Editing London Philharmonic Orchestra (section)

===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>