Maida Vale Studios

Maida Vale Studios is a complex of seven BBC sound studios, of which five are in regular use, in Delaware Road, Maida Vale, London.

It has been used to record thousands of classical music, popular music and drama sessions for BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 6 Music from 1946 to the present. On 30 October 2009, BBC Radio 1 celebrated 75 Years of Maida Vale by exclusively playing 75 tracks recorded at the studios over the years. Snow Patrol played a live set from the studio with Fearne Cotton to celebrate 75 years of live music.

The site was built in 1909 as the Maida Vale Roller Skating Palace and Club. Over a period of 15 months in 1933/1934, one hundred men reduced the skating rink to a shell, then rebuilt it. The arches at the doorway were preserved. It was one of the BBC's earliest premises, pre-dating Broadcasting House, and was the centre of the BBC News operation during World War II.

It has been the home of the BBC Symphony Orchestra since 1934, where they have given invitation concerts, usually free. As a schoolboy, conductor Vernon Handley learned some of his technique by watching Sir Adrian Boult conduct the BBC symphony orchestra here. Studio MV1 has room for an orchestra of over 150 musicians and an audience of over 200. An unusual feature of these concerts is that they were often recorded, which means that in later years the orchestra sometimes were able to do re-takes. It is the largest classical music studio in London.

The BBC Third Programme (now Radio 3) was created in September 1946. By the 1950s, it was frequently broadcasting concerts from this venue, including the first broadcast performance of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana given by the resident orchestra with the Goldsmiths Choral Union and soloists. Some premieres of British classical music were recorded in studio MV1, including works by Robert Simpson, Arnold Bax, Nicholas Maw, Alan Rawsthorne and Sir Arthur Bliss. Many of them later became available on vinyl or CD. Olivier Messiaen's Turangalila was rehearsed here, before its UK premiere at the Royal Festival Hall.

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