London Concert Orchestra

I make no secret of the fact that the orchestra, of whom I have the privilege of being the Music Director, the London Concert Orchestra, is an extremely happy band! Historically that has not always been the case. I first conducted them on 6th May 1988 in the Barbican Centre and Marcus Dodds, the orchestra's only other Music Director had died some 4 years previously. My memory of the occasion is hazy and my experience of orchestras at that time limited, so can't remember whether in 1988 they were happy or not. The violinist Joan Atherton, who, on 30th December 2022, retired from the orchestra after very nearly 50 years playing, did say at her retirement speech, she remembered my first appearance with the orchestra and that I conducted Tchaikovsky's Romeo & Juliet. I didn't ask her the reason for remembering that occasion for fear that it was not a good one! However, I think she was in error of the piece, as I make a note of the works I conduct at every performance, and in my score of Romeo and Juliet, I note that I first conducted it with the Philharmonia Orchestra in  February 1988 at the Royal Festival Hall, and not with the LCO until 1993 in Symphony Hall Birmingham. 

However, leaving that aside, as time went on, the orchestra became more and more unhappy. The quality of us conductors were not always of the best, the booking by the fixer was done by a who was available system and not who was a principal and who was a sub-principal. Musicians only accepted the job of playing in the orchestra if there was nothing else. The standard of the orchestra deteriorated and it became a case of performing as best you could and hoping the audience would not notice! I don't think they ever did.

Fast forward to the noughties and I realised as I was conducting them more and more, that they needed an identity, moreover an identity that was different to other London bands. Talking with Anthony Findlay, CEO of Raymond Gubbay, and James Rutherford who at the time was Events Director the idea was created of a successor to Marcus Dodds, some 40 years after he had died. I believe every orchestra needs a figurehead, someone they can focus on. It generally creates unity as the majority of the orchestra either likes or dislikes the conductor. I accepted the position of Music Director, and we began the process of re-building the orchestra to be at the forefront of the London orchestras at what we did. We weren't going to play the Mahler and Tchaikovsky symphonies, as there was no room in the dwindling London market for that. But we would do modern film music and popular classical compositions. With it, we would have fun and take the audience along with us; maybe even include them in the concerts. 

We have done this remarkably well and now have a huge reputation......and it doesn't matter who is conducting them! It was demonstrated for me in a comment by a musician a few years ago, when he said, "The LCO has gone from being an orchestra you had to play in to earn money, to being an orchestra everyone wants to play in!" The musicians of the LCO seem to agree with that. Rehearsals are fun and full of laughs; the concerts are long and good value, but no-one minds; the standard of playing is extraordinarily high, and we know it; and most important, at every single performance we get one, two or three immediate standing ovations. We all like that! The orchestra is a very happy one, I've been told that over and over, and I think it shows in their playing. 

The standard of all our orchestras in this country is extraordinary, and the London Concert Orchestra is up there with the best.