BBC Singers - History of The BBC Singers

History of The BBC Singers

A BBC choir was formed in 1924 for a performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah, under the name of the Wireless Chorus. From this group emerged a professional consort, the Wireless Singers. This chamber-sized group would later become the BBC Singers in their current form. Guest conductors during these early years included Sir Edward Elgar, Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg and a young Sir John Barbirolli.

In 1931 the Wireless Singers were invited to perform at the Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music, the first time this event had been held in Britain. Following the success of the event, they went on to establish themselves as the leading proponents of contemporary music in the UK, a reputation upheld by the BBC Singers today.

The tenor Peter Pears was a member of the Singers when, in 1934, Benjamin Britten composed the cantata A boy was born for the group. After meeting during rehearsals for the cantata, the pair became lifelong partners, with Pears serving as the muse for many of Britten’s compositions.

During the heavy bombing of the Second World War, the Wireless Singers were forced to relocate several times from their base in Maida Vale, briefly taking up residence in Bristol, Bangor and Bedford. Despite the chaos of these years, in 1945 they were able to give the premiere of Francis Poulenc’s wartime cantata La figure humaine from the Concert Hall of Broadcasting House.

From the late 1940s the Wireless Singers began to tour across Europe, appearing under the baton of such musical giants as Herbert von Karajan, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Bruno Walter. In England they worked with George Enescu, Sir Thomas Beecham, Otto Klemperer and Igor Stravinsky. From 1946 they became a staple feature of the new radio arts network, the Third Programme.

The middle years of the twentieth century provided an enormously rich list of new pieces for the Singers, including premieres of major works by Darius Milhaud, Frank Martin, Paul Hindemith, Gerald Finzi, Sir Michael Tippett, Pierre Boulez, Sir Arthur Bliss and Karol Szymanowski. In 1964 composer and conductor Pierre Boulez began an association with the BBC Singers that continues to the present day.

From 1945 to 1962 the group was divided into two octets known as Singers A and Singers B, one specialising in less standard repertoire including Renaissance polyphony and madrigals, the other in light music and revue numbers. Singers A were typically paid £1 per week more than Singers B.

From 1962 these two groups were amalgamated to form a 28-voice group named the BBC Chorus. Finally, in 1989 the 24-voiced BBC Singers was established, under the direction of Simon Joly. The BBC Singers remains the only full-time professional choir in the country and are the only group whose regular repertory spans the history of music, from the earliest chant to the latest vocal techniques.

The appointment of Bo Holten as Guest Conductor in 1991 marked a radical alteration in the group’s approach to Early Music, indicative of the changing musical scene of the day. The BBC Singers now work alongside specialists in the field including Peter Phillips (Tallis Scholars) and Robert Hollingworth (I Fagiolini) giving several broadcasts a year. In addition, the BBC Singers continue to perform large-scale orchestral works with international conductors.