Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is an English orchestra, founded in 1893 and originally based in Bournemouth. With a remit to serve the South and South West of England, the BSO is administratively based in the adjacent town of Poole, since 1979. The orchestra is resident at Lighthouse in Poole, with other major concert series given at Portsmouth Guildhall, the Great Hall of Exeter University and Bristol Beacon.
Principal conductors of the orchestra have included Sir Dan Godfrey, Rudolf Schwarz, Constantin Silvestri, Paavo Berglund, Andrew Litton, Marin Alsop, and Kirill Karabits. The current principal conductor is Mark Wigglesworth, as of the 2024–2025 season. The orchestra's current chief executive is Dougie Scarfe.

History

Origins to 1934: The Godfrey era

The orchestra was founded as Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra in 1893 by Dan Godfrey as a group of 30 wind players and a drummer, though several of the instrumentalists – as is the current practice with military musicians – were proficient in both wind and string instruments. This flexible approach meant that the musicians could form a military band for open-air concerts or a more formal classical ensemble for indoor programmes. The group gave its first concert on Whit Monday 1893 at the Winter Gardens, with its first classical concert in October that year.
The band quickly expanded to become a full orchestra, gaining a reputation for championing British music. Edward Elgar and Gustav Holst conducted the orchestra in their own works. The orchestra gave the UK premieres of major works by Richard Strauss, Camille Saint-Saëns and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. On 14 December 1903, the Orchestra gave its 500th symphony concert, conducted by Godfrey; a souvenir booklet listed all the works played by the orchestra since its inception, noting any first performances. The Bournemouth Municipal Choir, founded by Godfrey in 1911, sang regularly with the orchestra.
From 1922 to 1940, an Easter Festival was an important feature in the Bournemouth calendar. In 1927, the Festival was devoted to music of British women composers. In 1934, Godfrey retired as principal conductor, having conducted over 2,000 symphony concerts.
The first recording by the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra was made in 1914 and occasional records were issued during Godfrey's tenure: Godfrey's recordings included works such as Ferdinand Hérold's overture to Zampa, Daniel Auber's overtures The Bronze Horse and The Crown Diamonds, or Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Petite Suite de Concert, along with "novelty items" with titles such as 'Slippery Sticks' and 'Whispering Pines' by members of the orchestra and featuring them as soloists.
Godfrey remains the longest serving principal conductor of the orchestra, and his stewardship ensured that, unlike many of the seaside orchestras that functioned from the end of the 19th century up until the outbreak of World War II, the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra established an ongoing tradition of music making. Godfrey's programmes mixed populist elements, such as variety acts and light music, with extracts from more serious pieces. Alongside these, he instituted a series of symphony concerts which introduced diverse repertoire. He cultivated connections with most of the prominent British composers of the day including Edward Elgar, Hamilton Harty, Alexander Mackenzie, Hubert Parry, Charles Villiers Stanford, Ethel Smyth, Gustav Holst and the Australian Percy Grainger.
From the very beginning, Godfrey had a difficult relationship with the Bournemouth Borough Council who saw the orchestra as a commercial concern which needed to pay its way. As part of Bournemouth's visitor attractions, any request for expansion of the orchestra or changes to their contracts were the subject of exhaustive debates in the Council chamber. However, in general, Godfrey was successful at balancing both high artistic standards and box-office success.

1934–1947: Austin, Birch and wartime austerity

Between 1929 and 1934 Stanley Wilson became a regular guest conductor. After Godfrey's retirement, the task of sustaining the orchestra fell to Richard Austin. Radio broadcasts took place from the Pavilion and a number of celebrated composers visited during this time, including Igor Stravinsky, William Walton, Ernest John Moeran, Sergei Rachmaninov, Roger Quilter, Balfour Gardiner and Percy Grainger. At the outbreak of war, the orchestra was cut from 61 to 35, and then in 1940 to only 24 players. Austin resigned in the same year and Montague Birch helped keep the orchestra going during the war, giving many 'popular' concerts.
Whilst the Municipal Orchestra struggled in a depleted state, the war years saw concerts in the town by the Wessex Philharmonic, a freelance orchestra conducted by Reginald Goodall, which included some ex-members of the BMO.

1947–1954: Schwarz and Groves

After the end of the war, the orchestra found a new home at the 'new' Winter Gardens. In 1947, Rudolf Schwarz was appointed musical director of a re-formed orchestra of 60. He conducted the orchestra in its first concert in London since 1911, at the Royal Albert Hall in 1948, and in two concerts at the Royal Festival Hall during the Festival of Britain in 1951. Schwarz's tenure was marked by artistic consolidation, but also financial troubles.
Charles Groves took over as musical director in 1951, but a rising annual deficit and termination of players' contracts caused a crisis, averted only by support from the Winter Gardens Society. In 1952, a plan to merge the BMO with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra was avoided by an arrangement with the Arts Council for the orchestra to accompany Welsh National Opera for several weeks. The continuation of the orchestra was only secured by the formation of the Western Orchestral Society. In 1954, the orchestra changed its name to the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. At the inaugural concert, Groves and Sir Thomas Beecham shared the podium.

1954–1969: The Silvestri years

From 1954 the BSO developed its present role of giving concerts at more venues in the southwest of England. Other work included accompanying the Bolshoi Ballet on their first British tour in 1956.
In 1957 Groves and the orchestra made commercial recordings, for Classics Club,, of Beethoven's 4th Symphony, Brahms's Academic Festival Overture and Bizet's L'Arlésienne Suite.
In 1962, Constantin Silvestri became principal conductor and raised the standard and profile of the orchestra, with an appearance at the Edinburgh Festival in 1963, a first European tour in 1965, notable recordings and regular radio broadcasts. The orchestra gained its first international recognition during Silvestri's tenure, such as in a joint performance with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in the Winter Gardens by the combined string sections of both orchestras, playing Edward Elgar's Introduction and Allegro. His tenure was cut short by his death from cancer in 1969. His recorded legacy includes Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, and a 1966 recording of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture with the additional forces of the Band of HM Royal Marines.
Recent releases on BBC Legends, transferred from recordings of live concerts given at the Winter Gardens and elsewhere during Silvestri's tenure, provide a vivid record of the orchestra's style in this era. These include accounts of Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony and Elgar's Enigma Variations.

1969–1972: Hurst

In addition to its roster of principal conductors, other conductors affiliated with the orchestra have included George Hurst, who served as de facto principal conductor from 1969 to 1972, between the tenures of Silvestri and Paavo Berglund, without having been formally appointed to the post. Hurst ensured continuity during that conductorial interregnum.

1972–1979: Berglund

Paavo Berglund's tenure as principal conductor from 1972 to 1979 included commercial recordings such as the complete symphonies of Jean Sibelius for EMI. The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Paavo Berglund made the world premiere recording of the Kullervo by Jean Sibelius. Berglund led Sibelius Centenary Concerts with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in 1965, and became the principal conductor in 1972, concluding his tenure in 1979. Berglund led the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with distinction, significantly raising the performing standards, as can be heard from the many recordings made by it for EMI. During this period, Nordic repertoire became a staple of the orchestra.
Roger Preston, co-principal cello, who worked with Berglund on many occasions, has said:

Anyone who played with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in the largest wooden church in the world, Kerimäki Church, Finland, as part of the BSO's 1981 tour will tell that it was a truly unforgettable experience. On this tour we played all the Sibelius' Symphonies, with Paavo on spectacular form. This particular concert featured Sibelius' Fourth Symphony plus the Violin Concerto played superbly by Ida Haendel.
I joined the BSO in 1979, as much because I had seen and heard them play under Berglund and knew that he were quite exceptional. Many of Paavo's comments, criticisms and demands are as fresh in my mind as though it were only yesterday.
He remains, for me one of the best, if not the best conductor that I have ever played for and am so grateful to have caught the latter days of Paavo's extraordinarily fruitful relationship with the BSO. For any string players reading this, I particularly loved it when he used to say, "violins, you play like in a telephone booth", i.e. use much more bow!".

Edward Greenfield wrote in a review of a concert by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Paavo Berglund in The Guardian in 1972, that the brilliantly richful strings left behind many interpretations from London..
The Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat told in their 80th year birthday interview of Paavo Berglund that his one-time assistant from Bournemouth, Simon Rattle, called him "one of the last great", and uses Berglund's bowings in his Sibelius performances. The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra always gets very suspicious when a visiting maestro wants to change Paavo's Sibelius markings. The visiting maestro is silenced by saying that the markings are Sibelius'.
Recordings by Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Paavo Berglund:

Bliss: Suite from Miracle in the Gorbals; Cello Concerto. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. 1977, Southampton Guildhall.
Britten: Violin Concerto. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. 12 June 1977.
Franck: Symphony; Symphonic Variations. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. 1976.
Glazunov: Piano Concerto ; Yardumian: Passacaglia, Recitative & Fugue. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. 1977.
Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite; Alfven: Swedish Rhapsody; Järnefelt: Praeludium; Berceuse. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Grieg: Symphonic Dances; Old Norwegian Romance with Variations. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. 1982.
Nielsen: Symphony No. 5. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. 1975.
Prokofiev: Summer Night Suite. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. 1975.
Rimsky-Korsakov: The Golden Cockerel Suite. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. 1975.
Rimsky-Korsakov: May Night Overture; Glazunov: Valse de Concert No. 1; Glinka: Valse Fantaisie; Sibelius: Intermezzo and Alla Marcia from Karelia Suite; Shalaster: Dance "Liana". Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Shostakovich: Symphonies 5, 6, 7, 10, 11. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. 30–31 July 1975, No. 1 Studio, Abbey Road, London. Jan 1974, Guildhall, Southampton. 1975. Dec 1978.
Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1; Walton: Cello Concerto. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. 7–8 Jan 1973, Southampton Guildhall.
Shostakovich: Concerto No. 1 for Piano, Trumpet and Strings ; Piano Concerto No. 2 ; Three Fantastic Dances. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Sep 1975.
Sibelius: En saga; The Oceanides; Pohjola's Daughter; Luonnotar ; Pelleas et Melisande. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Sibelius: Finlandia; The Swan of Tuonela; Lemminkäinen's return; Intermezzo from Karelia Suite; Nocturne, Elegie, Musette, Valse Triste from King Kristian II suite. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Sibelius: Complete Symphonies 1–7 and Orchestral Works. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. 1976. 1978. 20 June 1977. ?. June 1973. 1976. 1973. Southampton Guildhall. Dec. 1970, Southampton Guildhall.
Sibelius: Violin Concerto; Serenades Nos. 1, 2; Humoresque No. 5.. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. July 1975, Southampton Guildhall.
Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 6; Oboe Concerto. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. 1 April 1975, Southampton Guildhall.
Walton: Violin Concerto. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. 1978, Southampton Guildhall.