Sir Adrian Boult (conductor)
The Decca Legacy – Volume 3: 19th and 20th century music
ELOQUENCE 4842284 [16 CDs: 765]
The third box in Eloquence’s series devoted to Boult’s Decca recordings focuses on what the label calls Nineteenth and Twentieth Century music, but what I prefer to call Boult’s roles as accompanist and symphonic conductor. There are 16 CDs containing just shy of 13 hours of music. Once again, the recordings straddle the mono/stereo divide but you’ll need to have your ears, and wits, about you as the cut off isn’t necessarily reflected in the Original Jacket disc running order. Everything up to and including CD 5 is mono with the exception of Tchaikovsky’s Suite No.3 which is stereo. Thereafter CDs 6 and 7 are stereo but CD 8 is mono. CD 9 is stereo, and so is Rachmaninov’s Concerto No.2 with Curzon on CD 10. His two collaborations with Katchen in Rachmaninov and Dohnányi offer mono 1954 and stereo 1959. Prokofiev is on CD 15. Lieutenant Kijé was recorded in Paris in stereo whereas The Love for Three Oranges was taped with his LPO in London in mono – even though they were recorded only three weeks apart. I have laboured the mono/stereo question as I know some people are obsessed by it, though I really don’t know why. It is what it is.
The first six discs are straight accompaniment jobs and form part of Eloquence/Decca’s carousel repackaging. I’ve written about many of them before. Ruggiero Ricci’s Beethoven Concerto can be found in the Complete Decca Recordings box set devoted to the violinist (review) and was earlier in an Eloquence twofer (review). The Zara Nelsova recordings on the third disc are also on Testament SBT1361 and Decca Digital Masters 475 6327 and you’ll also find them on a Retrospective CD, coupled with Mischa Elman playing Bruch and Wieniawski (review), the last two of which are on CD 4. Campoli’s recording of the Mendelssohn concerto is also contained in the second volume of Eloquence’s twofers called ‘The Bel Canto Violin’ (review) whilst Bruch’s Scottish Fantasia can also be found on Beulah (review).
This leaves as previously unreviewed CD 2 where one can find Gulda playing Balakirev’s 1910 (rather minimally arranged) Chopin E minor concerto. This is also on DG 477 8724, a Gulda box, and the performance is lissom and attractive with Gulda a thoroughly idiomatic soloist. One has to acknowledge that these recordings generally enshrine some less than stellar orchestral discipline and tuning issues, especially in the winds, but this Gulda is a sensitive, stylish and forthright traversal.
CDs 7 and 8 are all-Tchaikovsky, the former devoted to the Polish Symphony, the latter to the ‘1812’ and Hamlet. These have previously been coupled onto a Retrospective twofer (review). Rachmaninov’s First Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Concert Fantasia, where Boult partners Peter Katin, have been previously released on an Eloquence single (review). In CD 10 Curzon plays Franck’s Variations symphoniques and Litolff’s once ubiquitous Scherzo and they’re also to be found in the relevant box devoted to Curzon’s art (review). Of Curzon’s Rachmaninov Second Concerto I’d say it’s a watchful, reserved performance. A more leonine, romanticised spirit can be found in Katchen’s Paganini Rhapsody. Boult and Katchen made two sets of recordings of Rachmaninov’s Paganini Rhapsody and Dohnányi’s Variations on a Nursery Song, the first in 1954 and again in 1959. The later recordings are contained in the fifth volume of Decca’s series called ‘The Art of Julius Katchen’ (review) but the mono recording shouldn’t be overlooked though it is inevitably superseded sonically.
CD 13 contains more Rachmaninov. The Second Symphony uses then-standard cuts so that it lasts 49 minutes: his slow movement lasts 10 minutes as against Previn’s 16. Boult, though, was a fine, if sometimes inconsistent, conductor of Russian music so the excellence of his symphonic conception shouldn’t come as a surprise. Inevitably the limitation is the original recording, which lacks amplitude and depth, and the lack of opulence in the strings. The directness and seriousness of the conception, however, are in no doubt. CD 14 contains the Third Symphony, recorded in July 1956, a tight and bright conception, taken at a fine pace. I wonder if he’d lent an ear to Ormandy’s slightly earlier recording as their pacing in the second and third movements is nearly the same, or whether he arrived at that conception through individual study. The opening movement hustles through more intensely than Ormandy, that’s for sure. Sonically the LPO can’t compete with the Phily though.
CD 15 contains Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kijé and The Love for Three Oranges, which can be found in CD 9 of the massive box called ‘Decca Sound – The Mono Years 1944-1956 FFRR: Part 2’ (review) where they’re coupled with Tchaikovsky’s Suite No.3 which is on CD 5 here – very persuasively played by the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris, coupled with Elman’s recording of the Tchaikovsky Concerto. Boult’s Parisian recordings were excellent.
The final disc contains Flagstad’s famous recordings of Mahler with Boult, the Kindertotenlieder and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, which have been reissued before now, of course, not least on Eloquence itself (review).
This is another fine box from Eloquence, well remastered and with excellent notes from Nigel Simeone. It is largely, however, a recycling exercise, which will doubtless limit interest for those who have these elements of Boult’s discography but won’t deter those who haven’t. For them it will be instructive to hear his excellence in the Russian repertoire, in particular.
Jonathan Woolf
Help us financially by purchasing from
Contents
CD 1
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827)
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61
Ruggiero Ricci (violin)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Recording Location: Kingsway Hall, London, UK, 18–19, 22 January 1952
CD 2
FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN (1810–1849)
Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 arranged by Mili Balakirev
Friedrich Gulda (piano)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Recording Location: Kingsway Hall, London, UK, 18–19, February 1954
CD 3
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS (1835–1921)
Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33
ÉDOUARD LALO (1823–1892)
Cello Concerto in D minor
Zara Nelsova (cello)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Recording Location: Kingsway Hall, London, UK, 24 November 1953 (Lalo), 1, 4 December 1953 (Saint-Saëns)
CD 4
MAX BRUCH (1838–1920)
Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26
HENRYK WIENIAWSKI (1835–1880)
Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 22
Mischa Elman (violin)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Recording Location: Kingsway Hall, London, UK, 21–22 March 1956
CD 5
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840–1893)
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35, TH 59
Mischa Elman (violin)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Suite for Orchestra No. 3 in G major, Op. 55, TH 33
Pierre Nerini (solo violin)
Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris
Recording Locations: Kingsway Hall, London, UK, 1–3 June 1954 (Violin Concerto); La Maison de la Mutualité, Paris, France, 7–9 June 1955 (Suite)
CD 6
FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809–1847)
Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, MWV O14
MAX BRUCH (1838–1920)
Scottish Fantasia, Op. 46
Alfredo Campoli (violin)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Recording Location: Kingsway Hall, London, UK, 6–8 May 1958
CD 7
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840–1893)
Symphony No. 3 in D major, Op. 29, TH 26 ‘Polish’
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Recording Location: Kingsway Hall, London, UK, 2–3 February & 13 November 1956
CD 8
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840–1893)
Ouverture Solennelle ‘1812’, Op. 49, TH 49
Hamlet – Fantasy Overture, Op. 67
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Recording Location: Kingsway Hall, London, UK, 11 January 1952 (Hamlet), 2 April 1952 (1812 Overture)
CD 9
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873–1943)
Piano Concerto No. 1 in F sharp minor, Op. 1
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840–1893)
Concert Fantasia in G major, Op. 56, TH 61
Peter Katin (piano)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Recording Location: Kingsway Hall, London, UK, 17–19 February 1958
CD 10
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873–1943)
Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
CÉSAR FRANCK (1822–1890)
Variations symphoniques, FWV 46
HENRY LITOLFF (1818–1891)
Scherzo (from Concerto Symphonique No. 4)
Clifford Curzon (piano)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Recording Locations: Kingsway Hall, London, UK, 27–29 June 1955 & 15 December 1955 (Rachmaninoff); 14–15 December 1955 (Franck); Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London, UK, 14 December 1958 (Litolff)
CD 11
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873–1943)
Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, Op. 43
1954 recording
ERNŐ DOHNÁNYI (1877–1960)
Variations on a Nursery Song, Op. 25
1954 recording
Julius Katchen (piano)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Recording Location: Kingsway Hall, London, UK, 10 May 1954 (Rachmaninoff), 12 May 1954 (Dohnányi)
CD 12
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873–1943)
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43
1959 recording
ERNŐ DOHNÁNYI (1877–1960)
Variations on a Nursery Song, Op. 25
1959 recording
Julius Katchen (piano)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Recording Location: Kingsway Hall, London, UK, 12 January 1959 (Dohnányi), 1 May 1959 (Rachmaninoff)
CD 13
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873–1943)
Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Recording Locations: Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London, UK, 25–27 July 1956
CD 14
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873–1943)
Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44
NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV (1844–1908)
Russian Easter Festival Overture, Op. 36
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Recording Locations: Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London, UK, 24–25 July 1956 (Rachmaninoff); Kingsway Hall, London, UK, 9 May 1957 (Rimsky-Korsakov)
CD 15
SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891–1953)
Lieutenant Kijé – Symphonic Suite, Op. 6
Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris
The Love for Three Oranges – Symphonic Suite, Op. 33a
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Recording Locations: La Maison de la Mutualité, Paris, France, 9 June 1955 (Lieutenant Kijé); Kingsway Hall, London, UK, 27–29 June 1955 (The Love for Three Oranges)
CD 16
GUSTAV MAHLER (1860–1911)
Kindertotenlieder
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
Kirsten Flagstad (soprano)
Wiener Philharmoniker
Recording Location: Sofiensaal, Vienna, Austria, 17–21 May 1957
