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The Radio 3 Boards > The Community Area > Classical Music Q & A > What is the difference between a Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestra?
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Author Topic: What is the difference between a Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestra?  (Read 448 times)
adastra
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« on: 04:35:03, 31-01-2008 »
I am still unsure about what the difference is between a 'Symphony' Orchestra, and a 'Philharmonic' orchestra.
It appears that a 'Chamber' orchestra is denoted by size (about 40 players or less). However, there does not seem to be any distinction for any other category.
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #1 on: 09:20:50, 31-01-2008 »
The difference arises only in the name: they're both symphony orchestras. In places where there's more than one symphony orchestra, there has to be some sort of demarcation of names; look at London for example, where as well as two Symphony orchestras (BBCSO,LSO) there are two Philharmonics (LPO,RPO) and a Philharmonia, as well as symphonic-sized orchestras belonging to The Royal and English National Operas respectively. 'Philharmonia' just means 'loving music', and many of the early symphony orchestras were part and parcel of 'Philharmonic Societies'. Vienna has an SO as well as a PO, and the BBC has a PO (Manchester/Salford) as well as the London-based SO.

There are several British symphony orchestras which don't have the words Symphony or Philharmonic in their titles: the Hallé, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Ulster Orchestra being prominent examples.


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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #2 on: 09:32:33, 31-01-2008 »
Maybe the difference is in their set-up and founding?

Most of the "Philharmonias" and "Philharmonics" owe their existence to some founding body - often a Music Society or some other group of music-lovers. 

A "Symphony Orchestra" simply "does what it says on the tin" Smiley
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martle
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« Reply #3 on: 10:02:50, 31-01-2008 »
Pretty sure Ron and Reiner are right here. The Philharmonic 'Societies', many of which date back to the 19thC at least and were/are funded mainly (or in the case of some - the Brighton Phil for instance - exclusively) by subscription, were municipal institutions intended to cover a range of musical activities. So where that involved convening a symphony orchestra, the name was usually adopted.
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #4 on: 10:31:19, 31-01-2008 »
I'm sure you're right, Martle.  Here in Moscow we have the "Moscow Philharmonia" - which isn't an orchestra (and doesn't have one), but a concert-giving organisation which - to this day - is primarily a "Subscription Concerts" outfit.  They run the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, for example,  but also promote concerts in a wide range of other venues too.  The model is quite a useful one - the subscriptions give them a pool of cash to set up the concerts and cross-subsidise the popular with the eclectic...  for example, next week they have a "Mozart pops" program on one evening, and an evening of C17th lute music on the next (which I'm involved in organising - a British lutenist is the soloist).  And in addition to their concert-giving activities, they're also the largest archive of scores, manuscripts, orchestral parts, and personal papers of composers etc in the country Smiley
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marbleflugel
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« Reply #5 on: 19:10:29, 09-03-2008 »
And of course Beecham in sarcastic mode wondered whether 'philharmonia' was a disease.
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Arnold Brown
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« Reply #6 on: 22:18:59, 19-03-2008 »
Also worth mentioning that a 'symphony orchestra' in the USA is called simply a 'symphony'. As in the 'San Francisco Symphony' (SFS), for example.
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