British Symphony Orchestra discography

This discography is an incomplete, chronological list of recordings commercially released with the name British Symphony Orchestra on the label.

The discography is arranged into three main sections: Raymond Rôze recorded four sides with the orchestra he founded, for Edison Bell's Velvet Face label in c. 1919-early 1920.

[4] In the early 1930s the Columbia Graphophone Company made a number of recordings, released with "British Symphony Orchestra" on the label.

From 1916 Sir Thomas Beecham had effectively taken over the running of the Royal Philharmonic Society, which financially was on its last legs, and ran it autocratically until his resignation two years later in 1918.

[9] The Society was incorporated in 1922 as a "company limited by guarantee and not having a share capital", which allowed it to enter into a recording contract with Columbia for five years in late 1923.

Bruno Walter made numerous records with the orchestra from 1924: other conductors included Sir George Henschel, Paul von Klenau and Beecham,[11] Oskar Fried (Tchaikovsky's 6th symphony in 1929) and Felix Weingartner.

"[15] Beecham conducted the LPO's first concert at the Queen's Hall on 7 October 1932 (Carnaval Romain, Brigg Fair, the 'Prague' symphony and Ein Heldenleben) to tumultuous applause.

When Wood banned the practice in the Queen's Hall orchestra in 1904, forty disgruntled players left en masse to found the LSO.

The Honorary Secretary of the Royal Philharmonic Society, John Mewburn Levien, described it thus: "A, whom you want, signs to play at your concert.

[18] The frequent changes of players meant that only "a few celebrated batons, except Beecham's, and possibly Wood's were a regular match for prevailing conditions in the orchestra.

"[21] From 1930 to 1932, Columbia released fifteen recordings mostly made in the Central Hall with the name "British Symphony Orchestra" on the label: one each conducted by Smyth and Fried; three each by Wood and Weingartner; and seven by Walter.

[28] The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBCSO) was in the process of being formed, and gave its first concert at Queen's Hall under Boult on 22 October 1930.

[f] The last recording released with "British Symphony Orchestra" on the label was made by Henry Wood on 16 October 1932, about one week after the LPO (the "old RPO") had given its first concert.

As George Frow commented in 1979: "At this distance it is becoming difficult to break through the defences of the pseudonyms without deep research, and there is a great deal that will one day be done by somebody, not only on early individual performers, singers and comedians in particular, but orchestras, as has been shown".

[35] The painstaking work carried out by, for example, Robert Marsh on his Bruno Walter discography (Marsh 1964), and also by Michael Gray on the discographical data of record companies other than HMV (in this case, Columbia) and available on the CHARM database,[36] tends to indicate that the term "British Symphony Orchestra" was little more than a cunning marketing ploy, and was used as a cover name for the orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society on at least a handful of recordings by Weingartner in 1931.

Having a named ensemble rather a plain "Symphony Orchestra" on a record label or re-issue on CD can improve sales, since categorising things is a significant human activity.

The discography and following table are based on Michael Gray's database compiled from Columbia's own contemporary session logs and matrix notes, available on CHARM.

The recordings of the first two Sibelius symphonies by Robert Kajanus have been included in the table for comparison only, as have the 1930 Weingartner discs of the "Hammerklavier" sonata and a Strauss waltz.

Each search session completely expires after a fairly short period of inactivity (around 30 minutes), including the contents of the .csv file, so the results unfortunately can't be incorporated in any permanent web link.

[36] CatNum: DX287 Date: 1930-05-01 Label: Columbia Performer: British Symphony Orchestra Composer: SMYTHE Title: The wreckers - Overture Issue_78_45: DX287 Num: WAX 5567 Conductor: Smythe, Ethel Date: 1931-04-07 Venue: London, Central Hall, Westminster Label: Columbia Performer: Orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society Composer: MOZART, Leopold Title: Cassation in G major 'Toy Symphony' Issue_78_45: DX311 LX45 Num: WAX 6046 Conductor: Weingartner, Felix

Catalogue (i.e. label) numbers are shown without spaces (as in Gray's database), e.g. HMV D521 or, as a sequence, Columbia (UK) LX144/5.

At least one source (Altena, Reveyoso & Ryding 2010) assigns the British Symphony Orchestra as the ensemble, although neither Columbia's own data nor the label back this up.

The final recording listed here was made about a week after Beecham's first concert with the LPO,[as] formed out of the "old" RPO, the orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society, which has figured throughout this discography.

[124] The music for the film La Révolution française, directed by Robert Enrico and Richard T. Heffron in 1989, was composed and conducted by Georges Delerue.

[141] This seems to have been an ensemble of freelance musicians from the Greater London area, recorded at HMV Abbey Road Studios in August 1989.