The Chorus

Foundation

The Philharmonia Chorus was founded in 1957 by Walter Legge as a choral counterpart to the Philharmonia Orchestra which he had founded twelve years earlier. The Chorus’s first concert, a performance on 12th November 1957 of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, completed a cycle of Beethoven symphonies in London’s Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Otto Klemperer and was recorded shortly afterwards with the same performers.

To create his chorus, Legge turned to Wilhelm Pitz, then chorus master of the Bayreuth Festival. Between first rehearsal in February 1957 and first concert there was a long period of preparation during which Pitz rehearsed the Chorus in not only the scheduled Beethoven but also in choral passages from Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. From that preparatory work emerged a chorus unique for its blend of British choral tradition and German musical training and discipline and for a dramatic quality found more typically in opera than in a symphony chorus. The full yet homogeneous and professionally disciplined sound immediately attracted critical notice.

Early years

Under Legge’s management and Pitz’s training the Chorus worked with many of the most distinguished conductors of the time: Wolfgang Sawallisch, Sir Thomas Beecham, Carlo Maria Giulini (a particularly close relationship), Herbert von Karajan, Leopold Stokowski, Sir John Barbirolli and Sir Adrian Boult. Benchmark recordings of the Maria Callas/Tullio Serafìn Lucia di Lammermoor, Sir William Walton conducting his own Belshazzar’s Feast, Klemperer’s Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem, Beethoven’s Fidelio and Mahler’s Second Symphony, and Giulini’s Verdi Requiem and Quattro Pezzi Sacri won particular acclaim. Tours followed to the Edinburgh Festival, to Lucerne, and with Giulini to Parma where the audience in the Teatro Regio paid it the remarkable compliment of showering carnations on this British chorus singing Verdi to Italians.

Self-governance

When Legge relinquished management in 1964, the re-formed New Philharmonia Chorus became a self-governing body with a Council of Management of twelve Directors elected by the members, a system of governance which remains in place today. The first concert of both New Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus took place on 27th October 1964, a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony again conducted by Klemperer. In succeeding years the Chorus performed and recorded works with further renowned conductors: Lorin Maazel, George Szell, Daniel Barenboim and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (notable recordings of Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Orff’s Carmina Burana), and further collaborations with Walton, Benjamin Britten conducting his Spring Symphony, and a landmark performance and recording of Britten’s War Requiem conducted by Giulini, with Britten himself conducting the chamber ensemble. During the 1960s the (New) Philharmonia Chorus was widely considered the finest symphony chorus in the UK and perhaps also in Europe.

On his retirement in 1971, Wilhelm Pitz was succeeded as Chorus Master by Walter Hagen-Groll from the Deutsche Oper of West Berlin, in 1975 by Norbert Balatsch, chorus master of both Vienna Staatsoper and Bayreuth Festival, in 1980 by Heinz Mende former chorus master of the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks in Munich, and then in 1984 by Horst Neumann, chorus master of the Rundfunkchor Leipzig.

Re-instatement of the original name

On 1st September 1977 the Chorus was able to take back its former name, Philharmonia Chorus, and later the same month gave two performances of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony in Belgium with the similarly reinstated Philharmonia Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas.

These years saw the Chorus tour widely throughout Europe: several staged operas in the Roman Théâtre Antique d’Orange, Haydn’s Die Schöpfung in Paris and London to celebrate the UK’s entry into the Common Market in 1973, Handel’s Judas Maccabeus with Sir Charles Mackerras at Teatro alla Scala Milan in 1980 followed a few years later by a second appearance at La Scala in Bach’s B minor Mass under Giulini. A 1979 recording of Mozart’s Requiem with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Giulini won the 1981 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance.

In the UK there were engagements with Riccardo Muti, Sir Georg Solti, Lovro von Mata?i?, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Seiji Ozawa, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Bernard Haitink, Charles Dutoit, and in 1980 its first appearance at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in a performance of Verdi’s Requiem at the Rudolf Kempe Memorial Concert. A second appearance in the same House six years later in Britten’s War Requiem conducted by Sir Simon Rattle was a Memorial Concert for Sir Peter Pears. Two years later in 1988 a particular honour was paid the Chorus: an invitation to perform in Mahler’s Eighth Symphony in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw to mark the 100th Anniversary of the Concertgebouw Orchestra and concert hall, the hall’s re-opening after renovations, and Bernard Haitink’s last concerts as chief conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra.

New horizons

In 1992 David Hill, Director of Music at Westminster Cathedral and later at Winchester Cathedral, became Chorus Master, the first Briton to hold the post. He was succeeded by Robert Dean, formerly Head of Music at Scottish Opera and Professor of Singing at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, who was appointed Artistic Director and Chorus Master in 1998. In these years the Chorus performed Rachmaninov’s Vespers in Westminster and Winchester Cathedrals and recorded it, accompanied Luciano Pavarotti “in the Park” and at Leeds Castle, remixed Beatles numbers, and performed before HM The Queen for the 50th Anniversary of VE Day.

In December 1997 the Chorus celebrated its 40th Birthday with its patron HRH The Prince of Wales in attendance at a Gala performance of Verdi’s Requiem with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by James Levine, followed three days later by a performance of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with the same conductor. During this period the Chorus performed for the first time with Valery Gergiev and Sir Mark Elder. Foreign tours took place to Strasbourg, its first visit to the US (to Baltimore), and in 2000 the Chorus was invited to perform for Pope John Paul II in the Vatican on his 80th birthday. A tour of UK and the Continent with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with Sir Simon Rattle culminated in BBC2‘s Millenium Concert broadcast from Ely Cathedral. In autumn 2002 the Chorus joined the orchestra and chorus of Norddeutscher Rundfunk and the BBC Singers in the presence of the President of Germany Johannes Rau and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for a concert of reconciliation, Britten’s War Requiem conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich, performed in the Turbine Hall of the former Nazi rocket development factory in Peenemünde, north Germany.

In 2004, following a semi-staged concert performance of Weber’s Der Freischütz at the Edinburgh Festival the previous year, Sir Charles Mackerras agreed to become the Chorus’s first President. June 2007 saw the Philharmonia Chorus celebrate its 50th Anniversary with a performance of Verdi’s Requiem with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Muti in the presence of its Patron HRH The Prince of Wales. In Autumn 2008 Edward Caswell took over as Artistic Director, and trained the Chorus for a performance of Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony in London’s Barbican Hall conducted by John Axelrod in a concert to mark the 70th Anniversary of Kristallnacht.

Recent developments

In 2010 the Chorus launched its Professional Singers Scheme, through which professional singers in the early years of their careers join the Chorus as members. The first concert employing beneficiaries of the Scheme took place in February 2010 in London’s Royal Festival Hall, a performance of Mahler’s Second Symphony with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Eliahu Inbal, a noted Mahler specialist. This was soon followed by the first broadcast performance, in the chapel of King’s College Cambridge, of James MacMillan’s recently composed Passion According to St John, performed in the presence of the composer.

2010 has also seen the Philharmonia Chorus return to its tradition of German musical training with the appointment as Chorus Master of Stefan Bevier from Berlin, a former player with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, a singer and conductor.

Chorus Masters

1957-1971 Wilhelm Pitz
1971-1975 Walter Hagen-Groll
1975-1980 Norbert Balatsch
1980-1983 Heinz Mende
1984-1992 Horst Neumann
1992-1998 David Hill
1998-2007 Robert Dean (Artistic Director)
2008-2010 Edward Caswell (Artistic Director)
2010- Stefan Bevier

Accompanists

The Chorus has had three Accompanists: first, Viola Tunnard, followed in 1962 by her duet partner Martin Penny, both collaborators with Britten at Aldeburgh. Since 1984, the Chorus has had as its Accompanist Stephen Rose, Senior Coach at the Opera department of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and of the National Opera Studio in London.