History of the Orchestra

BBC Symphony Orchestra premieres in the 1970s

NONO Il canto sospeso (UK premiere)
Michael Gielen conductor
Royal Festival Hall, 18 March 1970
Following the bizarre premiere by the BBCSO of Nono's opera Intolleranza, in Venice, which provoked attacks on the orchestra pit, this great cantata was premiered in 1970.

GYÖRGY LIGETI Requiem (UK public premiere)
Michael Gielen conductor
Royal Festival Hall, 10 November 1971
Used in the score to 2001: A Space Odyssey, this is the best-known of several Ligeti works the BBC has premiered.

ELLIOTT CARTER Concerto for Orchestra (UK premiere)
Pierre Boulez conductor
Royal Festival Hall, 10 August 1972
This was a work of staggering complexity among the many premieres that Boulez gave during his outstanding period with the BBCSO. More recently Oliver Knussen gave the first complete performances of Symphonia (including Adagio tenebroso, a BBCSO commission for the 1995 Proms).

KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN Carre (UK premiere)
Amy/Tabachnik/Dufallo/Vis conductors
Royal Albert Hall (Prom), 7 September 1972 (twice)
Four orchestral groups encircled in the Albert Hall arena, with the Promenaders milling between them. There were also improvisational works premiered in Maida Vale; the first of the annual Barbican concert series in 1985 featured Stockhausen.

ROBIN HOLLOWAY Domination of Black (BBC commission)
Charles Groves conductor
Royal Albert Hall (Prom), 8 August 1974
Oliver Knussen repeated this massive work in his British music Barbican weekend in April 1995, and Holloway wrote an hour-long Symphony for the BBC SO in the 2000 Proms.

PIERRE BOULEZ Rituel in memoria Bruno Maderna (BBC commission)
Pierre Boulez conductor
Royal Festival Hall, 2 April 1975
Among the many works by Pierre Boulez the BBCSO has introduced to this country during a unique creative collaboration across four decades, including e.e cummings, explosante/fixe, Eclat, this BBC commission has firmly entered the repertory.

MESSIAEN Des canyons aux étoiles (UK premiere)
Pierre Boulez conductor
Royal Festival Hall, 12 November 1975
This memorable premiere, at which Messiaen was given the Royal Philharmonic Society medal, was one of many first performances in this country of Messiaen's music by the BBCSO.

LUTOSŁAWSKI Les espaces du sommeil (UK premiere)
Witold Lutosławski conductor
Royal Albert Hall (Prom), 30 July 1979
The BBC SO had a very close relationship with Witold Lutosławski, who conducted many of his own works with them. One work, Chantefleurs et Chantefables, was given its world premiere by the Orchestra in the 1991 Proms.

ARVO PÄRT Cantus to the memory of Benjamin Britten (UK premiere)
Gennadi Rozhdestvensky conductor
Royal Albert Hall (Prom), 31 August 1979
A beautiful work which has become a staple feature of the repertory, performed under the BBC SO's charismatic chief conductor from 1978.

OLIVER KNUSSEN Symphony No 3 (BBC commission)
Michael Tilson Thomas conductor
Royal Albert Hall (Prom), 6 June 1979
Only just; the ink was barely dry, But this symphony has gone on to be widely toured and performed around the world under many conductors, as one of the finest Proms commissions.