page_title: Philharmonia Orchestra
section_title: 1950s: Karajan to Klemperer
hierarchical_section_title: Philharmonia Orchestra / History / 1950s: Karajan to Klemperer
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Otto Klemperer. English: German-born conductor and composer Otto Klemperer.
context_page_description: The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Richard Strauss, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Arturo Toscanini; of the Philharmonia's younger conductors, the most important to its development was Herbert von Karajan, who though never formally chief conductor was closely associated with the orchestra in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Philharmonia became widely regarded as the finest of London's five symphony orchestras in its first two decades.
  From the late 1950s to the early 1970s the orchestra's chief conductor was Otto Klemperer, with whom the orchestra gave many concerts and made numerous recordings of the core orchestral repertoire. During Klemperer's tenure Legge, citing the difficulty of maintaining the orchestra's high standards, attempted to disband it in 1964, but the players, backed by Klemperer, formed themselves into a self-governing ensemble as the New Philharmonia Orchestra. After thirteen years under this title, they negotiated the rights to revert to the original name.
context_section_description: As Legge had expected, Karajan succeeded to the Berlin and Salzburg positions after Furtwängler died in 1954. Karajan remained under contract to EMI, but he quickly reduced his commitments to the Philharmonia. Among alternatives favoured by Legge and the orchestra was Guido Cantelli, who conducted some well-received recordings and concerts; his death in a plane crash in 1956 at the age of thirty-six deprived the Philharmonia of a potential replacement for Karajan. Another of Legge's protégés, Carlo Maria Giulini, seemed promising, but had not at that point established himself with the orchestra or the public, and had a restricted repertory. Legge gradually built up a strong relationship with the veteran Otto Klemperer, who was admired by the players, the critics and the public.
  The year after Cantelli's death, the orchestra suffered a still worse blow with the death in a car crash of Dennis Brain, not only a supremely gifted player, but the most popular member of the orchestra among his colleagues. He was succeeded as principal horn by his deputy, Alan Civil.
  In 1957 Legge launched the Philharmonia Chorus, an amateur body with a stiffening of professionals when needed. The chorus made its debut in Beethoven's Choral Symphony conducted by Klemperer, and won extremely favourable reviews. In The Observer Peter Heyworth wrote that with so fine a choir and "our best orchestra" and a great conductor, Legge had given London "a Beethoven cycle that any city in the world, be it Vienna or New York, would envy". In 1959 Legge abandoned his policy that the orchestra should have no permanent conductor, and appointed Klemperer "conductor-for-life".
caption: Otto Klemperer, first principal conductor of the Philharmonia
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