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SOMM Recordings

Boult’s Elgar - The Forgotten Recordings

$29.99

Details

Composer
Sir Edward Elgar
Artist
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Scottish National Orchestra, BBC Chorus
Format
CD
Label
SOMM Recordings
Released
May 09, 2025
Catalog #
ARIADNE 5037-2
UPC
758871503723

About

The continuing collaboration of SOMM Recordings and Lani Spahr has produced another exciting release of long forgotten and neglected recordings, which highlight Sir Adrian Boult's life-long championing of the music of Edward Elgar. The label remains grateful, as ever, to Spahr for resurrecting these lost treasures and for his sterling work on sound restoration. On 17 February, 1918, in wartime London, a twenty-eight year old Adrian Boult visited the home of Sir Edward Elgar to discuss details for a performance of In the South that Boult was to conduct for the first time at Queen's Hall the following evening. In 1944, in the midst of another war, Boult would again conduct the concert overture in a broadcast performance with the BBC Orchestra. SOMM Recordings is proud to include this performance on it's release, Boult's Elgar - The Forgotten Recordings. Elgar had conducted the premiere performance of his Second Symphony at the Queen's Hall on 24 May 1911, and it was, by his own admission and according to Boult's description, "really rather a flop." Overshadowed by the success of the First Symphony, the Second had been received with polite restraint. After Boult conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in his first performance of the symphony on 16 March, 1920, Elgar wrote to him, "I send a word of thanks for your splendid conducting of the Sym: - I am most grateful to you for your affectionate care of it & feel that my reputation in the future is safe in your hands." And so it proved to be. Boult went on to perform the symphony more than seventy times, and it was largely thanks to his advocacy that audiences started to warm to the work. This present recording of the Second Symphony from SOMM, published on CD for the first time, was made by the Scottish National Orchestra in September 1963, a few months before Sir Adrian turned 75. Nigel Simeone, author of Edward Elgar and Adrian Boult, characterizes in this recording "an unerring sense of 'rightness' in his choice of speeds, a phenomenal grasp of the broad structures of each movement, and playing of unflinching sincerity and conviction." Some of Boult's earliest conducting experience had been with choirs during his student years at Oxford. The second disc on this release includes BBC radio broadcasts from July 1967 of ten unaccompanied choral songs, composed by Elgar between 1907 and 1914, with Boult conducting the BBC Chorus. This double CD also features three insightful interviews with Boult from the BBC. These include Sir Adrian talking with Elgar's daughter about the Enigma Variations and also his perceptions of working with Elgar on his 2nd Symphony and In the South.

Tracklist 18 tracks

  1. Disc 1
  2. 1 In the South, Op. 50, "Alassio" 19:55
    Track
    1
    Title
    In the South, Op. 50, "Alassio"
    Duration
    19:55
    Composer
    Edward Elgar
    Ensemble
    BBC Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Adrian Boult
  3. 2 I. Allegro vivace e nobilmente 16:23
    Track
    2
    Title
    I. Allegro vivace e nobilmente
    Duration
    16:23
    Composer
    Edward Elgar
    Ensemble
    Scottish National Orchestra
    Conductor
    Adrian Boult
  4. 3 II. Larghetto 13:42
    Track
    3
    Title
    II. Larghetto
    Duration
    13:42
    Composer
    Edward Elgar
    Ensemble
    Scottish National Orchestra
    Conductor
    Adrian Boult
  5. 4 III. Rondo 07:59
    Track
    4
    Title
    III. Rondo
    Duration
    07:59
    Composer
    Edward Elgar
    Ensemble
    Scottish National Orchestra
    Conductor
    Adrian Boult
  6. 5 IV. Moderato e maestoso 13:15
    Track
    5
    Title
    IV. Moderato e maestoso
    Duration
    13:15
    Composer
    Edward Elgar
    Ensemble
    Scottish National Orchestra
    Conductor
    Adrian Boult
  7. Disc 2
  8. 1 No. 1. There is Sweet Music 04:55
    Track
    1
    Title
    No. 1. There is Sweet Music
    Duration
    04:55
    Composer
    Edward Elgar
    Ensemble
    BBC Chorus
    Conductor
    Adrian Boult
  9. 2 No. 2. Deep in my Soul 03:58
    Track
    2
    Title
    No. 2. Deep in my Soul
    Duration
    03:58
    Composer
    Edward Elgar
    Ensemble
    BBC Chorus
    Conductor
    Adrian Boult
  10. 3 No. 3. O wild West Wind! 03:40
    Track
    3
    Title
    No. 3. O wild West Wind!
    Duration
    03:40
    Composer
    Edward Elgar
    Ensemble
    BBC Chorus
    Conductor
    Adrian Boult
  11. 4 No. 4. Owls [An Epitaph] 02:13
    Track
    4
    Title
    No. 4. Owls [An Epitaph]
    Duration
    02:13
    Composer
    Edward Elgar
    Ensemble
    BBC Chorus
    Conductor
    Adrian Boult
  12. 5 No. 1. The Shower 02:28
    Track
    5
    Title
    No. 1. The Shower
    Duration
    02:28
    Composer
    Edward Elgar
    Ensemble
    BBC Chorus
    Conductor
    Adrian Boult
  13. 6 No. 2. The Fountain 03:47
    Track
    6
    Title
    No. 2. The Fountain
    Duration
    03:47
    Composer
    Edward Elgar
    Ensemble
    BBC Chorus
    Conductor
    Adrian Boult
  14. 7 Death on the Hills, Op. 72 03:10
    Track
    7
    Title
    Death on the Hills, Op. 72
    Duration
    03:10
    Composer
    Edward Elgar
    Ensemble
    BBC Chorus
    Conductor
    Adrian Boult
  15. 8 No. 1. Love's Tempest 03:03
    Track
    8
    Title
    No. 1. Love's Tempest
    Duration
    03:03
    Composer
    Edward Elgar
    Ensemble
    BBC Chorus
    Conductor
    Adrian Boult
  16. 9 No. 2. Serenade 02:02
    Track
    9
    Title
    No. 2. Serenade
    Duration
    02:02
    Composer
    Edward Elgar
    Ensemble
    BBC Chorus
    Conductor
    Adrian Boult
  17. 10 Go, song of mine, Op. 57 04:54
    Track
    10
    Title
    Go, song of mine, Op. 57
    Duration
    04:54
    Composer
    Edward Elgar
    Ensemble
    BBC Chorus
    Conductor
    Adrian Boult
  18. 11 Sir Adrian in Conversation with Carice Elgar Blake 02:25
    Track
    11
    Title
    Sir Adrian in Conversation with Carice Elgar Blake
    Duration
    02:25
    Composer
    na Not Applicable
    Performer
    Carice Elgar Blake, Adrian Boult
  19. 12 Edward Elgar as I knew him, a Personal Portrait by Sir Adrian 12:18
    Track
    12
    Title
    Edward Elgar as I knew him, a Personal Portrait by Sir Adrian
    Duration
    12:18
    Composer
    na Not Applicable
    Performer
    Adrian Boult
  20. 13 Sir Adrian in Conversation with Bernard Keefe 29:12
    Track
    13
    Title
    Sir Adrian in Conversation with Bernard Keefe
    Duration
    29:12
    Composer
    na Not Applicable
    Performer
    Bernard Keefe, Adrian Boult