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to Chapter 11
12
The
London Orchestras
The
London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic,
Philharmonia – between 1904 and 1963
all become self-managed. Despite financial
problems – lack of subsidy and patronage
– the orchestras survive. The Goodman
Committee. Comparison with orchestras
in Europe and USA – their financial
support and conditions.
All
four of the ‘London Orchestras’, the
usual description that includes the
London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), the
London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO),
the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO)
and the Philharmonia (sometimes, on
tour abroad, called the Philharmonia
of London) are self-administered. Their
Boards of Directors are wholly, or to
a considerable extent, elected members
of the orchestra. They employ a General
Manager (or Managing Director) and the
necessary staff. The members of the
other orchestras based in London, the
BBC Orchestras, the Royal Opera House
and the English National Opera Orchestra
are employed on contract in the usual
way.
While
I was a professional musician, from
1943 until 1979, I was in turn a member
of three of the London orchestras, the
LPO, the RPO and finally the Philharmonia
– the last two when they were respectively
Sir Thomas’s and the other Walter Legge’s,
and then when they were self-administered.
Some years later, from 1974–79 I was
Chairman of the Council of the Philharmonia
(as its Board of Directors is called
because it is a Company Limited by Guarantee).
Although I was never a member of the
LSO I was engaged by them on a good
many occasions during the 1960s as an
extra or deputy. Between 1964 and 1979
I was also very involved as an elected
member of the Executive Committee of
the Musicians’ Union that from time
to time played a considerable part in
coming to the rescue of several of the
London orchestras.
There
are not many other self-administered
orchestras in the world; the Vienna
Philharmonic is an outstanding exception;
all the other orchestras in Britain
are managed. Self-management has over
the years been the cause of considerable
opposition from those who believe that
musicians, like other groups of workers,
whether in industry, commerce or the
arts are unsuited to manage their own
affairs. In particular, in the case
of musicians, there have always been
those who feel that they should not
be given the responsibility for managing
their financial affairs.
Before
going into why the musicians in three
of the London orchestras were obliged
to take over the management of their
orchestras between 1939 and 1964, in
order to maintain their existence, it
is necessary to understand the economics
of the symphony orchestra. An orchestra
is labour intensive requiring a large
number of performers to rehearse and
then perform in concert halls that will
hold an audience of from 1200/1500 to
3000. The same is true for opera houses.
Symphony
orchestras everywhere have always been
dependent on patronage. It is impossible
for any concert hall or opera house
to take sufficient money at the box
office even with a full house when every
seat is taken, to pay for the number
of musicians, singers, the conductor
and soloist, that a concert or opera
performance requires. Patronage for
the groups of musicians that developed
into orchestras was first provided by
the church and then by kings and the
many princes and counts of the principalities
all over Europe. Later, with the growth
of the bourgeoisie in the 19th
century, many city authorities took
on this responsibility. In America,
from the beginning of the 20th
century, men who had arrived penniless
from Europe and made their fortunes
in the USA, endowed orchestras in the
major cities as a way of establishing
themselves, and particularly their wives,
as members of local society.
It was
only in 1940, when the Council for the
Encouragement of Music and the Arts
(CEMA) was established with funding
from the Treasury, that for the first
time a state subsidy for the arts became
available in Britain. CEMA, which was
set up to provide entertainment and
to raise morale for both the armed forces
and the civilian population was a quite
revolutionary step and was taken with
barely any resistance and, in fact,
with hardly anyone noticing. It at once
gave artists, actors and musicians the
opportunity to play an important part
in the war effort. Then, after the end
of the war in 1945, CEMA, once again
without any protest, was quietly transformed
into the Arts Council of Great Britain.
The
establishment of the Arts Council with
funding from the Government allowed
public money to be allocated to arts
organisations of all kinds, especially
those that had in the past had to rely
entirely on private financial aid. Unlike
the situation in most other European
countries where during the 19th.
century a tradition had developed all
over Europe of supporting orchestras,
for historical and social reasons this
did not happen in Britain until 1946,
very much later than elsewhere. However,
the Government in Britain, in contrast
to the policy in most other countries,
has operated a ‘hands off’ policy, leaving
the Arts Council free to designate where
funding should be provided.
The
first full-time symphony orchestra was
not established in Britain until the
formation of the BBC Symphony Orchestra
in 1930. An orchestra, the Bournemouth
Municipal, was formed in 1893 by Dan
Godfrey and funded by the local authority
and, though not a symphony orchestra
it did provide regular employment throughout
the year. It is interesting to see what
that orchestra played at their first
performance.
| March |
The Standard Bearer |
Fahrbach |
| Overture |
Raymond |
Thomas |
| Valse |
Je t’aime |
Waldteufel |
| Ballet Music |
Rosamunde |
Schubert |
| Russian Masurka |
La Czarine |
Ganne |
| Entr’acte |
La Colombe |
Gounod |
| Selection |
The Gondoliers |
Sullivan |
During
the 19th century a number
of orchestras were created: the Hallé
in Manchester, the Liverpool Philharmonic
and several elsewhere, but none gave
concerts throughout the year, usually
only having at most a six month season.
In 1895
Henry Wood, later Sir Henry, was engaged
by Robert Newman to conduct a season
of Promenade Concerts at the Queen’s
Hall in London. His first Promenade
season programme was of an even lighter
character than that played by the Bournemouth
Orchestra, being made up of overtures,
a selection, songs, instrumental solos
such as that for the bassoon, Lucy
Long, and flute and cornet solos.
10
August 1895 Queen’s Hall
| Overture
|
Rienzi
|
Wagner |
| Song |
Prologue:
Pagliacci
Mr.Ffrangcon Davies
|
Leoncavallo
|
| Havanera |
|
Chabrier
|
| Polonaise in A |
Orchestrated by Glazounov
|
Chopin |
| Song |
Swiss
Song
Madam Marie Duma
|
Eckert |
| Flute Solos |
(a)
Idylle
|
Benjamin Goddard
|
|
(b)
Valse from Suite
|
|
| Song |
Thou
hast Come
Mr. Ivor McKay
|
Kennington
|
|
Chromatic
Concert Valses from the opera
Eulenspiegel
(First performance in England)
|
Cyril Kistler
|
| Song |
My
Heart Thy Sweet Voice
Mrs. Van der Vere Green
|
Saint-Saens |
| Gavotte
from Mignon |
Ambroise Thomas
|
| Song |
Vulkan’s
Song (Philemon and Baucis)
Mr. W.A.Peterkin
|
Gounod |
| Hungarian
Rhapsody in D min. and C maj. (No.
2) |
Liszt |
INTERVAL
15 MINUTES
| Grand
Selection |
Carmen
arr. Cellier
|
Bizet
|
| Song |
Largo
al Factotum
Mr. Ffrangcon Davies
|
Rossini
|
| Overture |
Mignon
|
Ambroise
Thomas |
| Cornet
Solo |
Serenade
Mr. Howard Reynolds
|
Schubert |
| Song
|
My
Mother Bids Me Bind My Hair
Madame Marie Duma
|
Haydn
|
| Bassoon
Solo |
Lucy
Long
Mr. E.F. James
|
|
| Song |
Dear
Heart
Mr. Ivor McKay
|
Tito
Mattei |
| The
Uhlan’s Call |
|
Eilenberg
|
| Song |
Loch
Lomond
Mrs. Van der Vere Green
|
Old
Scottish |
| Song |
The
Soldier’s Song
Mr. W.A.Peterkin
|
Mascheroni
|
| Valse |
Amorettan
Tanze
|
Gungl
|
| Grand
March |
Les
Enfants de la Garde
(First Performance)
|
Schloesser
|
The
Queen’s Hall Orchestra that Wood conducted
in a series of concerts, as well as
for the Promenade season each year,
still retained the deputy system that
had operated throughout the music profession
in Britain for many years. The lack
of regular employment always made it
necessary for musicians to maintain
as many of their connections as possible
Henry
Wood was determined to create a really
good orchestra so that it would not
be possible for anyone in future to
say that England was ‘das Land ohne
Musik’. To this end he needed to weld
a group of musicians playing together
on a fairly regular basis under his
direction into an ensemble that could
compare with the finest orchestras in
Europe and America. Because of the deputy
system he was frustrated by the constant
absence from rehearsals, and sometimes
even from performances, of key players.
As time went by Henry Wood became increasingly
exasperated by the constant appearance
of deputies until one day the matter
came to a head. In his autobiography
My Life of Music he recalls how
he arrived for rehearsal and ‘found
an orchestra with seventy or eighty
unknown faces in it. Even my leader
was missing’.
He
had to contend with this until in 1904,
by which time his reputation and authority
had grown sufficiently for him to instruct
his manager to inform the orchestra
‘In future there will be no deputies’.
The next day 40 members of the orchestra
resigned. Those 40 musicians were to
form the nucleus of the London Symphony
Orchestra, a co-operative organisation
in which the players accepted the financial
responsibility, controlled the orchestra’s
artistic policy, and engaged conductors
and soloists. From being employees they
became the employers. As there was no
contract the musicians were paid at
the end of each engagement, and always
in cash. I remember being paid in this
way whenever I played with them well
into the 1960s. It was the only major
orchestra in my experience to do this.
In 1905
three outstanding players formed the
New Symphony Orchestra, another self-administered
orchestra, which in 1920 became the
Royal Albert Hall Orchestra and in 1909
Sir Thomas Beecham founded the Beecham
Symphony Orchestra but, unlike the LSO,
neither lasted for many years. The next
major orchestra to be formed was the
BBC Symphony Orchestra, in 1930, the
first orchestra to offer the players
a full-time contract. The Corporation
went even further than Sir Henry Wood:
not only were deputies absolutely forbidden,
members of the orchestra were not allowed
to do any other orchestral work
The
London Philharmonic Orchestra Limited
was formed in 1932, with Sir Thomas
Beecham as Founder and Artistic Director.
His co-Directors were distinguished
and wealthy patrons of the arts: Viscount
Esher, Robert Mayer, Samuel Courtauld
and Baron Frederick Alfred D’Erlanger.
Though the others joined him in providing
the initial funding to establish the
London Philharmonic Orchestra, it was
in reality Beecham’s orchestra. His
intention was to have an orchestra that
would, like the BBC Symphony, have no
deputies and be as full-time as possible.
He put together a schedule that included
the Beecham Sunday Concerts, the Courtauld-Sargent
Concerts and providing the orchestra
for the Royal Philharmonic Society and
the Royal Choral Society concerts. He
also accepted engagements from organisations
around the country, and arranged to
do a number of gramophone recordings.
Longer periods of employment for the
orchestra were provided by the International
Opera Season and the Russian Ballet
season both at the Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden. Even so, this did not
create enough work for the orchestra
to be engaged on a full-time basis so
that the players did still have to maintain
their other professional connections
In 1940,
at the beginning of WW2, Beecham went
to America, leaving his orchestra without
any work or financial support. To keep
the orchestra going the players decided
to form a co-operative company, which
they named Musical Culture Limited.
The first thing the new board of management
had to do was to find engagements for
the orchestra, not an easy task for
those more used to playing their instruments
than managing an orchestra and with
the country preparing for war. The members
of the orchestra did the first concerts
on a truly co-operative basis: they
shared out what little was left after
all expenses had been paid. I was told
that for the first concert this amounted
to 5 shillings (25p), the equivalent
of about £12/15 today.
It was
not long before a number of the players
were being called up to join one or
other of the armed services. The task
of replacing them and getting deputies
of the required standard was becoming
increasingly difficult. In addition,
the orchestra was obliged to do many
more engagements away from London, which
many of the best players were not too
keen on. The orchestra decided that
the best thing would be for everyone
to receive a regular weekly salary.
By the time I joined the orchestra in
1943 as second clarinet, my salary was
£10.50 a week with a small amount extra
to help with the cost of over-night
accommodation, depending on how many
‘out-of-town’ dates there were in the
week. When I left to join the Royal
Philharmonic in 1947 I was receiving
around £12/13 a week
Until
I joined the RPO I had always been on
a weekly salary. Suddenly I found I
was paid for each engagement I played.
The fee would depend on whether it was
for a concert in London, an out of town
concert or for an extra rehearsal, a
children’s concert, broadcast, recording
or film session. I see from my old diaries
that in 1947 there were weeks when I
earned as much as £45, followed by a
week when I only earned as little as
£10 or £15. After a time, when I had
made some free-lance connections, I
found, as I had been told I would, that
I was earning a great deal more than
I had in the LPO. Beecham paid his musicians
well. As second clarinet I was paid
£4.20 for a concert instead of the Musicians’
Union rate which was £2.75. Principal
players received £5.25 instead of £3.00.
Walter
Legge, who was employed by the major
recording company, at that time EMI,
created the Philharmonia in 1945 mainly
for making what were then called gramophone
records. They were those large, black,
double-sided discs that played for about
four and a half minutes on each side,
and can still sometimes be found lurking
at the back of the second-hand section
of record shops. For some years the
Philharmonia was fully occupied making
records and gave very few concerts.
Then,
in 1946 Sir Thomas founded the Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra. He established
an exclusive contract with EMI for his
orchestra to make a considerable number
of records each year for five years
and an agreement with Glyndebourne Opera
for the orchestra to play for their
season each year. He also persuaded
the Royal Philharmonic Society, with
which he had been associated for so
many years, that the orchestra could
use the title ‘Royal Philharmonic’ and
undertake the Society’s concerts.
There
was a good deal of competition for players
between the RPO and the Philharmonia
and one or two players like Dennis Brain
managed to play in both for a time.
In the early years both orchestras were
very busy making recordings. The conditions
were very similar in both orchestras,
though the Philharmonia probably had
rather more recording sessions, much
sought after as one was paid the same
for a session of three hours as for
a concert with a three-hour rehearsal
in the morning.
Everything
went very well until Sir Thomas ceased
conducting in 1960. When he died in
1961 Rudolf Kempe became the principal
conductor but, of course, he had other
commitments and was not involved in
such a personal way as Beecham had been.
The management gradually found the task
of finding work for the orchestra more
and more difficult, their problems being
made very much worse, first by the loss
of the Glyndebourne season and then
by the decision of the Royal Philharmonic
Society to terminate their agreement
with the Orchestra whereby it would
lose the use of the title ‘Royal’. In
1963, The Anglo-American Music Association
Ltd., the Company Beecham had established,
gave up control of the Orchestra and
the players decided to emulate the course
taken by the musicians in the LPO in
1939, when they had found themselves
in a similar unhappy situation. They
formed a new company, Rophora Ltd.,
elected a board of Directors from the
members of the orchestra, managed to
retain their name intact, and became
another self-administered orchestra.
I had
been playing in the Philharmonia from
the late 1950s and was a member of the
orchestra in 1964 when Walter Legge
decided he no longer wanted the responsibility
of owning an orchestra. He not only
disbanded the orchestra; he took its
name away as well. Again the players
had to take the only course open to
them if they wished to survive; they
too became a self-administered orchestra
and were obliged to rename themselves
The New Philharmonia Orchestra. It was
to be more than 10 years before they
were able to obtain their original name
again and once more become the Philharmonia.
Notwithstanding
adversity the four London orchestras
survived. None of them had either an
outstanding conductor like Beecham,
or a man with a personality like Legge,
with his involvement in the recording
industry at EMI as well as his many
close associates in the world of music.
More serious was the decline in the
volume of recording. This particularly
affected the two orchestras that had
been created in the aftermath of the
war in 1945/6, the Philharmonia and
the RPO, which depended to a considerable
extent on their recording work.
There
was a body of opinion that felt there
were too many orchestras in London and
not a large enough audience to sustain
four orchestras. It was said that two
was ample and that, perhaps, one large
orchestra assembled from the best players
from the current four orchestras might
enable Britain to have an orchestra
to match those in Berlin, Amsterdam,
New York and Chicago. On the other hand,
there were others who believed that
the current number should not be changed.
In December
1964 the Arts Council and the London
County Council, which in 1965
became the Greater London Council (GLC),
appointed the Committee on the London
Orchestras under the Chairmanship of
Arnold
Goodman, who shortly after the Report
was issued in 1965 became Lord Goodman.
The Committee’s terms of reference were:
to examine the organisation of the four
orchestras; decide whether their number
should be maintained, increased, reduced
or regrouped and what steps should be
taken to improve the stability and working
conditions of the musicians. The Committee
was told that it should consider the
desirability of a co-ordinated orchestral
concert policy, so as to ensure that
programmes and performances were of
the highest standard.
In 1965
the then Labour government held the
view that the Performing Arts – music,
opera, ballet and theatre – which had
been the preserve of the upper and middle
classes, should also be available to
what was still referred to as the Working
Class. It was also determined, if possible,
to maintain employment wherever it could.
I was elected by the Executive Committee
of the Musicians’ Union to represent
the Union, alongside the General Secretary
Hardie Ratcliffe. The other interests
represented were the Arts Council, the
London County Council and the Orchestral
Employers’ Association, now the Association
of British Orchestras (ABO).
The
Report, usually referred to as the Goodman
Report, was accepted by Lord Cottesloe
with the commendation to Miss Jennie
Lee, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary
of State at the Department of Education
and Science, expressing the hope that
the necessary financial resources to
implement the Report would be made available.
It is not too much to say that Jennie
Lee and Lord Goodman, both Labour supporters
(today they would certainly be considered
on the left of the Party though at that
time they were much more mainstream)
were responsible for the four orchestras
remaining, and continuing to do so until
the present time.
I had
already been involved in negotiations
with quite a few employers in several
areas of musical employment, but this
was my first experience of taking part
in preparing a report that was likely
to have a profound affect on the future
of my colleagues alongside people representing
such conflicting interests. Only Arnold
Goodman’s legendary skills as a diplomat
enabled us to complete our task.
There
were some members of the Committee who
wanted to reduce the number of orchestras
in London, opposed by those of us representing
the welfare of the musicians currently
working in the four orchestras. Other
members of the Committee were concerned
that in looking after the London orchestras
it might be at the expense of the Regional
orchestras. The most important group,
those with the responsibility for providing
the funding for all the orchestras,
was ever watchful that no decisions
were arrived at that would be too costly.
There
was unanimous agreement on the Committee
and among those from whom they took
evidence that if first class playing
standards were to be maintained a musician
should not be required to work more
than 10 sessions a week or 35/36 in
any four-week period. That would mean
approximately 27/30 hours a week, still
more hours than nearly all orchestras
around the world, especially for the
woodwind and brass principals. Most
orchestras in Europe and America, even
those in the smaller cities, had four
of each woodwind instrument with co-principals
in the woodwind and brass who would
share the work between themselves, so
that each of them usually did no more
than about18/20 hours a week as part
of their contract.
The
Committee then considered the amount
of work there was likely to be for the
orchestras. It came to the conclusion
that with the agreed work schedule there
was enough for more than three but less
than four. The fact that we were shown
the plans for building the Barbican
Centre with a large new concert hall
(it was some years before this was finally
built) played a part in the final decision
that the four orchestras should continue
as before. Now, 40 years later, we still
have four orchestras.
The
Committee made a number of other recommendations:
some were implemented, others were not.
The London Orchestral Concert Board
was created and was given the task of
overseeing the administration of the
orchestras, the distribution of subsidies,
organising the concert dates at the
Royal Festival Hall, and the co-ordination
of programme planning. This last had
been a big problem for some time; popular
works such as the Tchaikovsky Piano
Concerto no.1, or Beethoven’s 5th
Symphony might feature in several programmes
within a matter of weeks.
A major
recommendation was that a standard contract
be established that would guarantee
a basic salary, and include provision
for holiday and sick pay and some sort
of pension scheme. This has not come
to pass for a number of reasons. First
and foremost there has never been the
possibility of sufficient funds being
made available, by either Local or National
Government, to pay for the administration
of the orchestras and the salaries of
the musicians, if they were only to
work the recommended number of hours
and have a paid holiday.
The
members of the orchestras were not keen
on the idea of a contract unless their
salaries were to match what they could
earn from their current orchestral employment
plus what they could earn from their
free-lance work. It was clear from the
start that this would never happen.
But there were two other reasons why
the players were not enthusiastic: they
did not trust those who would be in
charge of the ‘money bags’ and they
feared that a full-time contract would
incur a change in their taxation status.
They
knew how managed orchestras in London
had collapsed in the past and how each
time it had required the musicians to
take responsibility for the survival
of their orchestra. This had made them
suspicious of putting their future in
anyone else’s hands again. They were
also concerned that as full-time employees
they would have to give up the advantages
of being on Schedule D. When registered
on Schedule D their home was considered
their ‘work base’, so that they could
(and still can) claim expenses for all
travelling, by car or public transport,
repairs to their instrument, dress clothes
for concert wear and so on; even the
cost of a room in which to practise
and give lessons. I enjoyed these benefits
throughout my performing career until
I became Director of the National Centre
for Orchestral Studies and was paid
a regular salary. Fortunately my salary
was sufficient for the loss of my Schedule
D benefits to no longer be of concern.
However, like most musicians, who Lord
Goodman noted, ‘are as conversant with
Schedule D as with D major’, I continued
to remain on ‘D’ for my private teaching,
examining and other odds and ends.
Throughout
the time I have been involved with what
we used to refer to as the ‘music profession’
that then became the ‘music business’,
and is now the ‘music industry’. (Oh!
Dear!) London has had a much envied
music scene: four orchestras, employing
the finest conductors and soloists from
all over the world, providing at least
one symphony concert every evening throughout
the year, and two full-time opera houses.
The amount of financial support received
from Local and National Government to
pay for the salaries of the musicians
in all the orchestras in London has
been about a quarter of what has been
given practically anywhere else in Europe.
In the USA the orchestras in Cleveland,
New York, Chicago and other cities with
major orchestras have had the benefit
of an income derived from the interest
from the donations they had received
in the past from those wishing to gain
entry into ‘society’, in addition to
a continuing tradition of private patronage
to the arts.
How
has London achieved this? With financial
assistance from the Arts Council and
the hard work of the musicians in the
symphony orchestras themselves. Without
the input from the Arts Council it is
unlikely it would have been possible.
However, from the start in 1946 the
funding they have provided has been
inadequate, at times better than at
others, but never sufficient to support
a year round concert season bringing
in the finest and most expensive conductors
and soloists. These star artists were
essential if audiences were to be attracted
in sufficient numbers though they soaked
up virtually the whole subsidy, leaving
nothing over to pay the for the cost
of the orchestras and their administration.
For 60 years it has been a bumpy ride
with everyone just managing to stay
onboard.
But,
in the end, it has only really been
possible because the musicians themselves
have continued to subsidise the concerts
in London by doing recordings and film
sessions, overseas tours, and working
nearly twice as many hours and earning
much less than their colleagues in Europe
and America. The recommendation of the
Goodman Committee in 1964 that the orchestras
should work 27/30 hours a week still
remains unfulfilled. However, musicians
in Britain continue to enable Londoners
and the many music lovers who visit
London from all over the world to enjoy
an envied musical experience that has
continued to flourish for over half
a century.
Chapter
13
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