Sir Adrian Boult - From Bach to Wagner

[salymap]

Perhaps both Boult and Sargent were unlucky to be around at the same time as Beecham. In my working life Tommy seemed unrivalled in lighter music. Boult always seemed a bit four-square to us.

[Barbirollians]

It could well be that they are referring to the Wesendonck Lieder - shame they could have fitted them in surely.

[Pabmusic]

This blog has a fabulous all-Mozart concert conducted by Boult in 1966, from Tanglewood with the Boston SO and Malcolm Frager. If you can cope with opening .rar files and then converting .flac files, it's worth it. There's also a live Planets from Boston in 1946:

http://metrognomemusic.blogspot.co.uk/

[makropulos]

This blog has a fabulous all-Mozart concert conducted by Boult in 1966, from Tanglewood with the Boston SO and Malcolm Frager. If you can cope with opening .rar files and then converting .flac files, it's worth it. There's also a live Planets from Boston in 1946:

http://metrognomemusic.blogspot.co.uk/

Marvellous! I dimly remember hearing this a long time (25 years?) ago when Radio 3 re-broadcast it - tremendous to have it again. Thanks very much for the link.

[PJPJ]

The Holst broadcast is interesting if only how the radio station presents the work. Live commentary between movements......

http://metrognomemusic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/sir-adrian-boult-conducts-planets.html

Uranus and Neptune really do have serious pitch instability. Still worth a listen.

I highly recommend the blog - of all the concerts to which I have listened, this one, by Boult's predecessor at the LPO gave me most pleasure

http://metrognomemusic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/eduard-van-beinum-cleveland-orchestra.html

[richardfinegold]

My one and only Boult/Wagner recording is a 45 rpm 12 inch vinyl disc of Wagner overtures. it sounds so good that I wonder why this format never really took off.

Not much of a market for audiophilia.

[richardfinegold]

This is a great thread.
In the States Boult is regarded as a specialist in British music. In my collection, until very recently, all I had were some rod his recordings of Vaughn Williams, Holst, and Elgar.
A few months ago, when the violinist Joseph Suk died, I sought out a recording he made of the Beethoven Concerto, Boult conducting. This is a great and under appreciated recording. About a month ago I came across an Everest lp of the Mahler First with Boult. I really enjoy this recording, much more so than others by many conductors that are known as Mahler specialists. While on this trip to the U.K. I bought a recording of Boult in the Brahms 1, and I can't wait to hear it.
Pity that the Mahler wasn't part of this large box.

[Pabmusic]

...Pity that the Mahler wasn't part of this large box.

Boult recorded a lot in the 1950s and early 60s for American labels such as Everest, Vanguard, Nixa and Reader's Digest. Some have come out on CD, most recently the Nixa recordings of the Schumann symphonies and Berlioz overtures:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-1956-Nixa-Westminster-Stereo-Recordings/dp/B00483CVT8/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1349392338&sr=8-4

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-1956-Nixa-Westminster-Stereo-Recordings/dp/B003IEAMWG/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1349392807&sr=8-5

You might still find these Vanguard Sibelius recordings (none of the symphonies, more's the pity):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tone-Poems-1-Sibelius/dp/B00000C3Q7/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1349393022&sr=8-9

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tone-Poems-2-Sibelius/dp/B00000C3Q8/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1349393068&sr=8-12

And these Beethovens:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Symphonies-Egmont-Fidelio-Overture-Boult/dp/B0000ADXFU/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1349395815&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Symphonies-Nos-Coriolan-Leonore-Boult/dp/B0000ADXFS/ref=sr_1_13?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1349395950&sr=1-13

Then there's Dohnanyi playing the Nursery Variations:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dohnanyi-Variations-Konsertstuck-Philharmonia-Orchestra/dp/B0017TZ8ZK/ref=sr_1_29?ie=UTF8&qid=1349393214&sr=8-29

Or Shostakovich 6 and Hindemith E-flat Symphony for Everest:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shostakovich-Symphony-No-6-Op-54/dp/B001885C2O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349393413&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Symphony-In-Flat-Paul-Hindemith/dp/B001885BZM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1349393494&sr=8-2

This has some gems on it, including a Schubert 4:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Conductors-Century-Adrian-Boult/dp/B00006IGIT/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1349394547&sr=8-4

As far as I can see, these 1954/1955 Nixa recordings are not available (though some are, from Naxos as mp3 downloads):

All four Brahms symphonies, plus the overtures, Haydn Vars and Alto Rhapsody (Monica Sinclair)
Mendelssohn Syms 3 & 4 (with exposition repeat in 4!), plus six overtures and a complete Midsummer Night's Dream
Schubert 9
Delibes Sylvia and Coppelia suites
Suppe overtures (8 of them)
Respighi Feste Romane and Rossiniana
Bartok Divertimento and Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta
Handel Water Music (complete - not the Harty version)

There's also Tchaikovsky 5 & 6, recorded for Miller International and available as mp3 downloads from Amazon. Tchai 3 is already available:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tchaikovsky-Symphony-Overture-Solennelle-Hamlet/dp/B001F5IODY/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1349394857&sr=1-3

Rachmaninov symphonies 2 & 3, recorded for Decca are often available.

And I haven't touched the 1950s recordings of concertos, with artists such as Rabin, Campoli, Menuhin, Nelsova, Gulda, Katchen, Elman, Fischer, Badura-Skoda, Efrim Kurz, Edith Farnadi, Shura Cherkassky, Peter Katin, Clifford Curzon, Kirsten Flagstadt (including Kindertotenlieder and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with the VPO), Christa Ludwig, E Power Biggs (complete Handel organ concertos)...

There's plenty more. I hope it whets your appetite.

[richardfinegold]

I have a Boult Beethoven 6 on DVD Audio. It was issued on a short lived label named Silverline that seemed to be issuing old Vanguard recordings in that format. I'll have to pull it out for a listen when I return home shortly.

[richardfinegold]

The Mahler with Flagstadt sounds interesting .

[PJPJ]

Boult recorded a lot in the 1950s and early 60s for American labels such as Everest, Vanguard, Nixa and Reader's Digest.

.......

There's also Tchaikovsky 5 & 6, recorded for Miller International and available as mp3 downloads from Amazon.

........

I may have mentioned before that CRQ has been issuing transfers of orphans and rarities and that these include some Boult Miller International items (Tchaikovsky and Brahms)

to be found in this list.

http://crq.org.uk/crqeditions.php

[Pabmusic]

I may have mentioned before that CRQ has been issuing transfers of orphans and rarities and that these include some Boult Miller International items (Tchaikovsky and Brahms)

to be found in this list.

http://crq.org.uk/crqeditions.php

You have, and I - for one - thank you for the link.

[amateur51]

You have, and I - for one - thank you for the link.

Likewise

I also noted

"Grieg: The Last Spring; Brahms: Symphony No. 3; Berlioz: Trojan March
Symphony of the Air / Sir Thomas Beecham
The second half of Beecham's famous concert in memory of Toscanini, given on 23rd January 1957 in New York, and containing a truly incandescent reading of the Brahms' Third Symphony – the only recording of Beecham conducting this work.
Classical Recordings Quarterly Editions CRQ CD50 (1 CD)"

As the blurb says "incandescent" - all for £8.00

[Barbirollians]

I may have missed it but I find it rather depressing that it seems that none of the three major magazines nor a national newspaper appears to have reviewed this set .

[Pabmusic]

I may have missed it but I find it rather depressing that it seems that none of the three major magazines nor a national newspaper appears to have reviewed this set .

I've not seen anything yet. It's a little tempting to think that this is an extension of how Boult was treated during his career - always there, always reliable, not especially controversial, prepared to perform (almost) anything, and taken for granted for precisely those reasons. He just carried on, taking the bus or tube to rehearsals, recordings and concerts, drinking Horlicks during breaks, getting annoyed if people didn't bring pencils to rehearsals, or if the orchestra was set up in a way he didn't like, but never really acting the maestro. Even Barbirolli (a fabulous conductor, of course) had a flamboyance, an Italian name - and a fedora. And as for Sargent and Beecham...

This thread has made me listen to more Boult recently - and not just the recordings in the boxed set. One was a 1966 World Record Club LP of the Mendelssohn VC with Maureen Smith (now a professor at the RAM). It's coupled with the Italian Symphony and the whole thing's fabulous. The soloist gives a superb performance (she can't have been very old - she'd recently won a BBC violin competition). Another has been the 1955 (mono) Nixa recording of the complete Water Music. It displays similar qualities to the Brandenburgs in the present set - lively, with many touches familiar to modern ears, but with a large body of strings.

The 1960s WRC recordings could all be successfully released (presumably EMI have them). There's Cherkassky playing the Grieg, Schumann and Tchaikovsky 1st, and Hyman Bress playing the Tchaikovsky VC. It would be good to have Gershwin's Cuban Overture on CD, too, and the Danse Macabre and Wedding Cake Caprice. It's difficult to stop.