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Tag: Adrian Boult

RVW Symphony No 9 Premiere 65 Years On

Ralph Vaughan Williams died 65 years ago today. Here’s the world premiere recording of his Symphony No. 9 of 1956-57. Critics of the day were largely dismissive of the work, finding it enigmatic, and puzzled by the composer’s decision to include among his orchestration three saxophones and a flügelhorn. Horrors!

In recent decades, it seems the very characteristics that confounded the gatekeepers – the symphony’s visionary, violent, elusive, and ambiguous nature – are some of the very qualities for which it is now praised. This is not the kind of valedictory anyone was expecting from the octogenarian so famous for the “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis” and “The Lark Ascending.”

RVW had been scheduled to attend the recording session, which, in the event, took place only hours after his passing, on August 26, 1958. The performance is prefaced by a brief, spoken introduction by his great champion, the conductor Sir Adrian Boult.

.youtube.com/watch?v=gpiXjrxRrlY&t

August 26, 2023
Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending at 100

In December, I noted the date on which Vaughan Williams’ “Lark” first ascended 100 years before. That was in the version for violin and piano. Today marks the centennial of the first time it was heard in its definitive form for violin and orchestra.

Though written in 1914, it wasn’t played publicly until December 15, 1920 – as stated, on violin and piano – in the unassuming venue of Shirehampton Public Hall in Bristol. Marie Hall was the esteemed violinist. The pianist was Geoffrey Mendham.

Hall – who made the first recording of the Elgar Violin Concerto, with the composer conducting – was also the soloist at the premiere of the orchestral version, which received greater notice, when it was unveiled at the Queen’s Hall, London, 100 YEARS AGO TODAY. The British Symphony Orchestra was conducted on that occasion by Adrian Boult.

The score, which bears an inscription from a poem of George Meredith, is the quintessence of the composer’s elegiac pastoralism. Thanks in part to frequent radio airplay, the music’s popularity increases annually, with “The Lark Ascending” consistently ranked among top listener favorites. At the same time, it has been embraced by more and more violinists.

Vaughan Williams described his leisurely, contemplative, frankly gorgeous violin rhapsody as “a romance.” It now soars as some of his best-known music.

Hark, hark, the Lark.

He rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound,
Of many links without a break,
In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake.
For singing till his heaven fills,
‘Tis love of earth that he instils,
And ever winging up and up,
Our valley is his golden cup
And he the wine which overflows
to lift us with him as he goes.
Till lost on his aerial rings
In light, and then the fancy sings.

Marie Hall plays the Elgar Violin Concerto, heavily-abridged, in 1916:

June 14, 2021
Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending Celebrates 100 Years

Vaughan Williams’ “Lark” first ascended 100 years ago today.

Written in 1914, it was first performed on this date in 1920, albeit in a version for violin and piano, in the unassuming venue of Shirehampton Public Hall in Bristol. Marie Hall was the esteemed violinist. The pianist was Geoffrey Mendham. Hall – who made the first recording of the Elgar Violin Concerto, with the composer as conductor – was also the soloist at the premiere of the orchestral version, which received greater notice, when it was unveiled at the Queen’s Hall, London, on June 14, 1921. The British Symphony Orchestra was conducted on that occasion by Adrian Boult.

The score, which bears an inscription from a poem of George Meredith, is the quintessence of the composer’s elegiac pastoralism. Thanks in part to frequent radio airplay, the music’s popularity increases annually, with “The Lark Ascending” consistently ranked among top listener favorites. At the same time, it has been embraced by more and more violinists.

The composer described his leisurely, contemplative, frankly gorgeous violin rhapsody as “a romance.” It now soars as some of his best-known music.

Hark, hark, the Lark.

He rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound,
Of many links without a break,
In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake.

For singing till his heaven fills,
‘Tis love of earth that he instils,
And ever winging up and up,
Our valley is his golden cup
And he the wine which overflows
to lift us with him as he goes.

Till lost on his aerial rings
In light, and then the fancy sings.

December 15, 2020
Happy Birthday Schumann Symphony No 4

Happy birthday, Robert Schumann!

Here’s a fabulous performance of Schumann’s Symphony No. 4, from perhaps an unexpected source:

I. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-V6qHLCyto

II. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXWHDBcAy0o

III. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22Gr4oS8xAI

IV. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5gyhln2Veg

Nice to hear Sir Adrian excel in something other than Elgar and Vaughan Williams!

June 8, 2020
Celebrating Adrian Boult and Musical Birthdays

As a self-professed anglophile, I do so enjoy the recordings of Sir Adrian Boult. I am especially grateful for the famous ones, the recordings and re-recordings of the repertoire with which he is most closely associated – the works of Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Holst, and some of the lesser sons of Albion.

But Boult’s interests – and excellence – extended across a considerably wider field, and though not always reflected in the comparative timidity of what record companies were prepared to roll the dice on, Sir Adrian was always game for Bach, Beethoven, Verdi, Stravinsky, and even the Second Viennese School.

I’m hoping to reflect just a little of that questing spirit in what I have to work with, this afternoon on The Classical Network, as I celebrate Boult’s birthday with compelling performances of Sibelius and Schumann alongside perhaps the more expected fare.

It will be a very competitive playlist, however, as I’d also like to offer salutes to John Antill, Franco Corelli, Asger Hamerik, Josef Krips, Karl Hermann Pillney, and Giuseppe Tartini, all of whom were also born on this date. I’ve only got three hours to do so, and each of these figures, it seems, is more fascinating than the last.

When so spoiled for choice, what’s a poor radio host to do? Sense my frantic indecision when you tune in today, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, to WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Boult, a spring chicken at 80. He died in 1983, at the age of 93.

April 8, 2019

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