John G. Deacon ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>Mimi asked about the "New Philharmonia Orchestra?" They were certainly
>not "a pick-up group" but the "old" and great Philharmonia which was closed
>down by Walter Legge in 1964 and promptly reformed itself as the NPO as
>an independent body under chairman Gareth Morris (1st flute) and with
>Klemperer as chief conductor.  I recall that the story is well told in
>Peter Heyworth's marvellous biography of Klemperer.

I know a chap who was in the 1950s Philharmonia and his take on all this
(although he'd left by the time of the name change) was that it all started
to go wrong during a tour of the US under Herbie the K.

Relations between him and the orchestra reached an all-time low during a
rehearsal when violinist Peter Gibbs, an ex-RAF Spitfire pilot, ("We used
to call him 'slipstream'" Bob told me) got to his feet and declared "I
spent five years of my life shooting people like you out of the sky and
I don't see why I should put up with this sort of thing here!  Do you
understand?"

(This is the version told in John Boyden's amusing book of anecdotes "Stick
to the Music" and is slightly different from my friend's version, but the
essence is the same).

Apparently HvK demanded an apology from the entire orchestra, which was not
forthcoming.  He then declared that in future he would only record with the
BPO.  This caused problems for the PO which Legge had originally formed
mainly as a recording orchestra.

Deryk Barker
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