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One of the world's great orchestras is celebrating an important birthday - and we think they're absolutely wonderful.
After World War II, legendary classical music record producer Walter Legge was looking for a first-class orchestra for opera, concerts and recordings, and formed the Philharmonia. Here's the earliest known photo of the orchestra
Over 70 years the orchestra has worked with the greatest conductors, composers and musicians. Here's Igor Stravinsky on the podium. No pressure.
Here's a picture from the orchestra's 10th anniversary celebrations in 1955. Make ours a big slice, thanks.
Otto Klemperer, Riccardo Muti, Giuseppe Sinopoli and Christoph von Dohnányi have all been at the helm of this great orchestra - Finnish maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen is their current Principal Conductor
Every year the Philharmonia performs at more than 160 concerts, numerous outreach events, and records music for films, computer games and commercial CDs. Phew.
Concert programmes have always been innovative, recordings have always been championed – and now the Philharmonia has added video game music to its repertoire, as well as a digital ‘virtual Philharmonia Orchestra’ and iOrchestra.
Since 1995 the orchestra have been based in London's cultural hub at Southbank Centre, filling the Royal Festival Hall with splendid sounds.
They're regulars at Classic FM Live - and they sound fantastic thundering out the greatest music ever written in the Royal Albert Hall
We're delighted that The Philharmonia has been one of our partner orchestras since 2003 - with a title that reflects their invaluable role in taking classical music to venues around the country