Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is a music organisation based in Liverpool, England, that manages a professional symphony orchestra, a concert venue, and extensive programmes of learning through music. Its orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, is the UK's oldest continuing professional symphony orchestra. In addition to the orchestra, the organisation administers the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir, the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Company and other choirs and ensembles. It is involved in educational and community projects in Liverpool and its surrounding region. It is based in the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, an Art Deco concert hall built in the late 1930s.
History
19th century
The organisation has its origins in a group of music amateurs in the early 19th century. They had met during the 1830s in St Martin's Church under the leadership of William Sudlow, a stockbroker and organist; their main interest was choral music. The Liverpool Philharmonic Society was established on 10 January 1840 with the object of promoting "the Science and Practice of Music"; its orchestra consisted largely of amateur players. The society was the second of its kind to be established, the first being the London-based Royal Philharmonic Society whose orchestra was disbanded in 1932.The organisation was founded for the rich and élite members of Liverpool society, for "the pleasure of the moneyed merchant class in the town". Its first concert was given on 12 March 1840 in a room at the back of a dance academy in Great Richmond Street and was conducted by John Russell with William Sudlow as organist. The programme consisted of 13 short orchestral and choral pieces, including works by Auber, Rossini, Spohr, Henry Bishop, and George Onslow, and madrigals by Thomas Morley and John Wilbye. The society outgrew this room and gave its performances in the hall of the Collegiate Institution in Shaw Street. In 1843 the society appointed its first principal conductor, the Swiss-born J. Zeugheer Herrmann, who continued in this role until his death in 1865. During the following year, the orchestra performed its first symphonies, Haydn's No. 99 and Beethoven's First.
In 1844 the society appointed the Liverpool architect John Cunningham to prepare plans for a concert hall to be situated at the junction of Hope Street and Myrtle Street. It was to contain an audience of 2,100 and an orchestra of 250. To raise money for its building, shares were issued and members of Liverpool society were invited to buy seats in the boxes to be included in the hall. The foundation stone was laid in 1846 and construction began the following year. In 1847 the society invited Felix Mendelssohn to compose a cantata based on words from Milton's Comus to celebrate the opening of the hall. Mendelssohn died before this could be carried out. The hall cost £30,000 and was formally opened on 27 August 1849. The first concert was performed by an orchestra of 96 and a choir of over 200; performers at the concert included three future conductors of the orchestra, Alfred Mellon, Julius Benedict and Charles Hallé. The organist was W. T. Best. The hall was not full for the first performance; this was attributed to two factors, the high price of admission, and the fear that the building, without central supporting pillars, was unsafe.
Problems soon arose. In 1850 the choir formed the Liverpool Philharmonic Auxiliary Society and were in conflict with their conductor. Herrmann offered his resignation, which was not accepted. By 1852 the financial problems of the society were deteriorating. Membership was exclusive and not all the seats on offer had been taken up. Suggestions that the conditions for membership should be relaxed were refused. In 1852 the society widened its activities from music by arranging theatrical performances, including Charles Dickens's company and an appearance by William Makepeace Thackeray. In 1855 it was discovered that William Sudlow, the Honorary Secretary had been stealing money from the society; an amount of more than £2,424 had been embezzled. Sudlow resigned from the society. He was replaced by a paid secretary; the post was given to Henry Sudlow, a distant relative of William. Henry was to serve the society for some 30 years with no similar problem. Prominent performers appearing for the society in 1856 were Jenny Lind, Clara Schumann and Charles Hallé. Dickens returned in 1858 and during that year the society was able to pay off the mortgage on the hall.
File:Early-RLPO-conductors.jpg|thumb|Liverpool Philharmonic conductors, 1867–1913: clockwise from top left: Benedict, Bruch, Hallé and Cowen
By 1865 Hermann's health was deteriorating and a new principal conductor, Alfred Mellon, was appointed in September. Mellon died only 18 months later, and was replaced by Julius Benedict, who remained in post until 1880, when his eyesight was deteriorating. While Benedict was principal conductor, the society flourished both artistically and financially. This did not continue during the tenure of the next principal conductor, despite his later fame. Max Bruch was appointed on 23 February 1880 and served for less than three years. During this time he experienced conflict with the committee of the society and complained about the behaviour of the audience. He resigned in January 1883 at which time the standards of the orchestra and the choir had deteriorated, and members of the committee were disagreeing with each other. The person appointed to sort this out was Charles Hallé who had by this time established the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester. Hallé continued as principal conductor until his death in 1895. During this time the orchestra and choir flourished. Those who appeared with the society during this time included Paderewski, Hubert Parry, Nellie Melba, and Clara Butt. In 1883 the secretary, Henry Sudlow, died; he was replaced by George Broadbent.
1900–1939
The next principal conductor was Frederic Cowen who remained in post until 1913. During this time more Romantic music was played, including works by Elgar, and this was not always popular with the audiences. Although the society continued to be exclusive, there was criticism about the behaviour of its members during concerts. Performers who appeared during this time were Fritz Kreisler, and Rachmaninoff, the latter playing his Third Piano Concerto and conducting other works at a concert in 1911. After the resignation of Frederic Cowen, the society did not appoint another principal conductor until 1942.File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-12786, Bruno Walter und Yehudin Menuhin.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Bruno Walter and the teenage prodigy Yehudi Menuhin, 1931
During this period the orchestra was conducted by a series of guest conductors, who included Wilhelm Furtwängler, George Szell, Pierre Monteux, Serge Koussevitzky, and Bruno Walter. Soloists included Pablo Casals, John McCormack, Elisabeth Schumann, Yehudi Menuhin, Solomon, Benno Moiseiwitsch, and Maggie Teyte. The British conductors to have a major influence on the orchestra during this time were Sir Henry Wood and Sir Thomas Beecham. During the early 1930s there was concern about the deteriorating financial situation of the society. There was a problem in filling seats and it was suggested that the rule of wearing evening dress at concerts should be relaxed; this was turned down.
Disaster struck the society on 5 July 1933 when the Philharmonic Hall was destroyed by fire. Concerts were mainly held in the Central Hall until a new hall could be built; larger scale works were performed in St George's Hall. Considerable discussion took place about the financing and the design of the new hall. It was decided that the society would pay for it without help from the City Corporation. Herbert J. Rowse was appointed as architect and he designed to hall in art deco style; it cost a little over £120,000. Sir Thomas Beecham conducted the opening concert on 20 June 1939. Incorporated in the hall is an organ built by Rushworth and Dreaper, the pipework being hidden behind decorative grilles either side of the orchestra platform. The organ console rises from beneath, and was originally built on a turntable, allowing the organist to face the audience and conductor, or the choir. The console is now fitted with wheels and can be played anywhere on the platform. A Walturdaw rising cinema screen is also housed under the platform, the last such screen in the world still in working order.
Second World War
After the outbreak of the Second World War there was pressure to suspend the orchestra's concerts. The chairman of the management committee, David Webster, strongly resisted it, insisting that music was an essential morale-booster. He set up low-priced concerts for factory workers and members of the armed forces. The pre-war rule insisting that audiences wear formal evening dress was abolished. Webster recruited Malcolm Sargent as chief conductor; though not generally loved by orchestral players Sargent was immensely popular with the paying public. Guest conductors included Sir Henry Wood and Charles Münch.Wartime disbanding of other orchestras - most notably that of the all-star BBC Salon Orchestra on 11 July 1942 after a month's notice - enabled Webster and Sargent to recruit leading players such as Anthony Pini and Reginald Kell, with the result that for a few years the Liverpool Philharmonic had a strong claim to be the finest orchestra in the country. During Webster's period as chairman, the orchestra increased its concerts from 32 a year to 148 and, in 1942, became a permanent body for the first time. Until then the Philharmonic was not a permanent ensemble, but comprised a nucleus of local players augmented from a pool of musicians who also played for the Hallé and latterly BBC Northern Orchestra. During the autumn and winter months the orchestra gave no more than one concert in a fortnight. The Hallé, which operated on a similar ad hoc basis, followed Liverpool's example the following year and became a permanent ensemble for the first time, under John Barbirolli.
The financial situation of the society improved in 1942 when the local authority, Liverpool City Corporation, bought the freehold of the hall for £35,000; the corporation undertook to pay the society an annuity of £4,000 and to allow it free use of the hall provided that it gave an agreed number of concerts each year, and maintained a permanent orchestra. The society agreed to promote musical education in and around Liverpool. In Sargent's first season, the orchestra made its first recording, its first broadcast, and gave its first school children's concert. Under him there was a "spectacular explosion" in the number of concerts and recording sessions performed. In 1944 the orchestra made its first appearance in London, performing at the Royal Albert Hall. The Times commented, "If Liverpool felt any qualms about letting its orchestra, accustomed as it is to the perfect acoustics of its own hall, try its fortunes in the rough and tumble of the Albert Hall, they will have been silenced, for what was immediately apparent was … an ensemble and congruity of tone-colouring that London in its less fortunate conditions can only envy". Sargent and the orchestra gave the British premieres of Tippett's First Symphony, and Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra and, in October 1946, the concert première of Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. Guest conductors in the immediate postwar years included Beecham, Sir Adrian Boult, the young Charles Groves, and Karl Rankl, who made so good an impression that he was appointed musical director of the Covent Garden Opera Company.