Boult Conducts Brahms and Elgar

[Petrushka]

Here is a truly wonderful new release: http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product...1/ICAC5019.htm

Sir Adrian Boult conducts Brahms 1 at a 1976 Prom and Elgar's Enigma Variations at the Albert Hall Centenary Concert in 1971 with George Thalben-Ball at the organ.

I heard both of these live on R3 and remember in particular listening to the Brahms in that unforgettable summer. The 1971 concert also included a Belshazzar's Feast that I hope will also find its way on CD.

An enticing release from the new ICA label whose issues are looking to be the ones to watch.

[amateur51]

Great news this, Petrushka!

I've been hunting high and low for Boult's LPO Brahms symphonies to no avail. I used to have them in a boxed set of tapes but can't find them on CD.

[Don Petter]

The Nixa Boult Schumann symphonies have recently been issued on CD by First Hand Records - Might we hope that the Nixa Brahms symphonies might be in the pipeline?

[amateur51]

The Nixa Boult Schumann symphonies have recently been issued on CD by First Hand Records - Might we hope that the Nixa Brahms symphonies might be in the pipeline?

Have you heard the Schumann set from First Hand, Don?

[Don Petter]

Yes. I have both First Hand volumes (1: Britten, Elgar, Rossini, Walton. 2: Schumann, Berlioz).

I like the Schumann symphonies very much (they're a bit fast, by many standards) though I never heard the LPs or managed to acquire the short-lived Nixa CD issues, so it's not the old nostalgia effect in this case.

[amateur51]

Yes. I have both First Hand volumes (1: Britten, Elgar, Rossini, Walton. 2: Schumann, Berlioz).

I like the Schumann symphonies very much (they're a bit fast, by many standards) though I never heard the LPs or managed to acquire the short-lived Nixa CD issues, so it's not the old nostalgia effect in this case.

Many thanks Don - more for the list

[Barbirollians]

Here is a truly wonderful new release: http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product...1/ICAC5019.htm

Sir Adrian Boult conducts Brahms 1 at a 1976 Prom and Elgar's Enigma Variations at the Albert Hall Centenary Concert in 1971 with George Thalben-Ball at the organ.

I heard both of these live on R3 and remember in particular listening to the Brahms in that unforgettable summer. The 1971 concert also included a Belshazzar's Feast that I hope will also find its way on CD.

An enticing release from the new ICA label whose issues are looking to be the ones to watch.

This is a great record - the Brahms 1 is a match for his amazing Elgar 1 from the Proms the following year I think.

[Petrushka]

This is a great record - the Brahms 1 is a match for his amazing Elgar 1 from the Proms the following year I think.

No, it was the same year, 1976. The Elgar 1 was given on July 28 1976 while the Brahms 1 was given on August 17 1976. I heard both live on R3 and this Brahms is on my birthday wish list in two weeks time.

[gradus]

If you have access to Spotify Boult/LPO performances of all Brahms symphonies are avaialble to buy but I think thay date from the early fifties, nonetheless...

[PJPJ]

And they're on Naxos Classical Archives, too.

e.g.

http://www.classicsonline.com/catalogue/product.aspx?pid=563915

at £1.99 per issue.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Rob C played Boult conducting the Coriolan this am, caught my ear before knew who was performing ..Rob C said that Boult not as known as he might be for his Beethoven ...

[Chris Newman]

In the 70's Sir Adrian "accidentally" recorded a complete Brahms Symphony cycle for EMI with interesting fillers like Janet Baker singing the Alto Rhapsody. I say accidentally as he was always a swift recording artist getting the best from orchestras in a short time. This happened in 1970 when an entire spare session allowed him to record the 3rd Symphony. EMI were so impressed that they recorded the other three sharing them between the LPO and LSO. The 3rd and 4th are still available. It may be the recordings but he puts a bit more filling in the sandwich than in the concert hall where he played with a leaner sound. For its time the cycle is a noble and worthy companion to Giulini's and Loughran's.

[Barbirollians]

They were all available on HMV Classics but then that series was " modernised " and they disappeared .

Where are the 3 and 4 now available . The Second was sublime .

As for Boult's Beethoven - his Pastoral on Medici Arts with the LPO from the same Indian summer is superb . In the Bohm and Erich Kleiber class.

[Alf-Prufrock]

Boult and Beethoven

I remember Boult conducting a series of Beethoven symphonies for the BBC in the early sixties - possibly as early as 1960. He professed himself interested in what Beethoven actually wrote rather than what conductors thought he should have written. He convinced himself, for a time, that Beethoven intended the scherzo and trio of the fifth to be repeated and played it that way in the series.

As a classical music neophyte at that time, I was fascinated by the possibilities of classical music being open to vast amounts of interpretation in this way.

I wonder if the tapes still exist at the BBC. They would be fascinating to hear again today.

[Keraulophone]

I was at the Prom performance of Brahms 1. [IIRC, the first half, of 20th C works, was cond. John Carewe.] What struck me so forceibly was Boult's sense of line. At the opening timpani strokes, the whole effect was at the same time implaccably granitic (Klempererian) and forward-moving (Toscaninian), as the tip of Boult's long baton traced magic in the air at one beat per bar. This majestic vision and sound I can recall as if yesterday.