Philharmonia Orchestra

The Philharmonia Orchestra, nowadays abbreviated to Philharmonia, is a London symphony orchestra. The orchestra was founded in 1945 by record producer Walter Legge. Since 1995, the Royal Festival Hall has been the permanent concert hall of this orchestra.

The first concert in 1946 was conducted by Thomas Beecham, but the orchestra refused to accept him as chief conductor. In the early years, the orchestra made mainly many recordings. In particular, Herbert von Karajan and Otto Klemperer frequently worked with this orchestra and made many recordings with it. In 1964, Walter Legge decided to dissolve the orchestra. However, the orchestra members decided to continue independently with support from Klemperer as New Philharmonia Orchestra. It was not until 1977 that they acquired the rights to the name Philharmonia Orchestra.

The orchestra made more than a thousand recordings for gramophone and CD. The orchestra also played film music for the soundtracks of films, for example by Ralph Vaughan Williams for Scott of the Antarctic. Guest conductors with whom the orchestra regularly worked include Lorin Maazel, Kurt Sanderling, Sir Charles Mackerras, John Eliot Gardiner and Vladimir Asjkenazi.

1959-1973 Otto Klemperer
1973-1982 Riccardo Muti
1984-1994 Giuseppe Sinopoli
1997-2007 Christoph von Dohnányi
2008-2020 Esa-Pekka Salonen
2021- Santtu-Matias Rouvali

Official website of the Philharmonia Orchestra