Orchestras: Embarrassment of Riches

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London has long boasted a cultural asset unique in the world: it sustains five symphony orchestras, and the least of them is jolly good. Nonetheless, the Royal Philharmonic has been sounding its death rattle for nearly a year. And now the Philharmonia, regarded by many as Britain's finest, has announced plans for a quiet suicide in September. The casualties, which were variously blamed on Beatlemania and the muddy sidewalks around Royal Festival Hall, at least produced one healthy change. For the first time ever, in somber conference with officials of Britain's Arts Council last week, each of the orchestras acknowledged the others' existence and the problems common to all.

With a miracle of muddling, all five may yet survive the year. The London Symphony, the London Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony are sound, if occasionally lackluster; and all five can depend on a corps of musicians willing to play for incomes that average only $4,500 a year. All have plenty of work: by the end of the concert season next month, Festival Hall will have held 190 orchestral concerts in nine months, leading the orchestras to wonder if they aren't suffering from a surfeit of their own music making.

But the real lesson was that both ailing orchestras are one-man bands. The Philharmonia is totally the creature of Impresario Walter Legge, just as the Royal Philharmonic was created by the late Sir Thomas Beecham "to maintain my reputation." Deprived of Sir Thomas' leadership, the Royal Philharmonic skidded so severely that many of its key players have jumped ship, and critics agree that it has long since jettisoned its artistic claim to the coveted Royal of its title.