Boult's Legendary Proms Elgar 1 on ICA Classics

[Barbirollians]

Let rejoicing break out . Boul's awesome Proms Elgar 1 from 1976 is going to be released on ICA Classics next week coupled with a Brahms 3 from the 1977 Proms . The latter will be well worth looking forward to after the recently released Brahms 1 but the Elgar is quite stupendous > I have had it since Pickwick released a 2 CD set of Proms performances in the early 1990s I think and there truly is no performance like it . I have burned it all over the place in case the original CD stopped working . The finale in particular is thrilling and moving like no other .

What a boon this ICA Classics label is . JUst listening now to the Gilels Beethoven /Tchaikovsky 2 coupling . Wonderful wonderful playing and the pppppppp in the slow movement of the Beethoven are breathtaking.

[amateur51]

Wonderful news indeed, Barbirollians! I too have had that Proms set for ages and like you I cherish it.

I'll investigate the other ICA releases that you mention. Would it be nice if EMI would re-release Boult's 'Indian summer' set of Brahms' symphonies with the LPO?

[Barbirollians]

Indeed it would and his Schubert 9 which is download only . I have banged on about this before but I cannot recommend too highly his late LPO Pastoral on Medici Masters which EMI scandalously never released on CD.

[Pabmusic]

It is good news. I was at the performance and remember well that Sir Adrian did not let the tension drop in the gap between the third and fourth movements - magic!. It has been issued twice already - the Pickwick double CD set mentioned above, and as a BBC MM CD (can't recall which month) - so I hope this new one will sound the best of all.

You are so right about the late Pastoral recording, which was highly regarded when it was first released.

[cloughie]

Let rejoicing break out . Boul's awesome Proms Elgar 1 from 1976 is going to be released on ICA Classics next week coupled with a Brahms 3 from the 1977 Proms . The latter will be well worth looking forward to after the recently released Brahms 1 but the Elgar is quite stupendous > I have had it since Pickwick released a 2 CD set of Proms performances in the early 1990s I think and there truly is no performance like it . I have burned it all over the place in case the original CD stopped working . The finale in particular is thrilling and moving like no other .

What a boon this ICA Classics label is . JUst listening now to the Gilels Beethoven /Tchaikovsky 2 coupling . Wonderful wonderful playing and the pppppppp in the slow movement of the Beethoven are breathtaking.

I am twiced blessed having both the Pickwick set, and also the BBCMM CD of the same performance. I agree with comments above regarding neglect of Boult's recordings. I managed to get his Brahms Syms when they were on the old HMV Store label and Schubert 9 on CFP, but I could do with a comprehensive set of his Wagner orchestral works, previously on 4 EMI LPs and the Pastoral.

[Norfolk Born]

Let rejoicing break out . Boul's awesome Proms Elgar 1 from 1976 is going to be released on ICA Classics next week coupled with a Brahms 3 from the 1977 Proms . The latter will be well worth looking forward to after the recently released Brahms 1 but the Elgar is quite stupendous > I have had it since Pickwick released a 2 CD set of Proms performances in the early 1990s I think and there truly is no performance like it . I have burned it all over the place in case the original CD stopped working . The finale in particular is thrilling and moving like no other .

What a boon this ICA Classics label is . JUst listening now to the Gilels Beethoven /Tchaikovsky 2 coupling . Wonderful wonderful playing and the pppppppp in the slow movement of the Beethoven are breathtaking.

This is presumably the performance on 28 July 1976 included with the BBC Music magazine, Vol. 14 No. 12, where the 'filler' is Elgar's 'Alassio' played by the BBC SO under Leonard Slatkin?

[Barbirollians]

This is presumably the performance on 28 July 1976 included with the BBC Music magazine, Vol. 14 No. 12, where the 'filler' is Elgar's 'Alassio' played by the BBC SO under Leonard Slatkin?

I imagine so I missed that BBC MM issue - lucky those who bought it .

[Norfolk Born]

I actually found it in a charity shop! The liner notes remind us that it was his last Proms performance of the work.

[Barbirollians]

The owner must have died or have gone into a nursing home - surely nobody in their right mind would have given that performance away.!!!

[Norfolk Born]

...or transferred it to some other 'carrier' (I think that's the technical word) such as an MP3 player?

[Op. XXXIX]

Well hopefully this could be a better experience for me than Boult's 1976 studio recording of Elgar 2. At rehearsal 64 in the first movement, Boult just sounds sickeningly glib and complacent, as if he could not have cared less about anything Elgar told us earlier in that movement.

I realize this may not be a consensus opinion, and after all, it really isn't the issue here beyond a personal -and deeply felt- conviction.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

...or transferred it to some other 'carrier' (I think that's the technical word) such as an MP3 player?

...in which case the transferrer is a law breaker, having not retained the original disc.

[Norfolk Born]

...in which case the transferrer is a law breaker, having not retained the original disc.

Sadly, I've forgotten which charity shop it was, so I shall be unable to puruse the matter further.

[amateur51]

Sadly, I've forgotten which charity shop it was, so I shall be unable to puruse the matter further.

- is this, perhaps, 'the most humble day of your life', Norfs?

[makropulos]

Let rejoicing break out . Boul's awesome Proms Elgar 1 from 1976 is going to be released on ICA Classics next week coupled with a Brahms 3 from the 1977 Proms . The latter will be well worth looking forward to after the recently released Brahms 1 but the Elgar is quite stupendous > I have had it since Pickwick released a 2 CD set of Proms performances in the early 1990s I think and there truly is no performance like it . I have burned it all over the place in case the original CD stopped working . The finale in particular is thrilling and moving like no other .

What a boon this ICA Classics label is . JUst listening now to the Gilels Beethoven /Tchaikovsky 2 coupling . Wonderful wonderful playing and the pppppppp in the slow movement of the Beethoven are breathtaking.

This is great news. Though I wish that they had chosen his 1970 Proms Elgar 1 which I thought was even more wonderful, and hasn't been out before (whereas the 1976 performance has been, at least twice, as noted by other posters). The Brahms 3 from 1977 I'm really intrigued to hear again - I've very vivid memories of it (and of the rehearsal I went to), found the whole thing extremely absorbing, but also recall a slightly shaky Coda to the last movement. I hope I'm mis-remembering that though.

ICA has already done a wonderful job with the 1972 film of Boult's Job at the Festival Hall. Five years later (17 August 1977) he gave an absolutely glorious Prom performance with the BBC Northern SO (noting it in his diary as "A+"). I'd love to see that issued, but it would be unreasonable to expect ICA to put out two recordings of Job! It is great that ICA is mining Boult's late Proms for its series - there is a lot more, at least potentially. I would love to see and hear the filmed Gerontius from Canterbury (I think?) Cathedral - I've only ever heard a very imperfect copy of the audio from that, and it's a beautiful performance.

As for the EMI Brahms series, I totally agree it should be brought back, but it needs some very careful attention: the CD transfers I've heard have been really not well done: I have them on Disky (as a licensed reissue from EMI) and on Japanese Toshiba/EMI reissues. In both cases the sound has some horrible moments which the LPs did not. But the performances are superb - I remember first getting the LSO Third when I was at school and being overwhelmed by it (and by the amazing filler of Dame Janet's Alto Rhapsody).