The EMI producer Walter Legge founded the Philharmonia Orchestra in 1945, principally as a recording orchestra with conductors such as Herbert von Karajan and Otto Klemperer, although it maintained a parallel reputation for the high quality of its concert performances. In 1964, Legge suddenly announced the orchestra was disbanding, not expecting that its players would form themselves into a self-governing company, the New Philharmonia. Klemperer’s support for the endeavor was rewarded with his appointment as president and chief conductor, and the orchestra worked under such figures as Ernest Ansermet, Pierre Boulez, and Benjamin Britten. Following Klemperer’s decline and death, Riccardo Muti was brought in to restore the orchestra’s high quality both in concert and on recordings during a decade as chief conductor (1972-82). The orchestra dropped the “New” in 1977 and has performed under its original name ever since. The New Philharmonia recorded prodigiously with Muti, including a series of Italian operas and acclaimed cycles of the Schumann and Tchaikovsky symphonies.