Christine Labroche:

>Could anyone tell me anything at all about the Sinfonia of London?  It
>seems to have disappeared without trace at some point in the 1960s

I remember in particular two LPs: Colin Davis's Mozart Symphony #34 and
Oboe Concerto with Leon Goossens - IIRC, Davis's debut recording - and
Bernard Herrmann's music for Vertigo, conducted by Muir Matheson, whose
name probably appears on more film credits than any other conductor.  In
recent years, an orchestra called the City of London Sinfonia has turned
up on any number of CDs, and I'd assumed it was a renaming of the London
Sinfonia.  Not so.

http://www.musiciansgallery.com/start/orchestras/sinfonia_of_london.htm

says, in part:

   "When the Sinfonia of London was formed in 1955, its directors
   felt there was an urgent need for a front-rank symphony
   orchestra which could devote itself, initially at least, to
   recording projects.  The personnel was chosen from the most
   famous ensembles of the day.  It provided then an orchestra
   of outstanding virtuosity and efficiency and its success was
   immediate.  The Sinfonia of London credit is now to be seen
   on over 300 films and a multitude of recordings."

There is also a link to its website.

The City of London Sinfonia was founded by Richard Hickox in 1971:

   http://www.cityoflondonsinfonia.co.uk/

Australian CM radio presenters pronounce "sinfonia" as either sin-fo-NEE-ah
or sin-FOH-nee-ah.  This becomes ridiculous when you hear "sinfonia
concertante" with an anglicised sinfonia and an Italian concertante.  An
addition to the presenting team who sounds as if she's fled the BBC and
the London winter weather for a gig in sunny Australia has yet to be
heard saying this word.  So Tony, Christopher and Co, what's the official
word on the names of these orchestras?

Richard Pennycuick