Liverpool Philharmonic
| Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (RLPO) | |
|---|---|
| Orchestra | |
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| Founded | 1840 |
| Concert hall | Liverpool Philharmonic Hall |
| Principal conductor | Vasily Petrenko |
| Website | www |
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society is a society based in Liverpool, England, that manages a professional symphony orchestra, a concert venue, and extensive programmes of learning through music. It is the UK's only orchestra that has its own hall. The society is the second oldest of its type in the United Kingdom and its orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, is the country's longest-surviving professional orchestra. In addition to the orchestra, the society administers the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir, the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and other choirs and ensembles. It is involved in educational and community projects in Liverpool and its surrounding region. The society and its members have won a number of honours and awards and played an important role when Liverpool was the European Capital of Culture in 2008. It is based in the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, an Art Deco concert hall built in the late 1930s.
The orchestra's recordings of Shostakovich's symphonies between 2009 and 2013 received wide and international acclaim.
The society 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 society was established as the Liverpool Philharmonic Society 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.
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