Adrian Boult - The NBC Recordings: Beethoven, Busoni, Butterworth, Copland, Elgar, Holst, Vaughan Williams, Walton (1938) [2021]

Arturo Toscanini visited Britain in 1935 to conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The BBCSO, created in 1930, was the only full-time professional orchestra in the country and had naturally attracted the best musicians. Toscanini was impressed: ‘… one of the best orchestras I have ever conducted’ he declared, and would return to conduct the orchestra in 1937, 1938 and 1939, as well as making some notable recordings with them [see PASC 066, PASC 352]. Adrian Boult, the BBCSO’s 46-year-old conductor, was the man responsible for its excellence so when Toscanini created his own symphony orchestra for NBC in late 1937, Boult was one of the first people he invited as guest conductor.

Boult arrived in New York on Cunard’s MV Britannic on 8 May 1938 and conducted two Saturday night live broadcasts with the NBCSO on 14 May and 21 May. BBC managers, or perhaps Boult himself, were sufficiently interested in the concerts to order that the NBC shortwave signal be partially recorded in London. Maybe Toscanini, himself in London at the time of the second concert, heard the shortwave transmission. The original discs are in the British Library but with the inevitable sonic problems of shortwave. Fortunately for us, NBC recorded its own set of reference discs direct from the studio, preserving both concerts in excellent sound.

As for Adrian Boult, the concert had shown him to be ‘a master of his craft and an artist of real perception.’

These were the only times Boult conducted the NBCSO, despite him having a 40-year career ahead of him. His ‘matured and knowing hand’ won him many US admirers and he returned to the US several times to conduct both the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony before concentrating his remaining energy on British audiences. His last public performances took place at the age of eighty-nine in 1978.


Tracks:

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony No. 4
WALTON Viola Concerto
ELGAR Enigma Variations
HOLST A Fugal Concerto
COPLAND El Salón México
BUTTERWORTH A Shropshire Lad, Rhapsody
BUSONI Comedy Overture (Bonus track supplied with downloads only)

Personnel:

William Primrose, viola
NBC Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Sir Adrian Boult