Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra

The Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra is a classical orchestra active from 1946 to the present. It is based in London, United Kingdom, and is identified with orchestral and classical repertoire.

History and name

The orchestra is founded in 1951 by Samuil Samosud as the Moscow Youth Orchestra for young and inexperienced musicians, and it takes its current name in 1953. It becomes one of the major Soviet orchestras under conductors including Kiril Kondrashin, Dmitri Kitaenko, Vassily Sinaisky, Mark Ermler and Yuri Simonov.

Performances and recordings

Under Kiril Kondrashin, the orchestra premieres Shostakovich's Fourth and Thirteenth symphonies, along with other works. It undertakes a major tour of Japan with Kondrashin in April 1967, and recordings of the Japanese radio performances are issued on the Altus label.

The orchestra also performs in Britain, France, Germany, Slovenia, Croatia, Poland, Lithuania, Spain, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea. Yuri Simonov serves as principal conductor from 1998.

Discography

Its recordings include A to Z of Conductors on Naxos Educational, Myaskovsky's Symphonies Nos. 24 and 25 on Naxos, Pavlova's Monolog, The Old New York Nostalgia and Sulamith (Suite) on Naxos, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7, Leningrad, on BIS, Tishchenko's Symphony No. 7, Op. 119, on Naxos, and Xenakis's Dox-Orkh with Fornes's Desde Tan Tien on BIS.