London Mozart Players
| London Mozart Players (LMP) | |
|---|---|
| Chamber orchestra | |
Official London Mozart Players logo
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| Founded | 1949 |
| Concert hall | Fairfield Halls, Croydon |
| Principal conductor | Gérard Korsten |
| Website | www |
The London Mozart Players (LMP) is a British chamber orchestra founded in 1949. The LMP is the longest-established chamber orchestra in the United Kingdom whose performances and recordings focus largely on the core repertoire from the Classical era. Since 1989, the orchestra has been based at Fairfield Halls, Croydon.
The LMP was founded in 1949 by Harry Blech, a violinist who was beginning to turn his hand to conducting, who had been asked by pianist Dorothea Braus to form an orchestra with which she could play two Mozart piano concertos. The concert took place on 11 February at Wigmore Hall, London and the programme also included two Mozart symphonies, Nos. 28 in C and 29 in A. With this sell-out concert Harry Blech realised that he had found an audience for the music he wanted to perform; that of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and their contemporaries. The Haydn-Mozart Society was created shortly after with William Walton as its chairman and Alan Rawsthorne as one of the committee members.
On 3 May 1951, the Royal Festival Hall was opened and the LMP was invited to perform as part of the RFH's opening week of concerts. The orchestra then switched its operation to the more appropriately-sized Queen Elizabeth Hall after its opening in 1967. In 1956, the LMP embarked on its first overseas tour to Italy by way of Amsterdam. During Blech's time as principal conductor, the orchestra made many commercial recordings [1] and was also regularly broadcast on the Third Programme and its successor, BBC Radio 3.
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Wikipedia