From Bach to Wagner [Box set]

In his day Sir Adrian Boult tended to be somewhat overshadowed by Beecham, Barbirolli and even Sargent. This was probably due to the fact that he was not in any way a flamboyant or charismatic conductor as these others were. He also tended to be regarded as a conductor who concentrated on the music of English composers, particularly Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Holst, all of whom he knew well and, in the case of Vaughan Williams and Holst, were friends. His repertoire, however, was immense and extremely varied and was built up, particularly during his years as conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 1931 until 1950, when he was expected to do anything.

After recording much music by English composers for EMI he turned to Austro-Germanic repertoire almost by accident. In August 1970 there was time to spare at the end of six days of sessions recording Elgar and Vaughan Williams, and this was used to record Brahms's Third Symphony and Tragic Overture. This was so successful that he went on to record, not only the other three symphonies and other works by Brahms, but most of the other works included in this superb new set from EMI: music by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert and Wagner. All of these met with considerable acclaim when they were issued, especially the four LPs of music by Wagner. In his review of the first of these the renowned critic and musicologist Deryck Cooke wrote, "I have never heard Sir Adrian Boult conduct Wagner before, and I suppose that most people, like myself, never thought of him as a Wagner conductor at all; but on this record he reveals himself as a 'perfect Wagnerite'".

When these recordings were made Sir Adrian was in his eighties, but you would never think so; everything is so fresh and alive. The recordings also have the advantage of a conductor who had spent more than half a century thinking about and performing this music which he loved.

Many will be familiar with the Brahms, Wagner and the Schubert Great C Major, a work in which Sir Adrian was unsurpassed. They may not have heard, however, his accounts of the Brandenburgs. I am glad that these have been included in this box, and not only because they are a curiosity, performed as they are in the style that the young Boult heard at the beginning of the twentieth century from conductors such as Nikisch and Steinbach. Sir Adrian was not interested in the so called authenic approach to baroque music and may actually have made these recordings almost as a protest, although he was far too much of a gentleman to say this. He did say to the producer Christopher Bishop that he was "tired of chopped-up Bach"! He uses what sounds like all the strings of the LPO in these performances, but the result is never heavy sounding nor congested; quite the reverse.
Here is a list of the works in this superb anthology of Sir Adrian's art:
Bach: Brandenburg Concerti 1- 6
Mozart: Symphonies 35 & 41; Overture, The Magic Flute
Beethoven: Symphony No.6; Coriolan Overture; Ruins of Athens Overture and Turkish March
Schubert: Symphony No.9
Johann StraussI: Radetzky March
Suppe: Poet and Peasant Overture
Wagner: Overtures, Preludes and Orchestral Excerpts from Rienzi, Der Fliegende Hollander, Tannhauser, Lohengrin,
Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg and The Ring, Siegfried Idyll
Wolf: Italian Serenade
Brahms: Symphonies 1-4, Serenades 1 & 2, Overtures, Haydn Variations, Alto Rhapsody (with Dame Janet Baker)

I entirely agree with Graham - this is an exceptional and very satisfying issue. It includes many well-known recordings which have appeared at various times individually - the Schubert 9 and the Brahms Symphonies and Serenades, for example - but also there are little rarities - Poet and Peasant, the Radetzky March, the Magic Flute Overture (recorded for World Record Club in the 1960s) and the Ruins of Athens from an old Columbia EP, I think, all excellent, and though not very significant, very nice to have nonetheless. It is also nice to see the 'Haffner' reappear. It was originally coupled with the 'Jupiter' (also here) on an EMI LP, a performance quite recently chosen by BBC Radio 3's CD Review as the best 'traditional' performance available on CD. He was such a good conductor, often undervalued by those who like Olympic displays on the podium, but so knowledgeable and so musical, and his repertoire was huge. It was sometimes said that he never gave a bad performance (I don't quite agree with that!!), but the absolute excellence of his work at his best still takes me by surprise sometimes. Anyway, this is a fine set, and it is just that we are reminded that Sir Adrian was first and foremost a conductor in the great European tradition, not a specialist in English music (he never regarded himself as such), which is what these 11 CDS make quite clear.

I agree wholeheartedly with both of the previous reviewers . This is a wonderful compilation , long awaited of Boult's Indian Summer recordings of the Austro-German repertoire .

The Bach is buoyant and very enjoyable and David Munrow no less can be heard playing his recorder in a couple of the Brandenburgs. The Haffner and Jupiter are a delight and it is marvellous to see Boult's Wagner recordings back in the catalogue nearly complete.What a shame that EMI didn't give him the chance to record a few vocal excerpts too .

The Schubert 9 deserves all the plaudits it gets . The Brahms cycle is one of the very greatest .It is perhaps invidious to pick out one performance but that of No 2 is right at the top of my list of favourite performances of this symphony.

May I put in a word too for the recording of the Pastoral that I praised when it first reappeared on ICA Classics after 20 plus years missing from the catalogue . It is a complete delight from first bar to the last with a thrilling storm and a rather brisk scene by the brook which , however,seems utterly in context .

This is a treasure trove of wonderful performances and those of Beethoven 6 , Brahms 2, Schubert 9 and the Jupiter in particular deserve to be considered as amongst the very best in recorded history.