Adrian Boult - Sir Adrian Boult - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Sir Adrian Boult began his long association with the music of Vaughan Williams in 1918 when he conducted A London Symphony earning praise from the composer. Thereafter Boult gave many first performances of Vaughan Williams's works including the 3rd, 4th and 6th symphonies and Job was dedicated to him. Boult also recorded all the symphonies extensively in the studio for Decca and EMI during the 1950s and late 1960s. The pastoral 5th symphony (1938-43) is considered a masterpiece based on Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress which some critics have suggested was a vision of peace for a war-weary nation, whereas the angry 6th symphony (1944-47) bears the marks of the war years in the opposite extreme, a portrait of a world laid to waste by a nuclear holocaust. Boult's performances here, caught live at London's Royal Albert Hall Promenade Concerts in 1972 and 1975, have even more adrenaline and excitement compared to their studio equivalents. Anthony Payne (Daily Telegraph) described the 1975 Prom performance of Symphony No.5 Inchone of the most taut and concentrated interpretations I have ever heard of the workInch. When it comes to Symphony No.6, Martin Cotton, the music critic and writer wrote Inchwhat Boult achieves in the four linked movements of Symphony No.6 is a sense of overall direction, and as he did in Symphony No.5, a strong feeling for the structure and emotional depth of the work'.

Album Tracks 1. I. Un Poco Sostenuto - Allegro 2. II. Andante Sostenuto 3. III. Un Poco Allegretto E Grazioso 4. IV. Adagio - Piu Andante - Allegro Non Troppo Ma Con Brio 5. Introduction - 6. Variation 1 C. A. E. (The Composer's Wife) - 7. Variation 2 H. D. S-P. (Hew David Steuart-Powell) - 8. Variation 3 R. B. T. (Richard Baxter Townshend) - 9. Variation 4 W. M. B. (William Meath Baker) - 10. Variation 5 R. P. A. (Richard Penrose Arnold) - 11. Variation 6 Ysobel (Isabel Fitton) - 12. Variation 7 Troyte (Troyte Griffith) - 13. Variation 8 W. N. (Winifred Norbury) - 14. Variation 9 Nimrod (A. J. Jaeger) - 15. Variation 10 Intermezzo Dorabella (Dora Penny) - 16. Variation 11 G. R. S. (George Robertson Sinclair) - 17. Variation 12 B. G. N. (Basil G. Nevinson) - 18. Variation 13 Romanza * (Lady Mary Lygon) - 19. Variation 14 Finale E. D. U. (The Composer) 20. John Douglas Todd Interviews Sir Adrian Boult (Extract from 85th Birthday Broadcast)

Album Tracks 1. Two English Idylls, No.1 - London Philharmonic Orchestra 2. Two English Idylls, No.2 - London Philharmonic Orchestra 3. The Banks of Green Willow - London Philharmonic Orchestra 4. A 'Shrophire Lad' Rhapsody - London Philharmonic Orchestra 5. An Old Song - London Philharmonic Orchestra 6. One Morning in Spring - London Philharmonic Orchestra 7. Procession - London Philharmonic Orchestra 8. Merry-Eye - New Philharmonia Orchestra 9. Elegy - New Philharmonia Orchestra 10. Corydon's Dance - New Philharmonia Orchestra 11. Scherzo in Arden - New Philharmonia Orchestra