Editing London Symphony Orchestra (section)

===1970s and 80s===
In 1971, [[John Culshaw]] of BBC television commissioned "André Previn's Music Night", bringing classical music to a large new audience. Previn would talk informally direct to camera and then turn and conduct the LSO, whose members were dressed in casual sweaters or shirts rather than formal evening clothes.<ref name=m180/> The programme attracted unprecedented viewing figures for classical music;<ref name=culshaw>"Mr John Culshaw", ''The Times'', 29 April 1980, p. 16</ref> Morrison writes, "More British people heard the LSO play in ''Music Night'' in one week than in sixty-five years of LSO concerts."<ref name=m180>Morrison, p. 180</ref> Several series of the programme were screened between 1971 and 1977.<ref>"Broadcasting," ''The Times'', 25 May 1977, p. 31</ref> Previn's popularity with the public enabled him and the LSO to programme works that under other conductors could have been box-office disasters, such as [[Olivier Messiaen|Messiaen]]'s ''[[Turangalila]]'' Symphony.<ref>Camden, Anthony, ''quoted'' in Previn, p. 215</ref> In the early 1970s the LSO recorded two firsts for a British orchestra, appearing at the [[Salzburg Festival]], conducted by Previn, [[Seiji Ozawa]] and [[Karl Böhm]], in 1973, and playing at the [[Hollywood Bowl]] the following year.<ref name=lso60s/>

[[File:The Henry Wood Hall (former Holy Trinity Church) - geograph.org.uk - 847582.jpg|thumb|left|Henry Wood Hall, acquired and converted by the LSO and the LPO in the 1970s]]
The lack of good rehearsal facilities to which Bernstein had objected was addressed in the 1970s when, jointly with the LPO, the LSO acquired and restored 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. 11</ref>

In 1978, two aspects of the LSO's non-symphonic work were recognised. The orchestra shared in three [[Grammy]] awards for the score to ''[[Star Wars (soundtrack)|Star Wars]]''; and the LSO "Classic Rock" recordings, in the words of the orchestra's website, became hugely popular and provided handsome royalties.<ref name=lso60s/> The recordings led to "Classic Rock" tours by the orchestra, characterised by Morrison as "enormously lucrative but artistically demeaning."<ref>Morrison, p. 184</ref>

[[Claudio Abbado]], principal guest conductor since 1971, succeeded Previn as chief conductor in the orchestra's diamond jubilee year, 1979.<ref>Huckerby, Martin "Claudio Abbado to be LSO conductor", ''The Times'', 20 October 1977, p. 19</ref> In a 1988 study of the LSO in ''[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]]'' magazine James Jolly wrote that Abbado was in many ways the antithesis of Previn in terms of style and repertoire, bringing to the orchestra a particular authority in the Austro-German classics as well as a commitment to the avant-garde.<ref name=jolly/> From the orchestra's point of view there were disadvantages to his appointment. His relationship with the players was distant and he was unable to impose discipline on the orchestra in rehearsals. He insisted on conducting without a score, and many times this led to barely-avoided disaster in concerts.<ref>Morrison, p. 122</ref> Abbado had considerable international prestige, but this too had its downside for the LSO: he frequently made his major recordings with the Boston or [[Chicago Symphony Orchestra|Chicago]] Symphony Orchestras or the [[Vienna Philharmonic]]. One of the LSO's principals commented, "Although we were sweating our guts playing those vast Mahler symphonies for&nbsp;... Abbado, he would go and record them with other orchestras, which made us feel like second, maybe even third choice".<ref>Murphy, Maurice, ''The Sunday Times'' magazine, 17 July 1988, ''quoted'' by Jolly.</ref>

In 1982, the LSO took up residence at the Barbican. In the first years of the residency, the orchestra came close to financial disaster, primarily because of over-ambitious programming and the poor ticket sales that resulted.<ref>Shakespeare, Nicholas. "The maze ends at the box office", ''The Times'', 2 March 1985, p. 7</ref> ''The Times'' commented that the LSO "were tempted by their own need for challenge (and a siren chorus of critics) to begin a series of more modern and adventurous music: six nights a week of [[Michael Tippett|Tippett]], [[Hector Berlioz|Berlioz]], [[Anton Webern|Webern]], [[Karlheinz Stockhausen|Stockhausen]] designed to draw in a new public. Instead it put an old audience to flight."<ref name=james>James, Brian. "The orchestra that opened up", ''The Times'', 28 February 1987, p. 37</ref> The LSO's difficulties were compounded by the satirical magazine ''[[Private Eye]]'', which ran a series of defamatory articles about the orchestra. The articles were almost wholly untrue and the magazine was forced to pay substantial libel damages, but in the short term serious damage was done to the orchestra's reputation and morale.<ref name=james/>

[[File:Leonard Bernstein by Jack Mitchell.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Leonard Bernstein]]
In August 1984, the orchestra's managing director, [[Peter Hemmings]], resigned. For the first time since 1949, the orchestra appointed one of its players to the position.{{#tag:ref|The last internal appointee to the post had been the woodwind player John Cruft who held it from 1949 to 1959. Since then the post had been held by Fleischmann, Harold Lawrence (1968–73), John Boyden (1974–75), Michael Kaye (1975–79) and Hemmings (1980–84), whose backgrounds were in administration and management.<ref name=conductors/>|group= n}} [[Clive Gillinson]], a cellist, took over at a bad time in the LSO's fortunes, and played a central role in turning them round. He negotiated what Morrison calls "a dazzling series of mega-projects, each built around the personal enthusiasm of a 'star' conductor or soloist", producing sell-out houses.<ref>Morrison, p. 210</ref> In 1985 the orchestra mounted "Mahler, Vienna and the Twentieth Century", planned by Abbado, followed the next year by an equally successful Bernstein festival.<ref name=lso80s>[http://lso.co.uk/page/3286/1980s-and-1990s "1980s and 1990s"], London Symphony Orchestra. Retrieved 16 July 2012</ref>

During 1988 the orchestra adopted an education policy which included the establishment of "[https://lso.co.uk/lso-discovery.html LSO Discovery]", offering "people of all ages, from babies through music students to adults, an opportunity to get involved in music-making".<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=London Symphony Orchestra - About LSO Discovery|url=https://lso.co.uk/lso-discovery/about-lso-discovery.html|access-date=28 September 2020|website=lso.co.uk}}</ref> The programme is still in place in 2022, benefiting more than 60,000 people every year.<ref name=":0" />

In September 1988, [[Michael Tilson Thomas]] succeeded Abbado as chief conductor.<ref>Bowen, Meirion. "Licensed to discover: Michael Tilson Thomas's fresh approach could liven up the LSO", ''[[The Guardian]]'', 19 June 1987, p. 16; and Griffiths, Paul. "Brave start", ''The Times'', 16 September 1988, p. 18</ref>

In 1989, the Royal Philharmonic Society established its Orchestra Award for "excellence in playing and playing standards"; the LSO was the first winner.<ref name=lso80s/>