After twelve rehearsals, the orchestra made its debut at the Queen's Hall on 7 October 1932, conducted by Beecham. but now he assumed a new seriousness, always arriving punctually.|group=n}} After the first item, Berlioz's "Roman Carnival Overture", the audience went wild, some of them standing on their seats to clap and shout. In "The Sunday Times" Ernest Newman wrote, "Nothing so electrifying has been heard in a London concert room for years. The tone was magnificent, the precision perfect, the reading a miracle of fire and beauty, and the enthusiasm of the audience could not have been greater." In "The Times" H C Colles said that the LPO was "as fine an instrument as could be wished for"; Neville Cardus wrote in "The Manchester Guardian", "nothing more sumptuous and daring in orchestral playing could be heard in more than three other cities between New York and Vienna"; and W J Turner, of "The Illustrated London News", praised the orchestra's "youthful dash and virtuosity ... at last we have an independent orchestra which rivals the BBC Symphony Orchestra".