The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, based in London, is a British Orchestra, formed by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1946. In its early days, the orchestra secured profitable recording contracts and important engagements including the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the concerts of the Royal Philharmonic Society. After Beecham's death in 1961 the orchestra's fortunes declined steeply. Since Beecham's death, the RPO has had seven chief conductors, including Rudolf Kempe, Antal Doráti, André Previn and Vladimir Ashkenazy. Others associated with the orchestra have included Sir Charles Groves, Sir Charles Mackerras, Peter Maxwell Davies, Yehudi Menuhin and Leopold Stokowski. In 2004, the orchestra acquired its first permanent London base, at the new Cadogan Hall in Chelsea; the RPO gives concerts at the Royal Festival Hall, the Royal Albert Hall and venues around the UK and other countries. From its earliest days, the orchestra has been active in the recording studios, making film soundtracks and numerous gramophone recordings.

In 1932 the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham had founded the London Philharmonic Orchestra, with the backing of rich supporters, he ran until 1940, when finances dried up in wartime. Beecham left to conduct in Australia and the US. On Beecham's return to England in September 1944 the LPO welcomed him back, in October they gave a concert together that drew superlatives from the critics. Over the next months Beecham and the orchestra gave further concerts with considerable success, but the LPO players, now their own employers, declined to give him the unfettered control he had exercised in the 1930s. If he were to become chief conductor again it would be as a paid employee of the orchestra. Beecham responded, "I emphatically refuse to be wagged by any orchestra... I am going to found one more great orchestra to round off my career." In 1945 he conducted the first concert of Walter Legge's new Philharmonia Orchestra, but was not disposed to accept a salaried position from Legge, his former assistant, any more than from his former players in the LPO.

His new orchestra to rival the Philharmonia would, he told Legge, be launched in "the most auspicious circumstances and éclat". In 1946 Beecham reached an agreement with the Royal Philharmonic Society: his orchestra would replace the LPO at all the Society's concerts, he thus gained the right to name the new ensemble the "Royal Philharmonic Orchestra", an arrangement approved by George VI. Beecham arranged with the Glyndebourne Festival that the RPO should be the resident orchestra at Glyndebourne seasons, he secured backing, including that of record companies in the US as well as Britain, with whom lucrative recording contracts were negotiated. The music critic Lyndon Jenkins writes: Naturally, it became known that he was planning another orchestra, at which the cry "He'll never get the players!" went up just as it had done in 1932. Beecham was unmoved: "I always get the players," he retorted. "Among other considerations, they are so good they refuse to play under anybody but me". Beecham appointed Victor Olof as his orchestral manager, they started recruiting.

At the top of their list were leading musicians with whom Beecham had worked before the war. Four had been founder members of the LPO fifteen years previously: Reginald Kell, Gerald Jackson, James Bradshaw and Jack Silvester. From the current LPO they engaged the oboist Peter Newbury. Beecham persuaded the veteran bassoonist Archie Camden, pursuing a solo career, to return to orchestral work; the cellos were led by Raymond Clark, enlisted from the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The principal horn player was Dennis Brain, who held the same post in Legge's Philharmonia, but managed to play for both orchestras. Jenkins speculates that as Beecham knew all Britain's orchestral leaders at first hand he decided not to try to lure any of them away, his choice was John Pennington, first violin of the London String Quartet from 1927 to 1934, had had a career in the US as concertmaster, successively, of the San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Paramount Pictures orchestras. On 11 September 1946 the Royal Philharmonic assembled for its first rehearsal.

Four days it gave its first concert, at the Davis Theatre, Croydon. Beecham telegraphed a colleague, "Press unanimous in praise of orchestra. First Croydon concert huge success". Beecham and the orchestra played a series of out-of-town engagements before venturing a first London concert on 26 October; the Times spoke of "a hall filled with golden tone which enveloped the listener". Before its London debut the orchestra made its first recording, within two years had made more than 100. Within a few months Pennington was forced to resign when the British Musicians' Union discovered that he was not one of its members, he was succeeded by his deputy Oscar Lampe, "a man who eschewed most social graces but played the violin divinely", according to Jenkins. In the early days the orchestra comprised 72 players all on yearly contract to Beecham, giving him first call on their services, subject to reasonable notice, but not otherwise restricting their freedom to play for other ensembles. A review of the London orchestral scene of the late 1940s said of the RPO and its main rival: "The Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic share a

Giuliano Briganti was an Italian art historian. Giuliano Briganti was born in Rome, his father, Aldo Briganti, was an art dealer. Aldo studied under Igino Benvenuto Supino, graduated from the University of Bologna in 1914 with a thesis on Raphaelism, was subsequently a student of Adolfo Venturi at the Advanced School of art history, part of the Faculty of Arts at the Sapienza University of Rome. Briganti's mother was named Clelia Urbinati. In 1936 Giuliano Briganti graduated from Ennio Quirino Visconti High School in Rome. In 1940 he received a degree in history of medieval and modern art from Sapienza university, disputing his thesis with Pietro Toesca on the cinquecento Bolognese painter Tibaldi; the thesis took the form of a monograph and Pellegrino Tibaldi, published in 1945. Briganti’s first writings on art date to 1937, in the monthly “La Ruota”. In 1940 he sat on the editorial committee of the magazine, together with Mario Alicata, Antonello Trombadori, Guglielmo Petroni and Carlo Muscetta, contributing various pieces until 1941.

In 1938 he began to publish essays and reviews in “La Critics d’Arte”, the art magazine founded by Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti and Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli. Between 1944 and 1945 he was editor of “Cosmopolita”, a magazine founded by Alessandro Morandotti in June 1944 during the liberation of Rome; this weekly, a precursor of “L’Espresso”, published work by many of twentieth century Italy’s foremost intellectuals: as well as Briganti himself these included Carlo Lizzani, Michelangelo Antonioni, Enzo Forcella, Giorgio Bassani, Renato Guttuso, Roberto Longhi, Anna Banti, Guido Carli, Arrigo Benedetti and Gastone Manacorda. From 1965 to 1968 he wrote a weekly art column for L'espresso, a position held by Lionello Venturi and Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, he was an art critic for la Repubblica from 1976, the year. In both cases he had been chosen as critic by Eugenio Scalfari, first for the weekly and for the daily edition. Giuliano Briganti expressly named two men as his masters: Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti and Roberto Longhi.

He was the latter's secretary from 1941 to 1943, at his study in Florence. From 1950, with Francesco Arcangeli, Ferdinando Bologna and Federico Zeri, he was on the editorial board of the new magazine Paragone Arte, founded by Roberto Longhi, which until 1961 published important essays by Briganti on seventeenth century Italian painting, he left the editorial board definitively ten years in 1971. In 1949 he qualified as a university teacher and beginning from 1972 taught the history of modern and contemporary art at the University of Siena. In 1974 he married Luisa Laureati. In 1983 he moved to Rome where he held the chair of modern art history for a decade at what was the Magistero and today is the Third University of Rome. Giuliano Briganti’s library and photo library, today owned by the Municipality of Siena, are housed in Palazzo Squarcialupi, part of the Santa Maria della Scala complex; the books and the photographs of art works are accessible to the public. Information available online at Biblioteca Giuliano Briganti.

1945 Il Manierismo e Pellegrino Tibaldi, Rome. 1950 I Bamboccianti, pittori della vita popolare exhibition catalogue, Rome. 1961 La maniera italiana, Editori Riuniti. 1962 Pietro da Cortona o della pittura barocca, Sansoni. 1962 Il Palazzo del Quirinale, Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato. 1966 Gaspar van Wittel e l’origine della veduta settecentesca, Ugo Bozzi Editore. 1969 I vedutisti, Milan. 1977 I pittori dell’Immaginario. Arte e rivoluzione psicologica, Milan. 1979 At Palazzo Grassi in Venice, with Ester Coen, he organised the exhibition Metaphysical Painting and edited the catalogue printed by Neri Pozza Editore, Venice. In 1983, with his assistants Laura Laureati and Ludovica Trezzani, he wrote the essay on Viviano Codazzi for the book I pittori bergamaschi dal XII al XIX secolo and the book on I Bamboccianti. Pittori della vita quotidiana a Rome nel Seicento, Ugo Bozzi Editore, Rome. 1986 Storia dell’arte italiana, edited by Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti and Antonio Giuliano, Electa-Bruno Mondadori, Milan.

1987, with André Chastel and Roberto Zapperi he made a study of the Galleria dei Carracci in Palazzo Farnese, putting forward new chronological interpretations: Gli amori degli dei. Nuove indagini sulla Galleria Farnese, published by Edizioni dell’Elefante, Rome. 1987 La pittura in Italia. Il Cinquecento, 2 vols. Edited by Giuliano Briganti, Milan. 1990 La pittura in Italia. Il Settecento, 2 vols. Edited by Giuliano Briganti, Milan. 1991 he published the general catalogue of De Pisis’ paintings: De Pisis: Catalogo Generale, Il viaggiatore disincantato, Turin, a selection of his writings in “la Repubblica” on artists from the 18th century to the contemporary age. 1993 Laura Laureati and Ludovica Trezzani published a two volume complete catalogue of the paintings and frescoes in the Palazzo del Quirinale. The work begun and carried on by Giuliano Briganti was entitled Il Patrimonio artistico del Quirinale. Pittura antica. La decorazione murale I, La Quadreria II, Milan. 1995 Giuliano Briganti, La riconquista dell’Olimpo nel secolo XV in Italia, Spanish Academy of History and Fine Art, limited edition in 600 numbered copies.

Giuliano Briganti, edited by Luisa Laureati, in “Quaderni del Seminario di St

White Chuck Mountain, or native name Hi Khaed, is a peak near the western edge of the North Cascades, in Washington state. It is located southeast of Darrington, east of the Mountain Loop Highway, northwest of Glacier Peak, one of the Cascade stratovolcanoes, it is situated at the confluence of the White Chuck River and the Sauk River on land administered by the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. The mountain is named for the White Chuck River, which "chuck" in Chinook Jargon means "water"; the nearest higher peak is 4.9 miles to the south-southeast. White Chuck Mountain is located in the marine west coast climate zone of western North America. Most weather fronts originate in the Pacific Ocean, travel northeast toward the Cascade Mountains; as fronts approach the North Cascades, they are forced upward by the peaks of the Cascade Range, causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or snowfall onto the Cascades. As a result, the west side of the North Cascades experiences high precipitation during the winter months in the form of snowfall.

Due to its temperate climate and proximity to the Pacific Ocean, areas west of the Cascade Crest rarely experience temperatures below 0 °F or above 80 °F. During winter months, weather is cloudy, due to high pressure systems over the Pacific Ocean that intensify during summer months, there is little or no cloud cover during the summer; because of maritime influence, snow tends resulting in high avalanche danger. The North Cascades features some of the most rugged topography in the Cascade Range with craggy peaks and deep glacial valleys. Geological events occurring many years ago created the diverse topography and drastic elevation changes over the Cascade Range leading to the various climate differences; these climate differences lead to vegetation variety defining the ecoregions in this area. The history of the formation of the Cascade Mountains dates back millions of years ago to the late Eocene Epoch. With the North American Plate overriding the Pacific Plate, episodes of volcanic igneous activity persisted.

In addition, small fragments of the oceanic and continental lithosphere called terranes created the North Cascades about 50 million years ago. During the Pleistocene period dating back over two million years ago, glaciation advancing and retreating scoured the landscape leaving deposits of rock debris; the "U"-shaped cross section of the river valleys are a result of recent glaciation. Uplift and faulting in combination with glaciation have been the dominant processes which have created the tall peaks and deep valleys of the North Cascades area. White Chuck Mountain weather: Mountain Forecast