English Baroque Orchestra

[Bryn]

Scherchen's 1954 Westminster recording of the 4 Bach Suites (Overtures) for Orchestra is attributed to the "English Baroque Orchestra". The Internet appears to have little useful information about this ensemble. Can anyone here help? Who were they? They were certainly not an early HIPP ensemble.

[bluestateprommer]

Scherchen's 1954 Westminster recording of the 4 Bach Suites (Overtures) for Orchestra is attributed to the "English Baroque Orchestra". The Internet appears to have little useful information about this ensemble. Can anyone here help? Who were they? They were certainly not an early HIPP ensemble.

I honestly can't help, as I didn't have any better luck finding information than you did on-line. I can certainly hazard a wild guess, which you've probably already guessed also. Namely, the speculation is that the "English Baroque Orchestra" was a pick-up ensemble, assembled for the recording, of freelancers, where Westminster felt obliged to put some sort of ensemble name on the records. In more recent times, Peter Schickele called his orchestra for some of his recordings "The New York Pick-Up Ensemble". Likewise, at Carnegie Hall, in Zankel Hall, the basement space around the corner from the main hall, when Carnegie puts together a concert of something avant-garde or contemporary, with freelancers assembled for the occasion, Carnegie uses the name "The Zankel Band" to refer to that occasional ensemble, which, of course, has no independent existence on its own. You'll remember the "Columbia Symphony Orchestra" as the name used for many a Bruno Walter recording from back in the day. The Columbia Symphony Orchestra likewise had no independent existence outside of recording studios. On Westminster, for recordings with the "Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of London", my understanding was that this was another name for the RPO.

Sorry that this is a whole lot of words to say not very much. No doubt any paper records from Westminster got disposed eons ago, and no paper trail exists anywhere, most probably. (Interestingly, your question may answer the unasked question of why JEG named his ensemble the English Baroque Soloists, perhaps.)

[cloughie]

Scherchen's 1954 Westminster recording of the 4 Bach Suites (Overtures) for Orchestra is attributed to the "English Baroque Orchestra". The Internet appears to have little useful information about this ensemble. Can anyone here help? Who were they? They were certainly not an early HIPP ensemble.

I haven't a clue really but this predates ASMF and ECO, so not them. However two baroqueioneers at the time were Boyd Neel who recorded with his self named Orchestra but moved to. Canada in 1953 so his London based players may have been around. The other was the Philomusica of London often associated with the harpsicord player, Thurston Dart - I think maybe one of the first to record for the L'Oiseau-Lyre label.

Slightly off topic but related, were the London Strtings that Neville Marriner recorded with for CBS back in the late 60s or maybe early 70s, ASMF renamed for contracual reasons?