サー・エイドリアン・ボールト
Neither as colorful a public figure as fellow Briton Thomas Beecham, nor as stormy and commanding on the podium as some of his better-known international contemporaries, Adrian Boult nevertheless was one of Britain's foremost conductors for nearly 70 years. He championed contemporary music, introducing Holst's The Planets and Berg's Wozzeck to the British public, but his pioneering work with the BBC Orchestra, which he created and directed for 20 years, is often regarded as his signature achievement.
Born to a wealthy shipowner, Boult spent his grammar school days in London at Westminster School and took to music early. At Christ Church, Oxford, Boult flourished under the guidance of conductor Hugh Allen. In addition, Boult worked with Artur Nikisch during a stay at the Leipzig Conservatory (1912-1913). Boult also studied with composer Max Reger, but a serious illness that kept him out of World War I cut his continental sojourn short.
Boult made his debut at Queen's Hall with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1918. From that first concert Boult demonstrated support for British music, including Vaughan Williams' then virtually unknown "London" Symphony on the program. The concert led to an invitation from Holst to conduct the premiere of The Planets at a private concert at Queen's Hall. In 1919 Boult joined faculty of the Royal College of Music.
In the years following World War I, Boult conducted both orchestral music and opera. He served as principal conductor for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes during their London stay in 1919, and in 1926 rejoined the staff at Covent Garden. In 1924 Boult accepted the directorship of the recently formed City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, which he molded into a first-rank ensemble.
In 1930 Boult received an invitation to organize and direct the newly formed BBC Symphony Orchestra. Boult took the group on numerous international tours and began its long, distinguished recording career. During the Second World War Boult and the orchestra took up residence in Bristol, but German raids drove them to Bedford. In 1950 Boult passed the BBC baton to Malcolm Sargent and assumed directorship of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, which he took on a politically significant tour of the USSR in 1956. Following his retirement from the LPO in 1957, Boult rejoined the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra for one year, and returned to the Royal College to teach a new generation of conductors from 1962 to 1966. He ceased conducting altogether in 1979, after several years of occasional appearances. According to most accounts, Boult's conducting was unimpaired even at the ripe age of 90. He died in 1983, just two weeks shy of his 94th birthday.
Boult felt it was the conductor's duty to present as much music as possible to the listening public without regard for the conductor's own personal tastes, leaving it to posterity to preserve particular pieces. Describing himself as a musical "purist," Boult believed that everything necessary for a successful performance was to be found within the printed score. Although some critics complained that Boult's musical persona lacked the colorful quality of true greatness, his gentlemanly conduct on the podium earned him respect from his musicians that hours of tirades might not have. On his "off nights," Boult's music-making perhaps came across as dull or workmanlike, but often his clarity of approach and fidelity to the score produced electrifying results.
Boult's autobiography, My Own Trumpet, was published in 1973. He was knighted in 1937 and made a Companion of Honour in 1969. Hundreds of his recordings have enjoyed a long (and profitable) life on LP and compact disc, most notably his various accounts of the symphonies of Vaughan Williams and Elgar, and Holst's Planets, but far beyond the boundaries of English music, his recordings of Wagner's and Brahms' orchestral music have found critical favor. Additionally, various archival releases, most notably two from Testament Records, have solidified Boult's reputation as a trailblazer. The most notable of these, issued by Testament Records in 2008, contains his 1947 BBC Symphony Orchestra performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 3 with Kathleen Ferrier, the first performance of the piece ever given in England.
© TiVo
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Shostakovich: Symphony No. 6, Op. 54 (Transferred from the Original Everest Records Master Tapes)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
Classical - Everest 発売日 2017/10/06
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2; Franck: Variations symphoniques; Litolff: Concerto Symphonique No. 4 (Adrian Boult – The Decca Legacy III, Vol. 10)
Clifford Curzon, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
Classical - Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. 発売日 2022/10/07
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 7 'Sinfonia Antartica'; Symphony No. 9 (Adrian Boult – The Decca Legacy I, Vol. 9)
Sir John Gielgud, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
Classical - Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. 発売日 2022/10/07
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 3; Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Festival Overture (Adrian Boult – The Decca Legacy III, Vol. 14)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
Classical - Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. 発売日 1971/01/01
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hindemith: Symphony in E-flat (Transferred from the Original Everest Records Master Tapes)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
Classical - Everest 発売日 2017/10/06
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Vaughan Williams: The Pilgrim's Progress
Classical - Warner Classics 発売日 1992/05/01
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius, The Music Makers
Classical - Warner Classics 発売日 1998/09/01
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vaughan Williams: Old King Cole; The Wasps (Adrian Boult – The Decca Legacy I, Vol. 11)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
Classical - Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. 発売日 2022/10/07
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Campoli: The Bel Canto Violin, V (Elgar, Bruch, Bliss)
Alfredo Campoli, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult, Arthur Bliss
Violin Concertos - Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. 発売日 1955/01/01
Gramophone Editor's Choice16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 2 'A London Symphony' (Adrian Boult – The Decca Legacy I, Vol. 4)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
Classical - Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. 発売日 1952/01/01
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev – The Decca Masters
Sir Adrian Boult, Jean Martinon, Eric Tuxen, Nikolai Malko
Symphonic Music - Decca 発売日 2020/03/06
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Symphony No. 3 - Elgar: Symphony No. 1 (Live)
Sir Adrian Boult, BBC Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Ica Classics 発売日 2012/03/06
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Concert of English Music (Adrian Boult – The Decca Legacy I, Vol. 14)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
Classical - Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. 発売日 2022/10/07
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vaughan Williams: The Pilgrim's Progress
Classical - Warner Classics 発売日 1992/05/01
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1; Wieniawski: Violin Concerto No. 2 (Adrian Boult – The Decca Legacy III, Vol. 4)
Mischa Elman, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
Classical - Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. 発売日 1956/01/01
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini [1959]; Dohnányi: Variations on a Nursery Song [1959] (Adrian Boult – The Decca Legacy III, Vol. 12)
Julius Katchen, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
Classical - Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. 発売日 1960/01/01
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rubbra: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 4
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult, Edmund Rubbra
Classical - SOMM Recordings 発売日 2018/02/02
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann: Symphonies Nos. 1-4 (Remastered 2022)
Philharmonic Promenade Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
Classical - Archipel 発売日 2022/05/20
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Le Messie, extraits (Mono Version)
Kathleen Ferrier, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
Miscellaneous - BNF Collection 発売日 1958/01/01
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Campoli : The Bel Canto Violin II (Bruch, Beethoven...)
Alfredo Campoli, Eduard van Beinum, Royalton Kisch, Josef Krips, Sir Adrian Boult
Classical - Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. 発売日 1950/01/01
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Handel : Messiah - Bach : Magnificat
Sacred Oratorios - Decca 発売日 2019/09/13
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo