British Symphony Orchestra discography


This discography is an incomplete, chronological list of recordings originally released with the name British Symphony Orchestra on the label. The list also includes other recordings which fall outside this strict definition: either because they have been included in discographies of specific conductors ; or were never publicly released for general sale; or have been re-released as such on CD; or for comparison purposes only.
The discography is arranged into three main sections:

Acoustic recordings

recorded four sides with the orchestra he founded, for Edison Bell's Velvet Face label in c. 1919-early 1920.
Adrian Boult made the HMV recordings at Room 1, HMV, Hayes, Middlesex in 1920-1922, and the Velvet Face ones at the Edison Bell studio in Peckham, SW London, in 1923. He became chief conductor of the Birmingham Choir in late 1923, of the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 1924, Music Director of the BBC in 1929? and first chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1930.

Electrical recordings

In the early 1930s the Columbia Graphophone Company made a number of recordings, released with 'British Symphony Orchestra' on the label. They were made in 1930–1932, mostly in the Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, which was built in 1911 and first used for recording by Columbia in January 1927. Columbia had been making recordings since 1924 with the orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society whose shadowy, occasional existence seems to be partially intertwined with that of the 'British Symphony Orchestra' of this period, and is discussed here first.

Orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society

Since at least the beginning of the 20th century, the orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society was a somewhat ad hoc gathering of musicians which was engaged about once a month for an RPS concert under various conductors; from 1924 it also made a few recordings a year, again under different conductors. For recording purposes it was billed as "The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra" on Columbia record labels. The orchestra of this period is sometimes thus—by extension—often referred to as 'the RPO' or 'the old RPO'.
The members, described a "kind of test match team" were hand-picked from the orchestral musicians of London. The players booked for an RPS concert by the Hon. Sec. were expected to attend all rehearsals and the concert. The [|§ deputy system] was at first specifically disallowed, although this rule came to be severely flouted.
From 1916 Sir Thomas Beecham had effectively taken over the running of the Royal Philharmonic Society, which financially was on its last legs, and ran it autocratically until his resignation two years later in 1918. Balfour Gardiner stepped in with a guarantee of £1,200 to allow concerts to continue. The Society was incorporated in 1922 as a "company limited by guarantee and not having a share capital", which allowed it to enter into a recording contract with Columbia for five years in late 1923.
The Columbia Graphophone Company made over 40 recordings of the orchestra. Bruno Walter made numerous records with the orchestra from 1924: other conductors included Sir George Henschel, Paul von Klenau and Beecham, Oskar Fried and Felix Weingartner. Venues included the Petty France studios; the Portman Rooms, Baker Street; the marble-lined Scala Theatre, Charlotte Street; and, from 1930, Central Hall, Westminster.
A number of players joined the newly-formed BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1930. The orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society was reformed in autumn 1932 as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, as a permanent ensemble under Beecham and Malcolm Sargent with backing from the Courtauld family. A number of players were also lured away from the LSO, through what the LSO Board regarded as "treachery by Beecham and disloyalty by Sargent." Beecham conducted the LPO's first concert at the Queen's Hall on 7 October 1932 to tumultuous applause.
Deputy system
The standard of orchestral playing in London had been seriously affected for many years by the deputy system, by which orchestral players—if offered a better-paid engagement—could send a substitute to a rehearsal or a concert. When Wood banned the practice in the Queen's Hall orchestra in 1904, forty disgruntled players left en masse to found the LSO. The Honorary Secretary of the Royal Philharmonic Society, John Mewburn Levien, described it thus: "A, whom you want, signs to play at your concert. He sends B 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."
By the 1930s the standard of orchestral playing at Society concerts had fallen so much that "it had become a commonplace that 'not one in twenty concerts were properly prepared', and critics and audiences were accustomed to making allowances". The frequent changes of players meant that only "a few celebrated batons, except Beecham's, and possibly Wood's were a regular match for prevailing conditions in the orchestra." Arthur Schnabel was so unhappy about a performance of Mozart's A Major concerto K488 which he had given at a Royal Philharmonic Society concert with Basil Cameron that he wrote to The Times on 18 Jan 1930 to explain that the concert had been inadequately rehearsed. Walter J. Turner, the music critic of the New Statesman commented that the orchestra were "tired and apathetic", and that Schnabel's gesture to pay for an extra 30 minutes' rehearsal had to be refused since the extensive use of deputies reduced it to a meaningless gesture.

'British Symphony Orchestra'

"Quot homines, tot sententiae."
From 1930 to 1932, Columbia released fifteen recordings mostly made in the Central Hall with the name 'British Symphony Orchestra' on the label: one each conducted by Smyth and Fried; three each by Wood and Weingartner; and seven by Walter. In addition Weingartner recorded Beethoven's 5th symphony with an unnamed ensemble, released in the US only as performed by a 'Symphony Orchestra'. It has been re-released on CD as being by the 'British Symphony Orchestra', but the basis for this is flimsy to non-existent.
The first recording with 'British Symphony Orchestra' on the label was of Ethel Smyth conducting the overture to her opera The Wreckers. Her connection with a BSO may appear valid, since Raymond Roze had promoted The Wreckers during his 'Opera in English' season in 1909. when the very first BSO under William Sewell was giving concerts in London. In 1919 Roze had formed the second British Symphony Orchestra, which existed as a semi-permanent ensemble until 1923.
The other conductor with perhaps a vague contemporary connection to the earlier BSO formations is Sir Henry Wood, who would have certainly have come across them in the 'old days': but he doesn't appear to have conducted the old orchestra when William Sewell, Harty, or Boult were giving concerts with the BSO. Hamilton Harty conducted concerts with the BSO in 1906 at the Queen's Hall, where Wood conducted his own New Queen's Hall Orchestra. His association with this later 'British Symphony Orchestra' may have been somewhat tongue-in-cheek.
Identity
Record producers, reviewers and discographers have puzzled over the identity of the named and unnamed ensembles. It seems fairly clear that it was not Adrian Boult's old orchestra, which hadn't given a concert since 1923. According to George Frow, "this must have been a general pseudonym, since the original name of British Symphony Orchestra was used in 1919 by Raymond Roze, who founded an orchestra to give employment to soldiers returning from the Great War, but this worthy ambition petered out after a season or two, when it foundered through lack of support."
The London Symphony Orchestra had a contract with HMV, and the New Queen's Hall Orchestra was disbanded by Chappell & Co. in 1927, or by 1930. The BBC Symphony Orchestra was in the process of being formed, and gave its first concert at Queen's Hall under Boult on 22 October 1930. There were few other major London-based permanent symphonic ensembles, although the Hallé made frequent trips to the capital from Manchester, and made recordings there with Hamilton Harty for Columbia.
One other sizeable orchestra was that of the Royal Philharmonic Society, which was essentially an ad hoc or pickup orchestra engaged by the Hon. Secretary of the Philharmonic Society for about eight concerts a year at Queen's Hall.
A partial clue may lie in the Weingartner recordings of 1931 which haven't received much scrutiny because of their lesser musical content. Although they state 'British Symphony Orchestra' on the label, Michael Gray's data shows that it was the Orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society under a cover name.
More particularly, there seems to be little discographical basis for the 'British Symphony Orchestra' which appears on CD reissues of the recording of Beethoven 5th Symphony with Weingartner in 1932. It was made by an unnamed orchestra at an undisclosed location. It wasn't even issued in Britain because of the faintness of the recording and the variable recording speeds throughout the work.
The very next day after Weingartner recorded Beethoven 5th, Columbia recorded the waltz from Naila by Delibes on an unissued matrix CAX 6358, with the Columbia Symphony named as the performer. This is not at all the first example of the Columbia Symphony Orchestra.
The last recording released with 'British Symphony Orchestra' on the label was made by Henry Wood on 16 October 1932, about one week after the LPO had given its first concert.
As George Frow commented in 1979: "At this distance it is becoming difficult to break through the defences of the pseudonyms without deep research, and there is a great deal that will one day be done by somebody, not only on early individual performers, singers and comedians in particular, but orchestras, as has been shown".

Summary

The painstaking work carried out by, for example, Robert Marsh on his Bruno Walter discography, and also by Michael Gray on the discographical data of record companies other than HMV and available on the CHARM database, tends to indicate that the term 'British Symphony Orchestra' was little more than a cunning marketing ploy, and was used as a cover name for the orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society on at least a handful of recordings by Weingartner in 1931. Having a named ensemble rather a plain 'Symphony Orchestra' on a record label or re-issue on CD can improve sales, since categorising things is a significant human activity.
"The British Symphony Orchestra" in this context appears to be simply a name used by Columbia for an ad hoc recording ensemble of musicians, or pickup orchestra, quite possibly the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Any connection with the old BSO from the 1920s appears tenuous at the very least and borders on improbability, although some of the musicians may have played in both. The British Symphony Orchestra appears to have led the same type of existence as the Columbia Symphony which made its first appearance in 1913.

Columbia recordings, matrix and catalogue numbers

A full Columbia electrically-recorded matrix number is typically given in this discography as e.g. CAX 6048-2 On the record disc itself the initial 'C' is enclosed in a circle, ©AX. The -2 at the end indicates it was the second 'take' of that side, although Columbia didn't specify the actual take number on the record. In some other discographies the takes are given in Roman numerals: e.g. WAX 6048-II. Matrix numbers are given in full where known. A sequence of matrix numbers is shown as e.g. WAX 6104/7. Catalogue numbers are shown without spaces, e.g. HMV D521 or, as a sequence, Columbia LX144/5.
Having released a recording with a catalogue number, Columbia was in the infamous habit of issuing newer recordings with the same catalogue number a few years later, sometimes of completely different works, and/or composers & musicians. Thus two entirely different recordings may share the same label number, and matrix numbers are the key to identifying specific recordings.
Sometimes information printed on the record label is at variance with the printed record catalogues. The operations of Columbia in the UK and the US can lead to confusion. They used different catalogue numbers, and some recordings were only released in the US, e.g. Weingartner's Beethoven 5th symphony or Walter's Prometheus Overture.

Acoustic Recordings 1919–1923

Raymond Roze

;HMV
Boult made a number of unissued takes with the BSO: these are listed along with the released recordings.
;Edison Bell Velvet Face
Columbia released some fifteen recordings with 'British Symphony Orchestra' on the label. A conductor's name in italics indicates that the immediately following recordings were not assigned to the British Symphony Orchestra by Columbia in any way. They are listed for comparison only. All the entries are listed in a sortable table following the main discography.

1930

;Felix Weingartner
These are the last issued recordings of the 'old' Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the recording name of the orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society.
;Ethel Smyth
;Bruno Walter
These three recordings were issued by Columbia with a plain 'Symphony Orchestra' on the label. At least one source assigns the British Symphony Orchestra as the ensemble, although neither Columbia's own data nor the label back this up.
;Robert Kajanus
Although none of these recordings by an unnamed 'Symphony Orchestra' have been attributed to the British Symphony Orchestra, Mark Obert-Thorn puts forward the view that the ensemble was the orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society, "the old RPO".
;Oskar Fried
;Felix Weingartner
These three recordings were issued with 'British Symphony Orchestra' on the label, but Columbia's matrix logs state just 'Symphony Orchestra', and Michael Gray identifies the ensemble as the orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society.
;Bruno Walter
;Felix Weingartner
The recording of Beethoven's median symphony has been subject to considerable scrutiny.
;Bruno Walter
These five recordings all state 'British Symphony Orchestra' on the label, although according to Michael Gray Columbia's own logs only specify the Marriage of Figaro overture as actually being played by the BSO: the other four have the usual plain 'Symphony Orchestra'.
;Henry Wood
The three final recordings listed here were all released with 'British Symphony Orchestra' on the label, although the first pressings of the Bach arrangements unaccountably stated 'London Symphony Orchestra' on the label. Wood's last previous recording was of Brandenburg 6 in June 1930. The final recording listed here was made about a week after Beecham's first concert with the LPO, formed out of the 'old' RPO, the orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society, which has figured throughout this discography.
Matrix numbers are given without takes for clarity - see main text for more information where known. The 'Refs' column refers back to the main discography to save duplication.
DateVenueOrchestraConductorComposerWorkMatrixCat. Num.Refs.
Central HallOrchestra of the RPS WeingartnerBeethoven Hammerklavier Sonata in B Flat, Op. 106WAX 5485//92LX43/7
Central HallOrchestra of the RPS WeingartnerJosef StraussSphärenklänge-Walzer, op. 235 WAX 5500/1LX40
—British Symphony OrchestraSmythSmythThe Wreckers - OvertureWAX 5567/8DX287
Central HallSymphony OrchestraWalterWagnerSiegfried IdyllWAX 5584/7LX79/80
Central HallSymphony OrchestraWalterWagnerDie Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Act I, VorspielWAX 5588/9DX86
Central HallSymphony OrchestraWalterBeethovenThe Creatures of Prometheus - OvertureWAX 5590LX277
Central HallSymphony Orchestra KajanusSibeliusSymphony No. 1WYX 1/9LX65/69
Central HallSymphony Orchestra KajanusSibeliusSymphony No. 2WYX 10/18LX50/54
Central HallSymphony Orchestra KajanusSibeliusKarelia Suite - IntermezzoWYX 19LX54
Central HallSymphony Orchestra KajanusSibeliusKarelia Suite - Alla marciaWYX 20LX69
—British Symphony OrchestraFriedDelibesSylvia - Ballet suiteWAX 5836/9LX114/5
Central Hall Orchestra of the RPSWeingartnerLeopold Mozart?Toy Symphony, Cassation in G majorWAX 6046/7DX311
LX45
Central Hall Orchestra of the RPSWeingartnerJ. Strauss IIWaltz, A Thousand And One Nights, Op. 346WAX 6048/9LX133
Central Hall Symphony OrchestraWeingartnerJ. Strauss IIWaltz, Voices Of Spring Op. 410.WAX 6050/1DX266
Central Hall Symphony OrchestraWalterMozartSerenade No. 13 in G major, KV525 Eine kleine NachtmusikWAX 6104/5LX144
Central Hall Symphony OrchestraWalterWagnerGötterdämmerung - Funeral MarchWAX 6108/9LX156
—
—		WeingartnerBeethovenSymphony No. 5 in C minor, op. 67CAX 6348/5468078/81-D
—Columbia Symphony—DelibesNaila ballet - WaltzCAX 6358Unissued
Central Hall Symphony OrchestraWalterWagnerDie Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Prelude to Act 3CAX 6383/4LX180
— Symphony OrchestraWalterWagnerGötterdämmerung - Siegfried's Journey to the RhineCAX 6385/6LX191
Central Hall Symphony OrchestraWalterMozartLe nozze di Figaro K.492 - OvertureCAX 6387LX232
Central Hall Symphony OrchestraWalterBeethovenViolin Concerto in D major, op. 61CAX 6388/97LX174/8
Central Hall Symphony OrchestraWalterWagnerDie Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Dance Of The ApprenticesCAX 6398-2LX232
— Symphony OrchestraWoodBachBrandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV1048CAX 6439/40LX173
—
—		WoodBach Orchestral Suite No. 3 in G major - CAX 6441L1994
DX475
—
—		WoodBach Partita for Violin No. 3 in E, BWV 1006 - GavotteCAX 6442L1994
DX475
—British Symphony OrchestraWoodGraingerMolly on the shore and Mock MorrisCAX 6443/4LX200

Digital recordings

Georges Delerue

The music for the film La Révolution française, directed by Robert Enrico and Richard T. Heffron in 1989, was composed and conducted by Georges Delerue. It was performed by the British Symphony Orchestra with chorus. This seems to have been an ensemble of freelance musicians from the Greater London area, recorded at HMV Abbey Road Studios in August 1989.