Richard Pennycuick wrote:

>Yesterday a friend played me some of an Eloquence CD containing
>Debussy's La Mer, Nocturnes and Images in performances recorded in the
>50s by Eduard van Beinum, and very impressive they were.  The orchestra
>is credited as the Royal Concertgebouw.  I'm not sure when the
>Concertgebouw became known as the Royal Concertgebouw but it certainly
>wasn't known by that name in the 50s.  ...

I've been curious about this for a time now, so I decided to do some
digging.  I managed to find the web pages for the Concertgebouw and the
Orchestra, however the English links to the history page for the orchestra
seem to be broken, though I managed to find it anyway.  Since it's not
readily reachable on the web, here are some pertinent (as well as just
interesting) paragraphs from their site.  It's interesting to note that in
their 112-year history, the orchestra has had only five music directors.

   Formation

   After years of planning, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam celebrated
   its festive opening on 11 April 1888.  The city could finally boast
   a full-fledged music "temple" which quickly proved to be one of the
   most beautiful concert halls in the world.  Six months later, the
   Concertgebouw Orchestra, founded specifically for this concert hall,
   gave its first concert on 3 November 1888.  Under the leadership of
   conductors Willem Kes and Willem Mengelberg, the orchestra grew within
   a few decades into one of the leading ensembles in Europe.

   As early as 1897, Richard Strauss described the orchestra as "really
   magnificent, full of youthful enthusiasm", and from the beginning of
   the twentieth century, dozens of composers and conductors flocked to
   Amsterdam to work with this famous orchestra.  At its centennial
   celebration in 1988, the orchestra received the predicate "Royal".
   The orchestra is considered worldwide to be one of the prominent
   symphony orchestras with its own unique character.

   The Chief Conductors

   Following a series of illustrious predecessors - Willem Kes (1888-1895),
   Willem Mengelberg (1888-1945), Eduard van Beinum (1945-1959) and
   Bernard Haitink (1963-1988) - Riccardo Chailly accepted the position
   of chief conductor.  Under his leadership, the orchestra has enjoyed
   a very successful national and international career.  Moreover, the
   orchestra's repertoire is continually expanding and growing.  In
   November 1998Riccardo Chailly celebrated his tenth anniversary with
   the orchestra by conducting a performance of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony.
   In January 1999 Bernard Haitink, was named honorary conductor of the
   Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra as a tribute to his outstanding
   contribution to the orchestra during his 25 years as chief conductor.

   The Musicians

   The 115 first-rate musicians currently comprising the Royal
   Concertgebouw Orchestra are not only exceptional virtuosi on their
   individual instruments.  Collectively, they also nurture that particular
   playing style which has given the orchestra its unique sound and
   flexibility.  With her "velvety" strings, the "golden" tones of the
   brass, and what is often described as the "typically Dutch" timbre
   of the woodwinds, the orchestra has procured a place among the top
   world-renown orchestras.  The nearly one thousand recordings that
   the orchestra has to her name have also contributed to her fame.

   Collaboration with Composers

   During the fifty years that Willem Mengelberg reigned supreme,
   relationships were forged with a wide diversity of composers, such
   as Richard Strauss, Mahler, Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg,
   Hindemith, Schreker and Milhaud, all of whom directed the Concertgebouw
   Orchestra on more than one occasion.  Others, among them, Bartok,
   Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, performed as soloists in their own
   compositions.  This contact with contemporary composers, so essential
   to an orchestra, carried on after the Second World War with composers
   such as Peter Schat, Luciano Berio, Luigi Nono, and Bruno Maderna,
   who also conducted.  For the 2000-2001 season, the orchestra has
   already commissioned works by such diverse composers as Wolfgang
   Rihm, Peter Schat and Giya Kancheli.

   Mahler and Bruckner

   The orchestra has especially earned acclaim with her interpretations
   of Late Romantic repertoire, such as Mahler, Bruckner and R. Strauss.
   The Mahler tradition, rooted in the many performances conducted here
   by Mahler himself, reached its first highlight during the Mahler
   Festival in 1920.  Although Mahler's works have always constituted
   a large portion of the Concertgebouw Orchestra's repertoire, it was
   Bernard Haitink who gave the tradition a new impetus with his complete
   recordings of all the Mahler symphonies and by programming Mahler in
   the series of Christmas matinees.  Riccardo Chailly has continued in
   this vein with new interpretations.

   The majority of these interpretations of Mahler's symphonies has
   since been recorded on CD. The Mahler Festival in May 1995, which
   featured the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic orchestras
   as well as the RCO, caused quite an international sensation.  The
   performance of Mahler's Eighth Symphony, under the direction of
   Riccardo Chailly, was considered one of the highlights of the festival.
   Anton Bruckner is another composer whose work has become an integral
   part of the orchestra's repertoire.  Eduard Beinum, in particular,
   introduced not only the symphonies of Bruckner but also the music of
   French composers to the orchestra after the Second World War.  The
   performances and various CD recordings of the RCO under the leadership
   of Riccardo Chailly have contributed significantly in recent years
   to the renewal of Bruckner interpretations.

Dave
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