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.
