Editing London Symphony Orchestra (section)

===Early years===
The orchestra made its first British tour in 1905, conducted by [[Edward Elgar|Sir Edward Elgar]].<ref name=lso1900s/> Elgar's conducting was highly praised; as to the orchestra, [[Ernest Newman]] wrote in ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'', "Its brass and its wood-wind were seen to be of exceptional quality, but the strings, fine as they are, have not the substance nor the colour of [[the Hallé]] strings."<ref>Newman, Ernest. "The Harrison Concert", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 16 November 1905, p. 12</ref> The following year the LSO played outside Britain for the first time, giving concerts in Paris, conducted by [[Edouard Colonne]], [[Charles Villiers Stanford|Sir Charles Stanford]] and [[André Messager]]. [[Richard Morrison (music critic)|Richard Morrison]], in his centenary study of the LSO, writes of "stodgy programmes of insipid Cowen, worthy Stanford, dull Parry and mediocre Mackenzie";{{#tag:ref|[[Frederic Hymen Cowen]] was better known as a conductor than as a composer.<ref>Dibble, Jeremy and Jennifer Spencer. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/06744 "Cowen, Sir Frederic Hymen"], Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press. Retrieved 3 April 2013 {{subscription required}}</ref>
 [[Charles Villiers Stanford]], [[Hubert Parry]] and [[Alexander Mackenzie (composer)|Alexander Mackenzie]] were British composers of the "[[English musical renaissance]]". Some of their works, notably choral music by Stanford and Parry, have retained a place in the repertoire, but little of their purely orchestral music is regularly played. At the time, they held considerable sway in British musical life.<ref>Stradling and Hughes, p. 52</ref>|group= n}} they put the Parisian public off to a considerable degree, and the players ended up out of pocket.<ref>Morrison pp. 35–36</ref>

[[File:Elgar-LSO-1911.jpg|thumb|left|Elgar and the LSO, Queen's Hall, 1911]]
In its early years Richter was the LSO's most frequently-engaged conductor, with four or five concerts every season;<ref>Morrison, p. 28</ref> the orchestra's website and Morrison's 2004 book both count him as the orchestra's first chief conductor, though the 1911 ''Musical Times'' article indicates otherwise.<ref name=mt/><ref name=lso1900s>[http://lso.co.uk/page/3150/1900s-and-1910s "1900s and 1910s"], London Symphony Orchestra. Retrieved 7 July 2012; Morrison, p. 26</ref> Richter retired from conducting in 1911, and Elgar was elected conductor-in-chief for the 1911–12 season. Elgar conducted six concerts, [[Arthur Nikisch]] three, and [[Willem Mengelberg]], [[Fritz Steinbach]] and [[Gustave Doret]] one each.<ref name=mt/> As a conductor Elgar did not prove to be a big enough box-office draw, and after one season he was replaced by the charismatic Hungarian maestro Nikisch.<ref>Morrison, p. 42</ref>

Nikisch was invited to tour North America in 1912, and despite his long association with the [[Berlin Philharmonic]] and [[Leipzig Gewandhaus]] orchestras, he insisted that the LSO should be contracted for the tour.<ref>Morrison, pp. 44–45</ref> The orchestra, 100-strong (all men except for the harpist),<ref>[http://lso.co.uk/page/3452/100-years-of-the-Titanic "100 years of the Titanic"], London Symphony Orchestra. Retrieved 16 July 2012</ref> was booked to sail on the [[RMS Titanic|Titanic]], but the tour schedule was changed at the last minute, and the players sailed safely on the [[RMS Baltic (1903)|Baltic]].<ref name=m45>Morrison, p. 45</ref> The tour was arduous, but a triumph. ''[[New York Press (historical)|The New York Press]]'' said, "The great British band played with a vigor, force and temperamental impetuousness that almost lifted the listener out of his seat."<ref>''Quoted'' in Morrison, p. 46</ref> ''[[The New York Times]]'' praised all departments of the orchestra, though, like ''The Manchester Guardian'', it found the strings "brilliant rather than mellow". The paper had a little fun at the LSO's expense: from the viewpoint of a country that had long enjoyed permanent, salaried orchestras such as the [[Boston Symphony]], it gently mocked the LSO's "bold stand for the sacred right of sending substitutes"<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1912/04/09/100529285.pdf "Arthur Nikisch Welcomed Here – Gives His First Concert with London Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall"], ''The New York Times'', 9 April 1912</ref>