Sidney Sax

Sidney Sax (1913–2005) was a leading violinist in London's session musician circles. In addition to being an eminent and influential orchestral leader he was also contractor, 'fixing' the personnel for recording sessions. In 1964 he was the joint founder of the National Philharmonic Orchestra, London together with Charles Gerhardt.

The National Philharmonic Orchestra, which was later incorporated in 1970, was a freelance orchestra that boasted amongst its players some of the leading musicians from all the London orchestras. It was not unusual to find that Sax had contracted the leaders of most of London's orchestras to populate his first violin section.

Sax brought together the National Philharmonic Orchestra to make several notable recordings with Leopold Stokowski in the 1970s. Their first recording together (for a 'Desmar' LP in April/May 1975) was of Rachmaninov's Symphony No. 3, which had been premiered by Stokowski in 1936. EMI 7243-5-66759-2-6. There were two albums for PYE Records recorded at West Ham Central Mission, in 1976. Record PCNH4 included Saint-Saëns Danse Macabre, with Sidney Sax as solo violinist. There were also CBS recordings made with Leopold Stokowski again at the West Ham Central Mission that included Sibelius's 1st Symphony and the Bizet Carmen and L'Arlesienne Suites, and at EMI's Abbey Road Studios where Stokowski made his very last recordings in 1977, of Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony and Bizet's Symphony in C.

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