This bumper Boult release finds Sir Adrian (1889-1983) during his ‘Indian summer’ period of concerts and recordings conducting some of his trademark composers and compositions with either the BBC Symphony Orchestra or the London Philharmonic – live in the Festival Hall or Albert Hall, 1970s – performances of authority that transcend handsomely the occasional fallibility in the playing and gratify the delighted listener, the music seen whole including a fiery Walton First Symphony, the melancholic third movement true to its Andante marking, maybe too much so but there’s no lack of passion. Vaughan Williams’s Sinfonia antartica (sic) is suitably desolate, powerful and comprehensive – man against oppressive icy wastelands, if contrasted by penguin humour and the expressive beauty of reflective thought – with soprano Margaret Marshall and the ladies of the BBC Symphony Chorus. There’s also Holst’s The Planets, which Boult premiered and recorded commercially five times. Sixty years later, this Proms account finds Boult navigating the Solar System assuredly – desirably warlike, serene, mercurial, jolly/noble, death-haunted, swaggering, and faraway. Further Holst includes the deft and rumbustious A Fugal Overture and also Hammersmith: Prelude & Scherzo, with versions for military band (originally) and symphony orchestra. Hammersmith (London) is where Holst taught at St Paul’s School for Girls. The music is a tense nocturne leading to bustling daytime activity. Finally a wonderfully affectionate account of George Butterworth’s The Banks of Green Willow (Barking Town Hall, 1969); I wonder who the mellifluous flautist is. If Boult’s discography isn’t extended by this release in terms of repertoire, it’s good to have such caught-on-the-wing performances from a master of his craft, which sound just fine in Paul Baily’s expert remastering. ICA Classics ICAC 5173 (2 CDs).
ICA Classics releases Sir Adrian Boult conducting Butterworth, Holst’s Planets, Vaughan Williams’s Sinfonia antartica and Walton.
