Sir Adrian Boult - From Bach to Wagner

[Barbirollians]

Anyone else got their set yet ? Just listening to the Brandenburgs - they go with a swing but HIPPites should steer clear to avoid apoplexy .

[cloughie]

Anyone else got their set yet ? Just listening to the Brandenburgs - they go with a swing but HIPPites should steer clear to avoid apoplexy .

Not being of the HIPPite tendency, I have no problems with them, and the rest of the box is a delight - Sir Adrian really got good sounds from the London orchestras in the 70s.

[Barbirollians]

I have the Jupiter on that Medici Master coupling with the Pastoral but listening this afternoon no wonder it was one of the two choices in BAL this year - it is so exciting and superbly played .

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Anyone else got their set yet ? Just listening to the Brandenburgs - they go with a swing but HIPPites should steer clear to avoid apoplexy .

Erm: Excuse me, oh chorophobe, but this HIPPite was the one on these Boards who urged a potential buyer of this set (and who was unsure of ACB's approach to Bach) to go ahead and buy because the Brandenburgs were excellent performances!

"Apoplexy"? Only at the gross stereotyping!

[Pabmusic]

Erm: Excuse me, oh chorophobe, but this HIPPite was the one on these Boards who urged a potential buyer of this set (and who was unsure of ACB's approach to Bach) to go ahead and buy because the Brandenburgs were excellent performances!

"Apoplexy"? Only at the gross stereotyping!

Boult said at the time (quoted in the original booklet) that he was unapologetic about the size of the string band and the 'unauthentic' approach. He had been excited and moved by Fritz Steinbach's performance, who conducted No. 3 in 1904 with every available LSO player. Steinbach's editions were published by Eulenburg, and are treasures. Boult based his recordings on Steinbach's strings.

This said, the non-string players on the Boult recordings are an impressive bunch, and include David Munrow and Raymond Leppard.

Incidentally, the opening number of Boult's very first professional concert, in February 1914, was Brandenburg 2, with an orchestra of 40, drawn from the Halle and Liverpool orchestras.

[Barbirollians]

Indeed,Munrow on the recorder .

The Schubert 9 comes up as fresh as paint . 11 CDs for £16 a stupendous bargain.

[pastoralguy]

I bought this set but it's still in it's plastic wrapping...

So many cds...so little time.

[LeMartinPecheur]

This said, the non-string players on the Boult recordings are an impressive bunch, and include David Munrow and Raymond Leppard.

Indeed,Munrow on the recorder.

Leppard on the pseudo-podium?

[Barbirollians]

I bought this set but it's still in it's plastic wrapping...

So many cds...so little time.

I suggest you open it at once !

[Barbirollians]

The Schubert 9 is really magnificent - I never liked it much on my old cassette but on CD it is wonderful . I do not think I have ever heard so much detail and the tempi are ideal .

Outside the main works there are lots of little delights too . A striking Ruins of Athens overture - the music sounding really modern, and a full of life Radetzky March and Poet and Peasant Overture and such a sunny account of Wolf's Italian Serenade !

[gurnemanz]

The Schubert 9 is really magnificent - I never liked it much on my old cassette but on CD it is wonderful . I do not think I have ever heard so much detail and the tempi are ideal .

The Boult was one of two Schubert Nines I had on LP (along with Krips on Ace of Diamonds). Both were favourite discs ofen played even though I think I preferred Krips. With the Boult box I now have both on CD.
I've got up to Brahms on CD8 and have enjoyed them all so far.

[Keraulophone]

Thanks so much for bringing this set to our notice, Barbirollians.

It arrived this morning, and ACB's Jupiter immediately brought the sun out. So looking forward to a reacquaintance with these classic recordings.

Such a shame he wasn't allowed singers in the Ring chunks: "...I [Boult] wonder[ed] if 'they' would think one or two singers a good idea? If so I put Wotan's Farewell at the top of the list..."

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Bernard Haitink (no mean conductor of the Schubert Great Symphony himself) is also a fan of Boult's recording: "That old man*! Astonishing!"


(* = BH was in his 40s at the time.)

[Barbirollians]

I have been listening again to the Haffner and the Pastoral today -both a delight . Now for some Wagner !

[Pabmusic]

I'm just delighted by this thread - and by the way that AB's reputation has grown in recent years. He always had his admirers, but for much of the time he was in the shadow of the other British masters, Beecham, Barbirolli and Sargent, who all projected their personalities particularly well. Boult had very clear (almost inflexible) views about not allowing your personality (showmanship, mannerisms) to interfere with the musical performance, which made him seem 'colourless' or 'boring' by comparison (both adjectives taken from 1960s articles). Apparently, he once stopped Vernon Handley at the RCM with something like "at letter ... you moved your right foot. Did it mean something?" I once heard Handley say (but it could easily have been Boult's view): "How many times do you leave a concert and hear things like, 'Didn't that conductor really feel the music!'? But they should be saying, 'Didn't I really feel the music!'"

But Boult's philosophy of relating the tempo of a whole piece to its most crucial moment, and many other such tricks aimed at making a musical performance rather than a 'personal' one, amounted to a 'system' that meant that he was very good at tackling almost anything, whether he actually liked it or not. One venerable player once told me that he would often rehearse things faster than at performance speed, so the players were more relaxed at the concert! Also, librarians must have appreciated him because he seemed not to mark scores very much - I once saw his personal copy of The Apostles, which had one small pencil mark at a climax! He was also appreciated by record producers (Christopher Bishop comes to mind) for his lack of fuss at sessions, and his practice of recording in long takes. In 1970, he completed the Enigma Variations with sessions to spare, so Bishop asked him what he'd like to do. He chose Brahms 3, completed it within the (short) time left - first movement in one take - and thus started his second Brahms cycle, the one included in the present set.

He also seems to have been one of the first conductors to introduce uniform bowing to Britain. When he went to Leipzig in 1912, to study with Nikisch, he attended a Bach concert at which he had a very bad seat - behind a pillar, or something - and so had to concentrate on the sound. He realised that the strings were bowing together! Revelatory! This was apparently really unusual.

His repertoire was also wider than that of most of his contemporaries (not just Beecham, Barbirolli and Sargent, but foreign conductors, too), helped of course by his position at the BBC, where he was used to conducting several times a week, including a weekly programme of contemporary music. I think he belongs most naturally in the company of Toscanini, Monteux, and Walter, with whom he shared a belief that the music comes first.

His strong principles prevailed to the end - he had no funeral, and ended up being dissected by medical students. I think we're lucky to have so many recordings, even if there are some gaps we regret (a Wagner opera, for instance). It would be wonderful if someone finds a private tape of the Wosseck broadcast.