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BBC Philharmonic

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

The BBC Philharmonic is a British national radio orchestra, one of the five orchestras of the BBC. It is based at MediaCityUK in Salford and gives its concerts mainly in the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. Its history began in 1922 with the 2ZY Orchestra, formed for a radio station in Manchester. That orchestra played the first broadcasts of many famous English works, including Dream of Gerontius and Enigma Variations by Elgar and The Planets by Holst. In 1926 it became the Northern Wireless Orchestra.

Music and breakthrough

When the BBC Symphony Orchestra was founded in London in 1930, the BBC cut its support for the regional orchestras. The orchestra in the north shrank to nine players. Three years later the broadcaster reversed that decision, and from 1934 it was called the BBC Northern Orchestra, the beginning of the orchestra as it exists today. In 1946 it had fifty permanent players and gave more than seventy public concerts. In 1961 it played its first Prom. In 1967 the name became the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra, and after an industrial dispute in 1980 and a show of support from the BBC in 1982, the orchestra was enlarged and received its current name. Yan Pascal Tortelier was principal conductor from 1992 to 2002, Gianandrea Noseda followed in 2002 and John Storgårds became chief conductor in 2022. Recordings were released of, among other things, symphonies and concertos by Elgar, Hindemith and Richard Strauss.

Influence

The orchestra brought British music to a large radio audience outside London. It shows how the broadcaster, alongside a metropolitan orchestra, also formed a second face of British classical music in the north of the country.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Enigma Variations by Elgar in a recording by the BBC Philharmonic. Notice the changing colour of the orchestra in each variation, from soft and intimate to full and festive.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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