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New Symphony Orchestra (London)

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The New Symphony Orchestra (NSO) was founded in London in 1905 by the clarinettist Charles Draper and the flautist Eli Hudson. After ten years it became the orchestra of the Royal Albert Hall, and continued under that name until it disbanded in the early 1930s. Thomas Beecham was succeeded as its principal conductor by Landon Ronald.

History

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In the early years of the 20th century there was only one permanent orchestra in London – the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). The orchestras of Covent Garden, the Philharmonic Society and the Queen's Hall were ad hoc ensembles, with players engaged individually for each concert or for a season.[1] Vacancies occurred in the LSO's ranks only rarely, and the clarinettist Charles Draper and the flautist Eli Hudson conceived of a new cooperative, self-governing ensemble of medium size, drawing on the pool of talent available.[2]

Initially, the new orchestra gave Sunday concerts at a theatre in Notting Hill Gate. One of its cello section, Edward Mason, conducted. When the orchestra made its central London début at the Queen's Hall in June 1906, Draper invited the rising young conductor Thomas Beecham to a rehearsal. Beecham and the orchestra approved of each other and he accepted its invitation to become its regular conductor.[3]

Beecham quickly concluded that to compete with London's existing symphony orchestras his forces must be expanded to full symphonic strength and play in larger halls.[4] He and the enlarged New Symphony Orchestra gave concerts at the Queen's Hall, with considerable success, but after 1908 they parted company, disagreeing about artistic control and, in particular, the deputy system. Under this system, orchestral players, if offered a better-paid engagement elsewhere, could send a substitute to a rehearsal or a concert.[5] The treasurer of the Royal Philharmonic Society described it thus:

A, whom you want, signs to play at your concert. He sends B (whom you don't mind) to the first rehearsal. B, without your knowledge or consent, sends C to the second rehearsal. Not being able to play at the concert, C sends D, whom you would have paid five shillings to stay away.[6]

Henry Wood had already banned the deputy system in the Queen's Hall Orchestra but the players of the LSO and the New Symphony Orchestra insisted on retaining it. Orchestral musicians were not highly paid, and removing their chances of better-paid engagements permitted by the deputy system was a serious financial blow to many of them.[7] Beecham disagreed and left, founding an orchestra of his own.[8]

The orchestra appointed Landon Ronald as its new chief conductor. He said that it boasted "a set of principal players such as I had never dreamed of".[9] Skilled at musical politics, Ronald engineered the NSO's supplanting of the LSO at the profitable Sunday concerts at the Royal Albert Hall from 1909. He was also musical adviser to the Gramophone Company (HMV), and able to secure recording work for the NSO in preference to the LSO.

The NSO became the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra in 1915 with Ronald as its conductor, a position he held until the orchestra ceased to exist after 1930.[10]

A later ensemble called the New Symphony Orchestra (sometimes the New Symphony Orchestra of London) – unconnected with the earlier New Symphony Orchestra – played on more than 150 Decca studio recordings between 1948 and 1964.[11]

References

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  1. ^ Morrison, p. 12
  2. ^ Langley, p. 49; and Lucas, p. 32
  3. ^ Lucas, pp. 32–33
  4. ^ Lucas, p. 24
  5. ^ Russell, p. 10
  6. ^ Reid, p. 50
  7. ^ "The London Symphony Orchestra", The Musical Times, Vol. 52, No. 825 (November 1911), pp. 705–707 (subscription required)
  8. ^ Reid, p. 70
  9. ^ Morrison, p. 68
  10. ^ "Record", Royal Albert Hall. Retrieved 23 November 2024
  11. ^ Stuart, Philip. Decca Classical 1929–2009. Retrieved 25 November 2024.

Sources

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  • Langley, Leanne (2012). "Joining up the Dots". In Bennett Zon (ed.). Music and Performance Culture in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Abingdon and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-4094-3979-0.
  • Lucas, John (2008). Thomas Beecham: An Obsession with Music. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1-84383-402-1.
  • Morrison, Richard (2004). Orchestra: The LSO: A Century of Triumph and Turbulence. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-57-121584-3.
  • Reid, Charles (1961). Thomas Beecham: An Independent Biography. London: Victor Gollancz. OCLC 500565141.
  • Russell, Thomas (1945). Philharmonic Decade. London: Hutchinson. OCLC 504109856.
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