The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British ensemble based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's symphony orchestras. It was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's Hall Orchestra because of a new rule requiring players to give the orchestra their exclusive services. The LSO itself later introduced a similar rule for its members. From the outset the LSO was organised on co-operative lines, with all players sharing the profits at the end of each season. This practice continued for the orchestra's first four decades.
The LSO underwent periods of eclipse in the 1930s and 1950s when it was regarded as inferior in quality to new London orchestras, to which it lost players and bookings: the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the 1930s and the Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic after the Second World War. The profit-sharing principle was abandoned in the post-war era as a condition of receiving public subsidy for the first time. In the 1950s the orchestra debated whether to concentrate on film work at the expense of symphony concerts; many senior players left when the majority of players rejected the idea.
By the 1960s the LSO had recovered its leading position, which it has retained subsequently. In 1966, to perform alongside it in choral works, the orchestra established the LSO Chorus, originally a mix of professional and amateur singers, later a wholly amateur ensemble.
As a self-governing body, the orchestra selects the conductors with whom it works. At some stages in its history it has dispensed with a principal conductor and worked only with guests. Among conductors with whom it is most associated are, in its early days, Hans Richter, Sir Edward Elgar, and Sir Thomas Beecham, and in more recent decades Pierre Monteux, André Previn, Claudio Abbado, Sir Colin Davis, Valery Gergiev and Sir Simon Rattle. Its current chief conductor is Sir Antonio Pappano.
Since 1982 the LSO has been based in the Barbican Centre in the City of London. Among its programmes there have been large-scale festivals celebrating composers as diverse as Berlioz, Mahler and Leonard Bernstein. The LSO claims to be the world's most recorded orchestra; it has made gramophone recordings since 1912 and has played on more than 200 soundtrack recordings for the cinema, of which the best known include the Star Wars series.
History
Background
At the turn of the twentieth century London did not have permanent salaried orchestras. The main music venues: Covent Garden, the Philharmonic Society and the Queen's Hall had their players engaged for the concert or season.
At the time it was also an accepted practice for players to break their contracts for better-paid engagements, and then engage another player to deputise at the concert (and the rehearsals before). The treasurer of the Philharmonic Society, John Mewburn Levien, described the system 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."
thumb|right|upright|Clockwise from top left: [[Adolf Borsdorf, Thomas Busby, John Solomon and Henri van der Meerschen, founding fathers of the LSO]]
thumb|upright|[[Hans Richter (conductor)|Hans Richter, who conducted the LSO's first concert|alt=elderly, stout, bald white man with huge beard and moustache]]
In 1904 the manager of the Queen's Hall, Robert Newman and the conductor of his promenade concerts, Henry Wood, agreed that they could no longer tolerate the deputy system. After a rehearsal in which Wood was faced with dozens of unfamiliar faces in his own orchestra, Newman came to the platform and announced: "Gentlemen, in future there will be no deputies! Good morning!" This caused a furore. 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. While travelling by train to play under Wood at a music festival in the north of England in May 1904, soon after Newman's announcement, some of his leading players discussed the situation and agreed to try to form their own orchestra. The principal movers were three horn players (Adolf Borsdorf, Thomas Busby, and Henri van der Meerschen) and a trumpeter, John Solomon.|group=n to be run on co-operative lines, "something akin to a Musical Republic" with a constitution that gave the organisation independence. At concerts promoted by the LSO, the members worked without fee, their remuneration coming at the end of each season in a sharing of the orchestra's profits.
Borsdorf was a player of international reputation, and through his influence, the orchestra secured Hans Richter to conduct its first concert. The programme consisted of the prelude to Die Meistersinger, music by Bach, Mozart, Elgar and Liszt, and finally Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. In a profile of the orchestra in 1911, The Musical Times said: