Editing BBC Symphony Orchestra (section)

===1950s===
Sargent, an immensely popular figure with the public, was not at all popular with orchestral players, because of what a historian of the Proms has called his "autocratic and ''prima-donna'' attitude towards orchestral players".<ref name=c164/> He offended the BBC SO players by demanding that they all stand up when he came on to the platform – which they firmly declined to do.<ref name=c164/> He rapidly became equally unpopular with the BBC music department, ignoring its agenda and pursuing his own.<ref name=c164>Cox, p. 164</ref> He refused to join the staff of the BBC, and insisted on remaining a freelance, taking numerous external engagements to the detriment of his work with the BBC SO.<ref>Cox, pp. 164–165</ref> A senior BBC manager wrote: <blockquote>Except when a Barbirolli or a [[Paul Kletzki|Kletzki]] has been in charge for a few days, the Orchestra is inferior, as an artistic instrument, to the Hallé or Philharmonia... [Sargent] is indifferent to the morale and welfare of the Orchestra and to the individual temperaments of his players as artists or as human beings.<ref>Johnstone, Maurice, ''quoted'' in Cox, p. 165</ref></blockquote> It did not help that Sargent was universally acknowledged to be at his finest in choral music.<ref>Shore, p. 153</ref> His reputation in big works for chorus and orchestra such as ''[[The Dream of Gerontius]]'', ''[[The Song of Hiawatha (Coleridge-Taylor)|Hiawatha's Wedding Feast]]'' and ''[[Belshazzar's Feast (Walton)|Belshazzar's Feast]]'' was unrivalled, and his large-scale performances of [[George Frideric Handel|Handel]] oratorios were assured packed houses. However, his regular programming of such works did nothing to lift the spirits of the BBC SO: orchestral musicians regarded playing the instrumental accompaniment for large choirs as drudgery.<ref>Shore, pp. 18–19 and 153</ref>

In the 1950s, the BBC SO, in common with the rest of the BBC's musical organisation, suffered from stagnation. In the words of the critic [[Peter Heyworth]], "the Corporation's music department had become a byword for its narrow-mindedness and lassitude".<ref name=ph/> Boult had been followed as director of music by a series of successors between 1944 and 1959 who either lacked his commitment to modern music or were actively hostile to it. Richard Howgill, who held the post from 1952 to 1959, took the view that although Webern "might have been a small composer of some significance, Schoenberg wasn't really a composer at all."<ref name=ph>{{cite journal |last= Heyworth|first= Peter |title = Sir William Glock at 80: A Tribute|journal = Tempo |series=New Series |issue=167|date = December 1988|pages =19–21|jstor = 945211 |doi= 10.1017/S0040298200024517 |s2cid= 145751473 }} {{subscription required}}</ref> In addition to working under a conductor it disliked, the BBC SO found its role as a pioneer of progressive music gone, and its performances of the standard classics criticised as under-rehearsed (particularly during Proms seasons) compared with those given by Legge's Philharmonia and others.<ref name=ph/> Sargent's contract was not renewed in 1957, although he continued as chief conductor of the Proms until his death ten years later. Howgill appointed [[Rudolf Schwarz (conductor)|Rudolf Schwarz]] as chief conductor of the BBC SO. Schwarz failed to restore orchestral standards to pre-war levels, and lacked Sargent's box-office appeal.<ref name=ph/> Under Schwarz, BBC SO concerts other than the Proms drew poor houses – as low as 29 per cent of capacity in the 1959–60 season.<ref name=k292>Kenyon, p. 292</ref> The manager of the [[Royal Festival Hall]], Ernest Bean, spoke of "an inherited aura of mediocrity about BBC concerts which keeps people away".<ref name=k292/> Schwarz's five-year contract was not renewed when it expired.<ref name=rs>{{cite news|title = Rudolf Schwarz|newspaper= The Times|date = 14 February 1994|page=19}} {{subscription required}}</ref>