English chamber orchestra

English Chamber Orchestra is a chamber orchestra based in London .

It was founded in 1948 by Lawrence Leonard and Arnold Goldsbrough and was originally called the Goldsbrough Orchestra, performing baroque music . In 1960 , the orchestra expanded its repertoire towards modernity and at the same time adopted its current name. For a long time, the orchestra did not have a permanent conductor, working under the direction of invited maestros, including Colin Davis and Daniel Barenboim . In 1985 , the first chief conductor of the orchestra was Jeffrey Tate , in 2000 he was replaced by Ralph Gotoni , in 2009 - Paul Watkins .

Among the most striking events in the history of the orchestra is its close collaboration with Benjamin Britten : the orchestra performed a lot at the Oldborough Festival, performed the first performances of Britten’s opera “A Midsummer Night's Dream” and several of his other works, Britten repeatedly conducted the orchestra. The sympathies of the critics and listeners were aroused by the orchestra performed with Murray Peraia , who soloed and directed the orchestra from the piano, recording all Mozart's piano concerts. A similar cycle is also known, recorded by Mitsuko Utida with an orchestra conducted by Jeffrey Tate (concerts No. 5, 6, 8, 9, 11-27).

In 2005 , the English Chamber Orchestra, together with the South African folk group Ladysmith Black Mambazo, recorded the album “No Boundaries” (“Without Borders”), in which the works of Bach and Mozart in peculiar arrangements coexisted with their own compositions by group leader .