The Philharmonia Orchestra website offers many free samples available for download in their online Sample Libraries.
Thousands of free, downloadable sound samples specially recorded by Philharmonia Orchestra players. These samples are suitable for creating any kind of music, no matter what you’re into. From piccolo to double bass there are single notes, phrases and whole orchestra samples to choose from.
There are three categories you can download samples from. Single notes can retreived from a huge database. Every note on every instrument of the orchestra has been recorded at various volumes and durations. The phrases library includes thousands of phrases and articulations played on orchestral instruments as well as hundreds of individual percussion samples. Furthermore, a range of full orchestra samples specially recorded by the Philharmonia Orchestra is available in the orchestra sounds section.
There’s also a sample packets page, offering packages of samples (rather than individually). Not all their samples are offered yet, but they are working on offering more and more this way. Currently there is just one package availble, a set of violin samples (1MB).
So if you’re in need of orchestra sounds make sure to check the sample libraries at the Philharmonia.