The Planets
Posted by: mongo on 10 May 2010
Just watched last nights Lewis. Superb again, love that program, better perhaps than Morse even, possibly, maybe.
But, to the point;
Does any know of a good performance and recording of Holst's Planets?
I was much taken with the opening bit which I think was Mars and now I need to have it.
Much obliged as always for any help.
Regards, Paul.
But, to the point;
Does any know of a good performance and recording of Holst's Planets?
I was much taken with the opening bit which I think was Mars and now I need to have it.
Much obliged as always for any help.
Regards, Paul.
Posted on: 05 June 2010 by u5227470736789439
Another of Boult's very last recordings for EMI was, perhaps surprisingly, Beethoven's 'Pastoral'.
Dear Graham,
This is a recording that that I have always wanted to have a listen to, and like you, I wish it could find its way onto CD.
Boult has the dog collar round his neck of "British Music Boult," but this is most unfortunate. He was certainly not an enthusiast of the use of "period" instruments, which in any case were not so technically well played during Boult's time as they are nowadays, but Boult also felt that the phrasing was quite often wrong for baroque music in the earlier styles of Historically Informed Performances. I don't like Bach to be "all chopped up," was his response.
But apart from being not in the current HIP mould for Bach or Handel, his musical repertoire ran from these two great baroque masters right through to Schoenberg, Berg and Webern. In his time these were the most modern composers, and he advocated them with valour in the twemties, thirtiesm and forties, though his rate of working at the cutting edge declined once he left the BBC, and he was into his sixties. In 1934 he gave the first British performance of Berg's Lulu [I think it was Lulu, but my memory might be wrong and it may have been Wozzeck] and this was broadcast all over Europe as it was a more or less unique thing to give one performance with three months of preceding rehearsals! Berg sent Boult a telegram congratulating him for realizing the music as he one day hoped to have the chance to listen to it! Very much a compliment to Boult, the BBC SO, and the soloists and chorus, though hardly kind about performances that were given in Vienna at the time.
What is certainly true of Boult is that he was a great Beethoven conductor, and actually he recorded many of the Nine Symphonies with the LPO in the fifties for the Readers Digest label! I have a blistering Seventh, recorded live with the FNO at the 1955 Montreux Festival!
It makes even Toscanini seem mild mannered! It is a heroic performance of tremendous rhythmic drive and power, as well as being surprisingly well played in spite of no editing at all.
Boult's affinity for Schubert's Music made him easily the greatest British conductor of that composer's music, then or since, and yet the EMI recording of the Great C Major is quite disappointing in respect of some dreadful edits which scar the release, and uncorrected on the CD re-issue. Either that or there is some fearfully unrhythmic playing captured properly. I have his BBC Prom unedited live recordings from the sixties of the Unfinished and Great C Major and in these the playing very fine indeed, and the readings are superb. So the EMI recording is all the more disapponting in this light. The live recordings may be obtained on BBC CDs.
However there is somewhere a marvelous Pye recording from 1954, which I knew as a child. Once again he mines an element of sheer symphonic logic and emotional sweep in the music that is the preserve of only the greatest conductors. I also have the 1934 HMV studio BBCSO recording, which remained a staple of the 78 catalogue right till the end of 78s being marketed in the early fifties for good reason, though this never made it to LP or CD, because of the new 1954 Pye recording ...
But there are two great Symphonic cycles from Boult, which measure up to any in my view. Both recorded in the mid-fifties: The Schumann and the Brahms, both for Pye Recordings, and I have these on CDs, briefly issued before Pye were taken over by EMI.
Then it worth noting a few Concerto recordings where Boult's orchestral accompaniment is absolutely in the top rank.
Rostropovitch's best recording of Dvorak's Cello Concerto was set down for EMI in 1956 or '57, and Boult's accompaniment in this is a masterpiece of accompaniment that is both in complete agreement with the soloist and also worthy of consideration as being a splendid study in how to make a selfless contribution utterly compelling as well. Even Talich with the Czech Phil in Rostropovitch's first recording does not match Boult for precision or emotional fire, passion, and serenity.
Boult’s Mozartian credentials are demonstrated in Concerto recordings with Annie Fischer ...
In fact the list of great collaborations goes on and on ...
When Boult was chosen by Reith as the first BBC Director of Music [with the incidental duty of being the chief conductor of the BBC SO, and setting up the new orchestra in 1930] he was chosen for his professionalism and massive range of repertoire. No one would have dared to hope that this would be followed through with such musical sagacity as well. He was sacked by the BBC after twenty years because of a personal vendetta on the part of a newly appointed the head of the BBC Music Department [which appontment also relieved Boult of his first job as BBC Head Of Music, which he gladly gave up after nearly twenty years!], which related to the fact that Boult was married to this man's wife. Boult did not break the marriage, and was totally innocent of any misdeed, but the man never forgave him for subsequently marrying his wife.
Boult was thus in 1950 cut free from a huge job at sixty after twenty years. It was at this time that he created an even longer lasting relationship with the LPO, which produced his greatest successes, though his demure demeanor, and un-flashy personality mitigated against a popular "cult of personality" type following that is associated with many leading conductors, and gradually his collaborations continued at a fairly low key with the Vienna Philharmonic [of which orchestra he was chief conductor in 1946/7 seasons], the BBC SO, where he was a regular guest once the Music Department chief was changed, and of course the LPO, as well as firm relationships with the CBSO, the LSO, the Royal Philharmonic [even in Beecham's time], and also very firmly with the Philharmonia.
Though he is most known for his advocacy of British music, a glance at his concert programmes would soon show that he was a regular rather than frequent performer of British music. His greatest numbers of performances were of the Brahms Symphonies, followed by the Beethovens! Arguably the works he was best at ...
ATB from George
Dear Graham,
This is a recording that that I have always wanted to have a listen to, and like you, I wish it could find its way onto CD.
Boult has the dog collar round his neck of "British Music Boult," but this is most unfortunate. He was certainly not an enthusiast of the use of "period" instruments, which in any case were not so technically well played during Boult's time as they are nowadays, but Boult also felt that the phrasing was quite often wrong for baroque music in the earlier styles of Historically Informed Performances. I don't like Bach to be "all chopped up," was his response.
But apart from being not in the current HIP mould for Bach or Handel, his musical repertoire ran from these two great baroque masters right through to Schoenberg, Berg and Webern. In his time these were the most modern composers, and he advocated them with valour in the twemties, thirtiesm and forties, though his rate of working at the cutting edge declined once he left the BBC, and he was into his sixties. In 1934 he gave the first British performance of Berg's Lulu [I think it was Lulu, but my memory might be wrong and it may have been Wozzeck] and this was broadcast all over Europe as it was a more or less unique thing to give one performance with three months of preceding rehearsals! Berg sent Boult a telegram congratulating him for realizing the music as he one day hoped to have the chance to listen to it! Very much a compliment to Boult, the BBC SO, and the soloists and chorus, though hardly kind about performances that were given in Vienna at the time.
What is certainly true of Boult is that he was a great Beethoven conductor, and actually he recorded many of the Nine Symphonies with the LPO in the fifties for the Readers Digest label! I have a blistering Seventh, recorded live with the FNO at the 1955 Montreux Festival!
It makes even Toscanini seem mild mannered! It is a heroic performance of tremendous rhythmic drive and power, as well as being surprisingly well played in spite of no editing at all.
Boult's affinity for Schubert's Music made him easily the greatest British conductor of that composer's music, then or since, and yet the EMI recording of the Great C Major is quite disappointing in respect of some dreadful edits which scar the release, and uncorrected on the CD re-issue. Either that or there is some fearfully unrhythmic playing captured properly. I have his BBC Prom unedited live recordings from the sixties of the Unfinished and Great C Major and in these the playing very fine indeed, and the readings are superb. So the EMI recording is all the more disapponting in this light. The live recordings may be obtained on BBC CDs.
However there is somewhere a marvelous Pye recording from 1954, which I knew as a child. Once again he mines an element of sheer symphonic logic and emotional sweep in the music that is the preserve of only the greatest conductors. I also have the 1934 HMV studio BBCSO recording, which remained a staple of the 78 catalogue right till the end of 78s being marketed in the early fifties for good reason, though this never made it to LP or CD, because of the new 1954 Pye recording ...
But there are two great Symphonic cycles from Boult, which measure up to any in my view. Both recorded in the mid-fifties: The Schumann and the Brahms, both for Pye Recordings, and I have these on CDs, briefly issued before Pye were taken over by EMI.
Then it worth noting a few Concerto recordings where Boult's orchestral accompaniment is absolutely in the top rank.
Rostropovitch's best recording of Dvorak's Cello Concerto was set down for EMI in 1956 or '57, and Boult's accompaniment in this is a masterpiece of accompaniment that is both in complete agreement with the soloist and also worthy of consideration as being a splendid study in how to make a selfless contribution utterly compelling as well. Even Talich with the Czech Phil in Rostropovitch's first recording does not match Boult for precision or emotional fire, passion, and serenity.
Boult’s Mozartian credentials are demonstrated in Concerto recordings with Annie Fischer ...
In fact the list of great collaborations goes on and on ...
When Boult was chosen by Reith as the first BBC Director of Music [with the incidental duty of being the chief conductor of the BBC SO, and setting up the new orchestra in 1930] he was chosen for his professionalism and massive range of repertoire. No one would have dared to hope that this would be followed through with such musical sagacity as well. He was sacked by the BBC after twenty years because of a personal vendetta on the part of a newly appointed the head of the BBC Music Department [which appontment also relieved Boult of his first job as BBC Head Of Music, which he gladly gave up after nearly twenty years!], which related to the fact that Boult was married to this man's wife. Boult did not break the marriage, and was totally innocent of any misdeed, but the man never forgave him for subsequently marrying his wife.
Boult was thus in 1950 cut free from a huge job at sixty after twenty years. It was at this time that he created an even longer lasting relationship with the LPO, which produced his greatest successes, though his demure demeanor, and un-flashy personality mitigated against a popular "cult of personality" type following that is associated with many leading conductors, and gradually his collaborations continued at a fairly low key with the Vienna Philharmonic [of which orchestra he was chief conductor in 1946/7 seasons], the BBC SO, where he was a regular guest once the Music Department chief was changed, and of course the LPO, as well as firm relationships with the CBSO, the LSO, the Royal Philharmonic [even in Beecham's time], and also very firmly with the Philharmonia.
Though he is most known for his advocacy of British music, a glance at his concert programmes would soon show that he was a regular rather than frequent performer of British music. His greatest numbers of performances were of the Brahms Symphonies, followed by the Beethovens! Arguably the works he was best at ...
ATB from George
Posted on: 05 June 2010 by beebie
I reckon Boult's Brahms 1 from early 1970s with LPO is the best available. Taut & powerful, perfectly paced.
Although he was responsible for the UK premieres of much of what has become standard 20th Century repertoire he hardly seems to have recorded any of it which is a great shame... though did once see an Italian bootleg label with live recordings of Shostakovich 10 and Robert Simpson's 1st.
Although he was responsible for the UK premieres of much of what has become standard 20th Century repertoire he hardly seems to have recorded any of it which is a great shame... though did once see an Italian bootleg label with live recordings of Shostakovich 10 and Robert Simpson's 1st.
Posted on: 06 June 2010 by u5227470736789439
The reason Boult made so few recordings during his BBC period [1930 to 1950] is that the BBC SO was not a commercial orchestra in the way of all the others in London.
It was a question of costs and contracts, so even during this time there are relative few BBC SO recorings, and Boult made a fair number with the London Symphony and, Halle Orchestras as well.
Boult's early 70s Brahms symphonic cycle for EMI is one very fine as a whole, and has grand performances of at least the First, Second, and Fourth, but the Third is oddly patchy. The first two movements were slipped in the time allocated for completing Elgar's Enigma Variations. These have all the fire and sweep of a great performance, but unfortunately the third and fourth movements are not at the same level of inspiration and have the feel of a more than competent play through ...
To listen to Boult's readings of Brahms at their best in recordings, the old 1954 Pye recordings really show why Boult was so admired by musicians and those who looked beyond his uncharismatic exterior at that time. EMI own these master tapes, and perhaps will re-issue them again one day! These are in very clear mono sound, so will always be in the shade of the later stereo recordings for some.
ATB from George
It was a question of costs and contracts, so even during this time there are relative few BBC SO recorings, and Boult made a fair number with the London Symphony and, Halle Orchestras as well.
Boult's early 70s Brahms symphonic cycle for EMI is one very fine as a whole, and has grand performances of at least the First, Second, and Fourth, but the Third is oddly patchy. The first two movements were slipped in the time allocated for completing Elgar's Enigma Variations. These have all the fire and sweep of a great performance, but unfortunately the third and fourth movements are not at the same level of inspiration and have the feel of a more than competent play through ...
To listen to Boult's readings of Brahms at their best in recordings, the old 1954 Pye recordings really show why Boult was so admired by musicians and those who looked beyond his uncharismatic exterior at that time. EMI own these master tapes, and perhaps will re-issue them again one day! These are in very clear mono sound, so will always be in the shade of the later stereo recordings for some.
ATB from George