Swiss composer Arthur Honegger once admitted: I have always loved locomotives passionately. For me they are living creatures and I love them as others love women or horses. The first track on this record is his love declaration to a steam locomotive. It is called after the locomotive’s type: 4-6-2: four pilot wheels, 6 driving wheels and 2 trailing wheels. In France it was customary to count the axles instead of the wheels. Pacific 231 is his best known work, written in 1923.
Many of Honegger’s best works come from the Interbellum. He was a member of a group of French composers called Les Six. They were against the impressionism and late romanticism of that time. Honegger however might be a bit of an odd one: he didn’t shy away from a little romanticism, and even got inspired by Wagner.
The history of the orchestra is interesting: Sir Thomas Beecham had founded the London Philharmonic in 1931, but when he came back after the war he found the orchestra could do without him. He needed a new toy, so he founded a new orchestra. With the help of London’s Royal Philharmonic Society he secured the title Royal, and founded his new orchestra in 1946. It is called here the Philharmonic Society of London, but that is an alias, maybe for contractual reasons.