Topic: Your favorite orchestra names

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Groups specializing in contemporary music have very cool names:

Ensemble InterContemporain
Ensemble Modern
Klangforum Wien
Alarm Will Sound
California EAR Unit
Ensemble Dal Niente

Oregon Symphony (no "Orchestra")

Oregon Symphony sounds like a piece of music, a program symphony dedicated to the wonders of that state (Mvt. 1 "Dance of the Portland Hipsters," Mvt. 2 "A Drive along the Pacific Coast," Mvt. 3 "Todd's Beethoven Collection")

[king ubu]

I Musici - plain and simple ... some other good ones: Modo Antiquo, Il pomo d'oro, Accademia Bizantina (fitting for a band based in Ravenna), and then there's Café Zimmermann, too.

[Brian]

Oregon Symphony sounds like a piece of music, a program symphony dedicated to the wonders of that state (Mvt. 1 "Dance of the Portland Hipsters," Mvt. 2 "A Drive along the Pacific Coast," Mvt. 3 "Todd's Beethoven Collection")

[Christo]

Academy of St. Martin in the Fields - the fields doing it
Hallé Orchestra
Bamberger Symphoniker
Concerts Lamoureux
Stabile Orchestrale Fiorentina
Ural Philharmonic Orchestra

[André]

I was referring to the orchestra, which was dissolved in 1967, although in some sense the Orchestre de Paris is it's successor.

Amazing that the French Government would dissolve an orchestra that had existed since 1828.

Yes and no. The OSCC was renamed Orchestre de Paris and pursues an independent life, unrelated to its parent body, the Paris Conservatoire. The latter still fields an orchestra, but it is one among many teaching instruments. Conservatoire students can play in it, hear performances, but it doesn’t give concerts. It draws its players from a pool of some 350 Conservatoire students, constantly renewed and deployed in various configurations (chamber, full orchestra, etc). IOW there is a Conservatoire orchestra but nobody can hear it  .


http://www.conservatoiredeparis.fr/etudes/orchestres-et-compagnies/orchestre-du-conservatoire/

[vandermolen]

Academy of Saint Martin-in-the-Field sounds so delightfully pastoral.

French orchestra names sound so sophisticated to an English speaker. To a French speaker I am sure they are oh so mundane.

Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Francaise,
Orchestre Philharmonique des Pays de Loire
Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse
Orchestre du Theatres des Champs-Elysees
La Chapelle Royale
Ensemble Musique Oblique

(forgive me for any transcription errors).

I agree with you.

Orchestre National du Capitol de Toulouse (great Magnard cycle with Plasson)

[Sergeant Rock]

My local band, rivaling some of the French orchestras in unwieldy name:  Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz. I also like the Orchestra of the Swan, an English orchestra based in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Sarge

[vandermolen]

Another vote for the Ural Philharmonic (great Miaskovsky Symphony 6) from me.

I think I prefer 'Philharmonic' to 'Symphony'.

As for British orchestras I like the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

+

Leningrad Philharmonic (although obviously not a British orchestra  )

[Brian]

Oh, and of course how could we forget the Philharmonia.

[vandermolen]

Oh, and of course how could we forget the Philharmonia.

And the New Philharmonia!

[Jo498]

L'Europa Galante

I also like some of the elaborate names mentioned already. Another
Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum Leipzig

Orquesta Gulbenkian

Or the RIAS-Sinfonieorchester. RIAS meant "Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor", radio broadcast in the American sector

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Or the RIAS-Sinfonieorchester. RIAS meant "Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor", radio broadcast in the American sector

Now called the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, which has always confused me, because isn't every orchestra in Berlin a German orchestra?

[North Star]

Les Arts Florissants

[mc ukrneal]

Now called the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, which has always confused me, because isn't every orchestra in Berlin a German orchestra?

Not necessarily a question for you, but then why (for example) hasn't the RIAS Kammerchor chnaged its name?  It would seem the name is a relic of history. This is especially true considering how many groups in Europe have changed their names (sometimes multiple times).

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Not necessarily a question for you, but then why (for example) hasn't the RIAS Kammerchor chnaged its name?  It would seem the name is a relic of history. This is especially true considering how many groups in Europe have changed their names (sometimes multiple times).

Sometimes the initials become the name, independent of the initial meaning. AT&T doesn't sell many Telegraphs these days...

[JBS]

Academy of St. Martin in the Fields - the fields doing it

Ironically, it hasn't been in the fields for centuries. It actually sits on Trafalgar Square (although the church long predates the Square), and officially counts among its parishioners the Royal Family and whoever lives in 10 Downing Street.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Martin-in-the-Fields

[mc ukrneal]

Sometimes the initials become the name, independent of the initial meaning. AT&T doesn't sell many Telegraphs these days...

That's true. I guess it looks different from the inside.

[Christo]

Ironically, it hasn't been in the fields for centuries. It actually sits on Trafalgar Square (although the church long predates the Square), and officially counts among its parishioners the Royal Family and whoever lives in 10 Downing Street.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Martin-in-the-Fields

Many thanks; didn't know about the royal parishioners (hope they participate  ), but find the Café in the Crypt a fine place to recover a bit from city walks and also attended a concert here, a couple of years ago. (Mozart, but still). 

[Jo498]

Not necessarily a question for you, but then why (for example) hasn't the RIAS Kammerchor chnaged its name?  It would seem the name is a relic of history. This is especially true considering how many groups in Europe have changed their names (sometimes multiple times).

The orchestra changed its name once in the 50ties to Rundfunk-Symphonie-Orchester, after it became associated with the SFB (Sender Freies Berlin). Then in the 1990s the name was changed again because there was another Rundfunkorchester from the Eastern part of the city. I agree with the other reply that "Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester" does sound odd but there is also a "Deutsche Oper" in Berlin, so the idea is probably that it is something like the Capital City National Orchestra.
I guess the choir kept its name because it had become famous under that name.

[ritter]

There was the (Paris based?) 0rchestre des Cento Soli, which made some recordings under distinguished conductors (e.g. Hermann Scherchen) in the 1950s. To me at least, the name had connotations of a not too cohesive ensemble (one hundred soloists each going their own way  )....

Then, there’s the Orquesta Estable del Teatro Colón. The “estable” in the name reflects that it’s a permanent ensemble for the Buenos Aires opera house (the term was also used in various Italian groups), but it always made me wonder whether there’s an ‘unstable” orchestra as well.

And I’ve always liked the names Wiener Philharmoniker and Berliner Philharmoniker. Strictly translated, they mean “Viennese / Berlinese philharmonics”, i.e. they refer to the members of the orchestras, rather than to the ensembles as a group. The same applies to the “Symphoniker”.