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From Beecham to Disco - the History of the Royal Philharmonic, September 27, 2010
This review is from: Batons, Bows and Bruises - A History of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (DVD with bonus CD) (DVD)
While the Boston Symphony Orchestra is distinct from the separate Boston Pops and plays a different style of music, London's Royal Philharmonic has found a way to use popular music tastes to continue as a self funded operation. The hour-long DVD in this set presents the history of the Orchestra and its various incarnations.
Founded in 1946 by Sir Thomas Beecham the Orchestra was known for its classical repertoire performed under the baton of its founder. But when Beecham retired in 1961 they had to find a new way to become self-sustaining. We hear about these early years in archival-filmed interviews (mostly on scratchy film). But by 1980 when the US record label K-Tel engaged the RPO to perform classical music standards to a disco beat for a "novelty" project called Hooked on Classics, things changed. The album was a mega-hit and spawned many subsequent releases. When this wore off the RPO looked for a leader in Andre Previn, who came on board from 1984-87, when he left for the LA Philharmonic. The Orchestra has had two Musical Directors since and they founded their own record label. They are still recording pop-schlock on CDs like a recent pop covers CD as well as some movie scores.
The documentary is hosted by Andrew Sachs, who some may remember for something "completely different" as the hotel bellman on the comedy series Fawlty Towers.
The set also includes a 77-minute CD with mostly previously unissued recordings by the RPO as well as introductory words by Beecham and a 5 minute interview with current Music Director Daniele Gatti. (And all the music performances are classical; no disco here.)
Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"
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