VW and Boult - new book.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I see there’s a new book being advertised online: Ralph Vaughan Williams and Adrian Boult, written by our own makropulos, due out in October. Would is be reasonable to request more information?

[makropulos]

I see there’s a new book being advertised online: Ralph Vaughan Williams and Adrian Boult, written by our own makropulos, due out in October. Would is be reasonable to request more information?

Thanks so much for asking! :) I'm delighted to say a bit more about it. Finished copies arrived at home this afternoon, so it will certainly be available on the publication date (4 October). The publisher is Boydell and Brewer. If anybody is interested in buying a copy, it can be ordered either from Boydell (online at www.boydellandbrewer.com) or from the distributor, Wiley (customer@wiley.com). From either of those, by putting in the discount code BB135 you are entitled to a 35% reduction (put it in when prompted on Boydell's order page, or quote it if ordering from Wiley by email)– by doing that it becomes £32.50 instead of the eyewatering £50 cover price. For a bit more information about the book itself, I quote from the blurb that Boydell have put on their flyer (along with two lovely quotes at the end, of which I'm inordinately proud).

RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS AND ADRIAN BOULT –NIGEL SIMEONE
The first detailed study of the working relationship and productive friendship between Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) and Adrian Boult (1889-1983).

From 1918 onwards, Boult became one of Vaughan Williams’s most important interpreters, giving the world premieres of the Pastoral, Fourth and Sixth Symphonies, performing
almost all his major works (not only at home but with some of the world’s greatest orchestras), and working in close collaboration with the composer on major projects including the first complete recording of Vaughan Williams’s symphonies. Boult continued to be the most devoted advocate of Vaughan Williams’s music to the end of his long career.

As this book shows, Boult’s scores include numerous annotations derived from conversations and correspondence with Vaughan Williams and these provide important evidence of the composer’s wishes including adjustments to orchestration, comments on interpretation, dynamics, phrasing and revisions to Vaughan Williams’s notoriously unreliable metronome marks. The evidence of these scores is considered alongside the extensive correspondence between Vaughan Williams and Boult, Boult’s private diaries and other relevant documents including contemporary press reports.

The book includes three substantial supplements: a detailed description of Boult’s marked scores, a comprehensive list of Boult’s Vaughan Williams performances and a discography including surviving recordings of unpublished broadcasts. It will be indispensable reading for scholars and students of Vaughan Williams and historical conducting, Vaughan Williams enthusiasts and those interested in the history of recorded music.

“In Simeone’s hands, Boult’s commitment to his composer and Vaughan Williams’ rugged, self-deprecating character tell an enormously valuable story.” —Sir Mark Elder, conductor

“It is the revelation of the interaction between these two towering figures in British music that makes this such an important book.” —Sir Andrew Davis, conductor

ISBN: 9781783277292, 307pp., hardback.

Here's a link to the relevant page on Boydell's website: https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781783...-adrian-boult/

[Bryn]

A Kindle version may be had for £19.99, by the way.

[richardfinegold]

A Kindle version may be had for £19.99, by the way.

Yes. but Makropolous can't personally autograph that for you

[makropulos]

A Kindle version may be had for £19.99, by the way.

Thanks for mentioning that, Bryn –I haven't seen the eBook but if it's essentially a PDF of the text then the illustrations should come out nicely too.

[Bryn]

Thanks for mentioning that, Bryn –I haven't seen the eBook but if it's essentially a PDF of the text then the illustrations should come out nicely too.

I have not seen it either. I just thought there might be some who would find the option of use. Sorry to say, I am not in the market, myself, though it does look to be an interesting read.

[smittims]

It sounds like an impressive work of research. I've often wondered about the nature of their relationship and how much Boult identified ith VW's music. I suppose it helped thatthey were fromthe same class, late-Victorian intellectual upper-middle, and lived not far from each other for many years.

Both were to an extent private men and it's not easy to know what they actually felt about certain things. I've often thought Boult would have recorded more Mahler, Strauss and Wagner if he'd been more insistent; I think they were the composers he liked most, and Russian music too. I sometimes think he performed music by his British contemporaries out of friendship; it's difficult to know how he rated Elgar, VW and Holst in comparison. His published remarks about music and composers often appear to be guarded; one has to read between the lines. So hopefully this fascinating topic will be opened up in this book.

[Mal]

I have not seen it either. I just thought there might be some who would find the option of use. Sorry to say, I am not in the market, myself, though it does look to be an interesting read.

Thanks Bryn, and Makropulos, that's a healthy Kindle discount, the publisher is obviously interested in exploring the Kindle option. If you want a bestseller, have a chat with the publisher about placing it in the Kindle Daily Deal. (They often have Booker prize winners, market leading biographies, and the like, for 99p. The biggest bargain in books?)

Most people will probably miss the daily deal, but you might hang about at the top of the bestseller list for several days/weeks!

Why is there no "Look Inside!"? OK, it's not even available for Kindle yet, but why not give potential buyers a preview? They can check things like "are the pictures OK?" before buying.

Also, it should be better than pdf if the publishers are doing their job properly.

For example, in the better books you can expand a picture contained within the page to fill the screen. But many publishers get this wrong. I guess you will have a lot of references. Is it easy to cycle between the references and the main text in the Kindle version? Many publishers have left me fingering the tiny "1", "2",... in the main text and getting nowhere - some just don't work, and, in others, the "hot spot" is so tiny that you usually advance to the next page rather than to the reference!

[Mal]

I've often thought Boult... published remarks about music and composers often appear to be guarded; one has to read between the lines. So hopefully this fascinating topic will be opened up in this book.

I just listened Boult/Casals in the Elgar cello concerto, which was heavily criticised, at the time, by British criitcs, for being for being overly romantic & indulgent from Casals; and I think the critics have a point. Has me wondering why Boult indulged Casals, and didn't run a tighter ship, like Szell in the Dvorak.

[smittims]

People who heard them do it together in concert said the discs weren't as good as the live event; something had failed to come across. But Boult did tend to be 'po-faced' in tha work in contrast to, say, Barbirollii, who was a bit too heart-on-sleeve for me.

Casals also was famously volatile, so there may have been a tension with Boult, though they performed together quite a bit, I think. At the risk of drifting off-topic, have you heard the two movements of the Haydn D major they recorded just before Casals suddenly walked out?

[mikealdren]

People who heard them do it together in concert said the discs weren't as good as the live event; something had failed to come across. But Boult did tend to be 'po-faced' in tha work in contrast to, say, Barbirollii, who was a bit too heart-on-sleeve for me.

Casals also was famously volatile, so there may have been a tension with Boult, though they performed together quite a bit, I think. At the risk of drifting off-topic, have you heard the two movements of the Haydn D major they recorded just before Casals suddenly walked out?

I agree about Barbirolli, Boult's restraint and understanding of Nobilmente really marks him out in English music, that passionate undercurrent that is even more powerful than the heart on sleeve approach.

I don't know the Casals Haydn but I do like his conducting of the same work with Gendron so I'll look it our. Thanks.

Apologies for drifting off topic.

[Master Jacques]

I've often thought Boult would have recorded more Mahler, Strauss and Wagner if he'd been more insistent; I think they were the composers he liked most, and Russian music too. I sometimes think he performed music by his British contemporaries out of friendship; it's difficult to know how he rated Elgar, VW and Holst in comparison.

As you say, this sounds like your thought, rather than Boult's! It's true, that - like Handley - Boult was more often invited to record his English repertoire than those deuced furreigners, and his Brahms and Wagner on disc are both of a very high standard (as are Handley's overlooked Russian recordings). However, to go on from there to the assumption that they performed British contemporaries out of "friendship" is surely wrong: they performed RVW, Bax or Rubbra symphonies because they adored this wonderful music, throughout their working lives, and fervently wished to communicate that love to audiences on disc and in the concert hall.

[Mal]

Casals also was famously volatile, so there may have been a tension with Boult, though they performed together quite a bit, I think. At the risk of drifting off-topic, have you heard the two movements of the Haydn D major they recorded just before Casals suddenly walked out?

Is it this: https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.110305

Did he give a reason for walking out? They don't give justice to the piece, I feel. Too slow? Boult giving a perfunctory performance? I'll be sticking with Kanta (Naxos) and Rosrtropovich! The sound on the naxos disk is good though - the Elgar seems a much better transfer than Warners, even comparing Spotify to CD. Maybe it's just me, some say Ward Marston's remastering on Naxos is "boxy" - I don't agree! Others say EMI applied too much noise reduction and Naxos is fuller, and sounds really good (not boxy) on headphones - I agree with that.

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/listenin-to-classical-music-and-conversation.652827/page-1323

For me, it really is night & day! Ward Marston lifts it into "desert island disk" zone. I just listened to the whole of the Elgar, and Kol Nedrei, again! (EMI re-mastering engineer not mentioned in box - hiding his head in shame?)

[smittims]

Indeed, Master Jaques, that may also be said. I didn't mean to suggest that Boult was doing it merely out of a sense of obligation. I think he makes that clear in his writings as well as his perfromances. But they were friends of his too, and I think that made him consider their music more than , say, Delius or Britten.

[smittims]

Casals stopped the recording of the Haydn, and indeed any performances of his in any Allied countries for many years, as a protest against the Allies' declining to go on and remove Franco from power along with Mussolini and Hitler, as Casals had hoped they would.

It's hard to give a view on this. Many would say it sounds rather naive of him to expect that. But in the context of a Catalan living in exile after the atrocities in Spain , someone who's lived a cosy peaceful life in Middle England can't really comment!