>

Guest conductors in the 1970s included [[Erich Leinsdorf]], [[Carlo Maria Giulini]], [[Eugen Jochum]], [[Riccardo Chailly]], [[Klaus Tennstedt]] and Solti. When Haitink announced in 1977 that he would step down as principal conductor at the end of the 1978–79 season, Solti, who had been principal guest conductor since 1971, agreed to succeed him.<ref>Pirouet, p.&nbsp;147.</ref>

===1980s and 90s===
In 1982, the orchestra celebrated its [[golden jubilee]].{{refn|A contemporaneous book listed the many famous soloists who had worked with the LPO in its fifty years. Among them were [[soprano]]s and [[mezzo-soprano|mezzos]] such as [[Janet Baker]], [[Victoria de los Ángeles]], [[Kirsten Flagstad]], [[Leontyne Price]], [[Elisabeth Schumann]], [[Joan Sutherland]] and Eva Turner, [[tenors]] including [[Beniamino Gigli]], [[Luciano Pavarotti]] and [[Richard Tauber]]; the cellists [[Pablo Casals]] and [[Jacqueline du Pré]]; the violinists [[Jascha Heifetz]], [[Fritz Kreisler]] and [[David Oistrakh]], and the pianists [[Alfred Brendel]], Clifford Curzon, [[Wilhelm Kempff]], [[Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli]], [[Maurizio Pollini]] and [[Arthur Rubinstein]].<ref name="moore" />|group=n}} At the anniversary concert Solti conducted the programme with which Beecham had inaugurated the LPO. Pirouet comments that with the exception of [[Frederick Delius|Delius]]'s ''[[Brigg Fair#Delius orchestral setting|Brigg Fair]]'', the music was as ideally suited to Solti's musical persona as to Beecham's.<ref>Pirouet, p.&nbsp;174.</ref> In ''[[The Guardian]]'', [[Edward Greenfield]] wrote, "I doubt if the LPO has ever played so beautifully, even in the days of Beecham".<ref>Greenfield, Edward. "LPO/Solti – 50th anniversary", ''The Guardian'', 8 October 1982, p.&nbsp;10.</ref>

Solti stepped down at the end of the jubilee season, and was succeeded by Klaus Tennstedt, of whom ''The Times'' commented, "Tennstedt found the orchestra sensitive and flexible, and his players regarded him with a warmth that is by no means universally extended by musicians to their conductors".<ref name=tten>"Klaus Tennstedt", ''The Times'', 13 January 1998, p.&nbsp;21.</ref> His time as chief conductor (1983–87) was celebrated for its musical achievements, but was marked by his failing health and frequent cancellations. As with Haitink and Solti, Bruckner and Mahler were prominent in the LPO's concerts with Tennstedt. Unlike his two predecessors Tennstedt preferred to record with the LPO rather than major continental or American orchestras; among the many sets they made together was a complete cycle of Mahler's symphonies for EMI.<ref>Greenfield, Edward. "A German vision for London music", ''The Guardian'', 13 January 1998, p.&nbsp;16.</ref> In 1984 the LPO and the Philharmonia{{refn|The New Philharmonia had bought back the rights to the original title in 1977.<ref>"Orchestra resumes its old title", ''The Times'', 2 September 1977, p.&nbsp;12.</ref>|group=n}} began negotiations that went on for years following an [[Arts Council of Great Britain|Arts Council]] proposal to name one London orchestra as the principal resident orchestra of the Festival Hall, with concomitant extra funding. The two orchestras were interested in making a counter-proposal for a joint residency, but the matter was not resolved until 1995 when their plan was finally implemented.<ref>Pirouet, pp.&nbsp;183&nbsp;and&nbsp;223.</ref> From the outset of the LPO's existence as a self-governing co-operative in 1939, its chief executive had always been appointed from within the orchestra's ranks. In 1985 this tradition was broken with the recruitment of John Willan, a qualified accountant as well as an alumnus of the [[Royal Academy of Music]] and a successful recording producer for EMI.<ref>Pirouet, p.&nbsp;187.</ref>

[[File:Welser-Möst-crop.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Franz Welser-Möst]], principal conductor, 1990–96]]

In August 1987 Tennstedt, taken ill at a rehearsal, felt so unequal to continuing in his post that he resigned on the spot. He continued to appear with the LPO as a guest, with the title of "conductor laureate";<ref name=tten/> in 1989 [[Richard Morrison (music critic)|Richard Morrison]] of ''The Times'' wrote that the LPO still played better for Tennstedt than for anyone else.<ref>Morrison, Richard. "Mahler's quiet hero", ''The Times'', 17 February 1989, p.&nbsp;18.</ref> Tennstedt's resignation was a severe blow to the orchestra, and there was no obvious successor: Morrison observed that the best-known conductors – Barenboim, [[Riccardo Muti]] and [[Simon Rattle]] – with whom the orchestra was then associated were committed to other projects until the 1990s, and those possible contenders such as [[Semyon Bychkov (conductor)|Semyon Bychkov]] and [[Franz Welser-Möst]] were largely unknown in London.<ref>Morrison, Richard. "Tennstedt hard to replace", ''The Times'', 26 August 1987, p.&nbsp;14.</ref> No successor was appointed until 1990 when Welser-Möst was named as the new principal conductor. His tenure was controversial; he received the nickname "Frankly Worse than Most" and many harshly critical reviews.<ref>Hewett, Ivan. [http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:UKNB:DST1&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=10C17B3091A620A0&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=102CDD40F14C6BDA "Why all those insults made me stronger"], ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 18 August 2005</ref> He brought with him a recording contract with EMI, but management turnover, financial stresses, and political disputes at the [[Southbank Centre]] at the time contributed to the difficulty of the working atmosphere in the orchestra.<ref>Kenyon, Nicholas [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CEED9163EF936A25750C0A964958260 "A Young Conductor Starts at the Top"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', 15 March 1992; and Oestreich, James R. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9804EEDB103EF930A25752C1A962958260 "Battered but Unbowed, a Maestro Rebounds"], ''The New York Times '', 13 November 1994</ref> There were complaints that the orchestra's high standards of playing were not consistently maintained.<ref>Milnes, Rodney. "And lost at sea", ''The Times'', 22 May 1996, p.&nbsp;33.</ref>

Welser-Möst's period as principal conductor coincided with the installation of the LPO as the sole resident orchestra of the Festival Hall. This proved a mixed blessing: the Southbank Centre management now had a say over concert programming, and insisted on the inclusion of works by obscure composers{{refn|Pirouet singles out [[Nikolai Roslavets]] as the most extreme example.<ref name="p208" />|group=n}} which did severe damage to box-office receipts.<ref name="p208">Pirouet, p.&nbsp;208.</ref> In 1993 another official attempt to create a "super-orchestra" at the expense of one or more of the existing London ensembles briefly damaged relations between the LPO and the Philharmonia, but the idea was quickly abandoned, and in 1995, with the consent of the Arts Council, the two orchestras agreed to share the residency at the Festival Hall.<ref>Pirouet, pp.&nbsp;217–220,&nbsp;and&nbsp;223.</ref>

In 1993, with the government of South Africa now moving towards majority rule, the orchestra accepted an invitation to tour there.<ref>Pirouet, p.&nbsp;213.</ref> Welser-Möst concluded his LPO tenure in 1996, after what ''The Guardian'' called "a fraught few years in which the high hopes placed in him were somehow not fulfilled."<ref>Chancellor, Alexander. "Orchestral manoeuvres", ''The Guardian'', 20 July 1996, p.&nbsp;A24.</ref>

===21st century===
[[File:Юровский иконка.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Vladimir Jurowski]], principal conductor from 2007]]

After the departure of Welser-Möst, the LPO was without a principal conductor for four years.  During the interregnum, the orchestra inaugurated its "Roots Classical Fusions" series, which aimed to combine musical traditions from around the world; this was part of an education and community programme launched by the orchestra.<ref>[http://www.lpo.org.uk/about/history.html "History"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150207164348/http://www.lpo.org.uk/about/history.html |date=7 February 2015 }}, London Philharmonic Orchestra. Retrieved 6 September</ref> [[Kurt Masur]] was the LPO's principal conductor from 2000 to 2007. Under Masur, known for his performances of the German symphonic repertoire, the orchestra regained its musical form, and the critic Richard S Ginell commented that [[Vladimir Jurowski]], who took over in 2007 "has inherited an LPO in splendid technical shape, probably having been drilled to a fare-thee-well under Masur".<ref>Ginell, Richard S. "Orchestral Upheavals: Gergiev and Jurowski in London", ''American Record Guide'', July 2008, pp.&nbsp;23–24.</ref>

In 2000, the LPO performed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony under [[Gilbert Levine]],<ref>{{Cite news|last=Goldman|first=Mary Kunz|date=March 29, 2002|title=Classical Chatter|work=[[The Buffalo News]]|url=https://buffalonews.com/news/classical-chatter/article_23339721-73eb-584d-a124-fa8ce34ecc95.html}}</ref> joining the Berlin Philharmonic under Bernard Haitink, the New York Philharmonic under Kurt Masur, and the [[Concentus Musicus Wien]] under [[Nikolaus Harnoncourt]], in a gala series of concerts celebrating the reign of Krakow as the European Cultural Capital in the Millennium Year.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Levine|first=Gilbert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=udw7kxzAw-wC&dq=%27A+Thousand+Years+of+Music+and+Spirit%22&pg=PT338|title=The Pope's Maestro|publisher=Wiley|year=2010|isbn=978-0-470-49065-5|location=USA|pages=About the DVD|language=English}}</ref> The concert was broadcast internationally including on PBS<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2002|title=Thousand Years of Music and Spirit TV Listings|url=https://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/thousand-years-of-music-and-spirit/tv-listings/1000365433/|journal=[[TV Guide]]}}</ref> marking the orchestra's television debut in the United States.

Jurowski had first conducted the LPO at the Royal Festival Hall in December 2001, as an emergency substitute for [[Yuri Temirkanov]].<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4727030/Last-minute-stand-in-makes-an-electrifying-debut.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4727030/Last-minute-stand-in-makes-an-electrifying-debut.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live | title=Last-minute stand-in makes an electrifying debut | work=Telegraph | author=Matthew Rye | date=2001-12-17 | access-date=2020-04-06}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Jurowski became principal guest conductor in 2003, and conducted the orchestra in June 2007 during the concerts marking the re-opening of the refurbished Festival Hall.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/jun/15/classicalmusicandopera.reviews | title=LPO/Jurowski | work=The Guardian | author=Tim Ashley | date=2007-06-15 | access-date=2020-04-06}}</ref>  In September 2007, Jurowski became the LPO's eleventh principal conductor.  Like his LPO predecessors Pritchard and Haitink, Jurowski also served as music director of Glyndebourne (2001–2013), where he conducted the LPO there in operas by Britten, Mozart, [[Giacomo Puccini|Puccini]], Richard Strauss, [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]], [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]], and others.  During Jurowski's LPO tenure, principal guest conductors of the LPO have included [[Yannick Nézet-Séguin]]<ref>{{cite news | url=https://playbill.com/news/article/7385.html | title=Nézet-Séguin Named London Phil Principal Guest Conductor | work=Playbill Arts | author=Kevin Shihoten | date=2007-11-20 | access-date=2020-04-06}}</ref> and [[Andrés Orozco-Estrada]]. Jurowski concluded his LPO tenure at the close of the 2020-2021 season, and now has the title of conductor emeritus of the LPO.

In 2003, [[Edward Gardner (conductor)|Edward Gardner]] first guest-conducted the LPO.  In July 2019, the LPO announced the appointment of Gardner as its next principal conductor, effective with the 2021-2022 season, with an initial contract of five years.<ref>{{cite press release | url=https://www.lpo.org.uk/news/gardner.html | title=Next Principal Conductor Announced | publisher=London Philharmonic Orchestra | date=25 July 2019 | access-date=2020-04-06 | archive-date=28 July 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190728154056/https://www.lpo.org.uk/news/gardner.html | url-status=dead }}</ref> In October 2018, [[Karina Canellakis]] first guest-conducted the LPO. In April 2020, the LPO announced the appointment of Canellakis as its new principal guest conductor, the first female conductor ever named to the post, effective from September 2020.<ref>{{cite press release | url=https://www.lpo.org.uk/news/new-principal-guest-conductor-karina-canellakis.html | title=New Principal Guest Conductor: Karina Canellakis | publisher=London Philharmonic Orchestra | date=6 April 2020 | access-date=2020-04-06 | archive-date=10 April 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200410153857/https://www.lpo.org.uk/news/new-principal-guest-conductor-karina-canellakis.html | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/apr/06/london-philharmonic-orchestra-appoint-karina-canellakis-as-new-principal-guest-conductor | title=LPO appoints Karina Canellakis as principal guest conductor | work=The Guardian | author=Imogen Tilden | date=2020-04-06 | access-date=2020-04-06}}</ref>  In February 2024, the LPO announced the extension of Canellakis' contract as principal guest conductor for an additional three years.<ref>{{cite press release | url=https://askonasholt.com/news/karina-canellakis-renews-collaboration-with-london-philharmonic-orchestra | title=Karina Canellakis renews collaboration with London Philharmonic Orchestra | publisher=Askonas Holt | date=20 February 2024 | access-date=2024-02-22}}</ref>  In September 2024, the LPO announced the extension of Gardner's contract as principal conductor for an additional two years.<ref>{{cite press release | url=https://lpo.org.uk/edward-gardner-contract-extension/ | title=Edward Gardner extends his Principal Conductor contract with London Philharmonic Orchestra | publisher=London Philharmonic Orchestra | date=17 September 2024 | access-date=2024-09-18}}</ref>