Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
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The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is an English orchestra which, despite its name, is now based in the adjacent town of Poole rather than in Bournemouth.
It was originally the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra, which was founded in 1893 as a small group of wind players. It quickly expanded to become a full orchestra and gained a name for championing contemporary British music. Elgar and Holst (among others) conducted the orchestra in their own works.
It changed names in 1954, while Charles Groves was its principal conductor (he held the post from 1951 to 1961). Its other principal conductors include Constantin Silvestri (1961-69), Paavo Berglund (1972-79), Rudolf Barshai (1983-88), and Andrew Litton (1988-95). From September 2002 Marin Alsop, formerly music director of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, became its principal conductor.
In 1968, the Bournemouth Sinfonietta was founded. Despite considerable artistic acclaim as a small orchestra, funding difficulties led to its closure in November 1999.
The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra currently gives around 150 concerts a year. Many highly acclaimed recordings include Deryck Cooke's completion of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 10, conducted by Simon Rattle, Elgar's "In The South" with Silvestri, Tchaikovsky's 2nd piano concerto with Rudolf Barshai and Peter Donohoe, and more recently Elgar's 3rd Symphony with Paul Daniel, and Bernstein's Chichester Psalms with Marin Alsop.
The orchestra performs regularly in the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall and in the other great halls of the world, such as the Carnegie Hall in New York and the Musikverein, Vienna.
External link
- Official site (http://www.bsolive.com/htm/home_page/home.asp)