Before the formation of the National Symphony Orchestra, there was an amateur symphony orchestra, founded in 1907 under the auspices of the
Lima Philharmonic Society (Sociedad Filarmónica de Lima). The National Symphony Orchestra was founded during the administration of
Óscar R. Benavides by law of 11 August 1938. It initially consisted of sixty-four musicians, half of them native Peruvians, the other half foreigners then living in Peru or hired by contract from abroad. The orchestra gave its first concert on 11 December 1938 at the
Teatro Municipal de Lima, under the baton of
Theo Buchwald, as part of the eighth
International Conference of American States. The program featured the
National Anthem of Peru, plus works by
Beethoven,
Debussy,
Manuel de Falla,
Ravel, and
Wagner. The first director of the orchestra was the viennese conductor Theo Buchwald, who remained in that position until his death in 1960. This epoch of the orchestra's existence is considered its most brilliant period, since the orchestra had among her members many talented musicians who had come from Europe to Peru when fleeing the
Second World War, among them many
Jews Visiting conductors who led the orchestra included
Fritz Busch,
Carlos Chávez,
Aaron Copland,
Antal Doráti,
Erich Kleiber,
Igor Markevitch,
Malcolm Sargent,
Hermann Scherchen, and
Igor Stravinsky. Visiting soloists who performed with the orchestra included
Claudio Arrau,
Yehudi Menuhin,
Artur Rubinstein,
Andrés Segovia and
Nicanor Zabaleta. A period of decline began in the 1960s, due in part to the socio-economic problems of Peru and to government cultural policies. The orchestra is now passing through a period of financial crisis and managerial reorganization that has engendered much controversy, partly over the transfer of the management of the orchestra to the
National Association of Musical Performing Arts Organizations (Asociación Nacional de Elencos Musicales).[http://www.elcomercioperu.com.pe/edicionimpresa/html/2006%2D05%2D02/impopinion0498700.html In August 2006, angered that they would not be paid for a performance of
Mozart's Requiem with the
National Chorus (Peru) (Coro Nacional), the union of musicians of the orchestra refused to play, and a substitute orchestra was hurriedly assembled instead.[http://www.elcomercioperu.com.pe/edicionimpresa/html/2006%2D08%2D22/imecluces0563351.html The orchestra has long promoted the work of Peruvian composers, and it has performed works by
Daniel Alomía Robles,
Celso Garrido-Lecca, Roberto Carpio, Enrique Iturriaga,
Armando Guevara Ochoa,
Ernesto López Mindreau,
Enrique Pinilla,
Francisco Pulgar Vidal,
Alfonso de Silva,
Teodoro Valcárcel and Edgar Valcárcel, among others. ==Locations==