Editing London Philharmonic Orchestra (section)

===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>