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The doyen of British conductors Adrian (Cedric) Boultwas born in Chester (England) on 8 April 1889. Hedied on 22 February 1983 at the age of 93 after along and distinguished career. He studied music atboth Christ Church, Oxford and, during 1912 and1913, the Leipzig Conservatory, and was able toobserve there the legendary conductor Arthur Nikischin rehearsals and at concerts. Between 1919 (duringwhich year he conducted for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russesseason in London) and 1930 Boult was a member ofthe teaching staff of the Royal College of Music(returning there in the 1960s) and in 1924 he wasappointed Conductor of the City of BirminghamOrchestra (as it was known then: ‘Symphony’ wasadded to the ensemble’s designation in 1948). In1930 Boult was invited to become Director of Musicat the recently formed British BroadcastingCorporation (with a knighthood following in 1937), arôle that required him to establish the BBC SymphonyOrchestra, which he led as Chief Conductor until 1950.Following enforced retirement from the Corporation –a traumatic time for Boult – he then became PrincipalConductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, until1957, although he would continue to conduct theorchestra regularly until he officially retired in 1979.His final recording, for his regular but not exclusivecompany, EMI, was of music by Sir Hubert Parry(including Symphony No. 5 and SymphonicVariations). His last public engagement was toconduct a run of performances of The Sanguine Fan– with music by Elgar – for English National Ballet atthe London Coliseum, the latter carried out withtypical self-effacement. It is said that even at the endof his final concert Boult merely put down his baton,collected his overcoat and went home!

It is for his conducting of British music that weprobably first and foremost think of Boult. He was agreat champion of such repertoire and counted Holst,Elgar and Vaughan Williams among his closest friends.

He was often in charge of important premières, suchas Holst’s The Planets and several of VaughanWilliams’s Symphonies. Although Boult conducted andrecorded much British music, his repertoire was largeand diverse and involved numerous other premières.These included the first performances in the UK ofBerg’s Wozzeck (much praised by its composer in aletter to Boult), Busoni’s Doktor Faust (both operaswere given as concert performances), Bartók’sConcerto for Orchestra and Mahler’s Symphony No. 3(which is now commercially available). Boult wasinterested enough in Mahler’s music to travel toAmsterdam when Mengelberg undertook a Mahlerfestival in 1920 (the composer had died in 1911). Aswell as having an open mind to the latest music, Boultwas a master of the conductor’s technical craft. In1920 he wrote A Handbook on the Technique ofConducting, which he subtitled The Point of the Stick;originally designed as something for colleagues, thisslim tome was made a general publication in the late-1960s. Boult’s discography is sizeable. It includes notonly much British fare but also copious examples ofcore repertoire, including Bach’s BrandenburgConcertos, Brahms’s four Symphonies, Schumann’sfour Symphonies, Mahler’s Symphonies Nos. 1, 3 and8 (Nos. 3 and 8 as posthumous releases), music byBeethoven and Mozart (wonderful ‘late’ accounts oftheir respective Pastoral and Jupiter symphonies, forexample), as well as Berlioz, Rachmaninov, Schubert,Schumann, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky and Wagner. Latein his life, Boult expressed a wish to record music byFauré, which sadly would not be realised.

If one thinks of Boult as masterly (musically andtechnically), unassuming, and dedicated to thecomposer at hand, this is not to say that he waswithout emotional temperament and, indeed, notwithout a temper either. Yet Boult always servedmusic rather than himself, and recording uponrecording shows his cohesive and appreciative

London Philharmonic Orchestra • Sir Adrian Boult The 1956 Nixa-Westminster stereo recordings, Vol. 2


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approach to the numerous and varied scores that heconducted, whether a great classic or something freshfrom the pen of a composer who may not have beena household word.

At a stroke it is heartening to have restored Sir AdrianBoult’s recordings of Robert Schumann’s foursymphonies and all eight of Hector Berlioz’s overtures,a mix of music written for concert performance or tolaunch an opera. In every case, this is music thatBoult did not return to in the recording studio. Yet hisconviction in conducting these composers suggestsnothing ‘one-off’ about the enterprise.

Of the Berlioz, Le Carnaval romain (Berlioz rescuingmusic from his then-failed opera, Benvenuto Cellini)receives a swinging performance, even in the openingslow music, but with ardour, and the faster sectionsare animated without becoming crude or inarticulate.Les Francs-juges is both solemn and mysterious inits opening, the brass summonses sinister. Boult is amaster of its atmosphere and its slowly implacabletread, a surreptitiousness retained in the faster music,and how beautifully (and ideally) turned is the lyricaltheme that then appears, music that once introducedthe BBC Television series Face to Face (1959 to 1962)in which John Freeman would probe his guests withsearching questions, sometimes making theinterviewees very uncomfortable, such as the often-screened episodes with Gilbert Harding and TonyHancock demonstrate. This was television ahead of itstime, with Berlioz’s equally forward-looking music anappropriate signature-tune. In the Overture toBenvenuto Cellini, Boult stresses the love andimpishness within the music. Waverley, anunaccountably overlooked piece, one full ofindividuality, imagination and memorable invention,receives affectionate and rumbustious treatment.

There are more swashbuckling versions of Le Corsairearound, but Boult’s measure does bring out turns(especially in the violins) that can be glossed over in

more gung-ho accounts; an opportunity for thethoughtful listener to appreciate certain pleasingdetails and to savour the string-players not sweatingover getting all the notes in at speed but given timeto articulate with meaning; typical of Boult’s long-sight of music, the coda of Le Corsaire is the trueapotheosis, where the piece has been always beenheading. Boult brings Rob Roy to life, the mostdiscursive of Berlioz’s overtures, its most distinctivemusic being shared with Harold in Italy, that masterlysymphony with viola obbligato. Conversely, Le RoiLear hails as one of Berlioz’s greatest achievements,more a symphonic poem than an overture, lofty inits ambition, passionate in its declamation, and sorich in its ideas, Boult alive to the music’s largesse,intensity and pictorial vividness. The Overture toBéatrice and Bénédict is another classic withinBerlioz’s oeuvre, brimful of wit and humanity, Boultstressing its mercurial aspects without sacrificingpathos.

Boult’s conducting of Schumann’s symphonies,however one reviews it, has the authority of a manwho admired the music enormously and with it thedirect contact with Fanny Davies (a pupil of ClaraSchumann, Robert’s wife and widow) and suchanecdotal reference to Arthur Nikisch (as revealed inBoult’s own essay on Schumann’s symphonies,invaluably reproduced here). These are great scoresthat, rather strangely, have been more the preserveof recordings than the concert hall.

The Spring Symphony begins with a call to attention,the music simmers and blossoms; this is indeed awork from a happy time in Schumann’s life, thesymphony energised with glad-to-be-alive feelingsand shot-through with tender contrasts, all of whichBoult brings out, with point, vivacity and warmthwithin a rigorous symphonic ground-plan. Yet he isalive to flexibility within the whole (if nowhere asinterventionist as, say, Max Fiedler’s conducting ofthis work, a 1936 broadcast survives, another sort of


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authenticity altogether; Fiedler, 1859-1939, a friendof Brahms, was born just three years afterSchumann’s early death). Boult stresses the volatilityof the Second Symphony; it’s a thrillingly combativeaccount, gripping, and exuding a drive that continuesinto the Scherzo, Boult cannily saving something forits still-faster coda. It’s all too easy to sentimentalisethe glorious slow movement; Boult gives it bothradiance and dignity before bringing out the stoicalflourishes of the finale.

With the Rhenish (Schumann’s last completedsymphony but not the last to be published – hence thenumbering discrepancies), Boult indeed is true to hisword, that the first movement is “brisker and busier”than the corresponding movement of the Eroica(Tovey’s comparison). Honesty compels though to saythat it is simply too fast, not even exultant at thisspeed, yet Sir Adrian is a dab hand at integratinglyrical episodes and avoiding charges of impatience.Matters improve with the middle movements, relaxedand gracious, and a judicious ceremonial solemnityinforms the fourth movement’s association to Cologne

Cathedral and the elevation of its Archbishop, a sightthat moved Schumann enough to set it to music. Withthe finale, Boult is once again no-nonsense, althoughdetail is vivid. To Schumann’s 1851 revision of the Dminor Symphony, Boult brings gravitas to theintroduction and a measured sense of purpose to theexposition, which is rightly repeated. Boult’s accountof Symphony No. 4 bristles with greatness, a patricianunfolding of this remarkable work across its whole, asense of release granted in the ultimate coda to crownmusic aflame with romance and eagerness, as well asstructural magnificence.

These may not be the most pristine set of Schumann’ssymphonies ever set down, but they exude, for themost part, an understanding and admiration of themusic that transcends the occasion frailty ofexecution, Boult’s conducting of the Second andFourth Symphonies standing high in discographies ofthese works.

© 2010 Colin Anderson


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Westminster Records production team, Control Room, Walthamstow Assembly Hall, 1956

Kurt List, Producer (seated); Herbert Zeithammer, Principal Balance Engineer (right); Ursula Franz (née Stenz), Producer’s Assistant and Tape Editor (bottom); unknown assistant (standing).

Not in shot was the Second Balance Engineer, Mario Mizzaro, who was the photographer.

(Photo courtesy of Ursula Franz and Mario Mizzaro)


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Notes by Sir Adrian Boult originally reproducedon the sleeves of the Schumann LP releases

I am very glad to have had the opportunity of recordingall the Schumann Symphonies, because, as a youngman, I had some special opportunities to learn themand to enjoy them. Clara Schumann, the composer’swidow, who long survived him, was a frequent visitorto England, and many of her pupils and friends were inLondon when I first went there. The most famous ofthose was Fanny Davies, who carried the ClaraSchumann tradition on for many years and handed itto many pupils at the Royal College of Music, where Iwas her colleague in the early ‘twenties’. The Directorof the College, Sir Hugh Allen, sent me one evening todiscuss some matters with her, and after we had donebusiness I took the opportunity of asking her somequestions, notably about the right treatment of the lastmovement of the C major Symphony, and how far oneshould add dynamic marks to the rather scantydirections left by Schumann. ‘Come on, we’ll play it asa duet!’ was her answer, and before we were mucholder we had played all four Symphonies, and I had hada wonderful lesson in interpretation. After this, at 1:30a.m., she produced a modern Czech symphony, but Ifelt I couldn’t break the spell of Schumann which shehad so magically called up, and escaped to bed!

There were devoted Schumann-ites in London at thattime who felt that Arthur Nikisch took unwarrantableliberties with his music, but though Nikisch’sperformances were always highly personal, many ofus could feel quite happy when the composer wasSchumann. Nikisch himself told how in the LeipzigGewandhaus when he was conducting the FourthSymphony with Frau Schumann in the audience, hecame to the point in the development of the firstmovement where he usually allowed himself to coaxa big largamente from the trombones as they liftedthe orchestra over a series of beautiful modulations.This had aroused some adverse criticism from theconservatives of Leipzig, and so he ventured a glance

to the front row where the old lady was sitting, andwas delighted to see her smiling with pleasure.

This Symphony was not Schumann’s last, and as greata critic as Tovey considers that the scoring of the finalrevision is not satisfactory, and an earlier version (whichwas published fifty years later) is in many ways to bepreferred. I myself find the whole work lovely, andintensely exciting. It follows the usual plan, with a slowintroduction to the first movement, an unusualpartnership of oboe and solo ’cello in the Romanze (witha beautiful violin solo as trio), a vigorous scherzo, anda noble bridge passage leading into the finale, which isbuilt on a major version of the main first movementfigure. It is notable that Schumann does not close anymovement finally, but carries the signature on to thenext movement, indicating that there should be nobreak in the performance of the Symphony as a whole.

The First Symphony is sometimes called Spring. It comesfrom the happiest time of his life when he was marriedto the ideally sympathetic and musical lady who, as wehave seen, was an artist and teacher whose influencehelped hundreds of later interpreters. In each movementhe pours out a stream of lovely lyricism, and even Tovey(whose impatience with Schumann’s scoring is onlymatched by his delight in his sense of beauty) felt thatthe orchestration here is generally adequate.

The Second Symphony in C major is a bright anddramatic work, and it was its last movement, whichlooks, on paper, like a rather soulless procession of asomewhat aggravating one-bar figure with noparticular rhyme or reason about it, about which Iquestioned Miss Fanny Davies. Her answer wasgloriously convincing: she played no two bars alike;the figure sprung to life, and above all became partof a sweeping line with a wealth of rhyme and reasonurging it on. The other movements play themselvesmore easily, the first throwing a strong accent on tothe second beat of many of its 3/4 bars, the seconda real scherzo in 2/4 time racing on with its ceaseless


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semi-quavers until it exhausts the performer even ifit exhilarates the listener, and the third, one ofSchumann’s finest lyrics.

The Third Symphony is in E flat, with five movements.The first, in 3/4, was thought by Sir Donald Tovey toowe some allegiance to the Eroica. I feel it, somehow,brisker and busier than Beethoven’s great Allegro,though full of life and high spirits; it is followed by acharming Landler, no doubt given the unofficial titleof Rhenish, to the whole Symphony. It certainly seemsright that we should look on this so-called fourthmovement as a slow introduction to the lively finale,at the exciting end of which its material finally re-appears to give it a most convincing peroration.

Those who buy these records may perhaps be interestedby a word or two on Schumann’s scoring. Authoritiesalways underline his weakness in this respect, but Toveyconsidered his early works show a better orchestralsense that later, when he had the experience of holdingthe position of conductor at Düsseldorf. His diffidence,and one or two early shocks, started him playing forsafety, especially in the woodwind department. Where heformerly would have entrusted a tune to one soloist, helater became frightened, and for safety would give it tothree of four, resulting in a thick and colourless unison.Several great conductors have issued amended editions;in my opinion they go unnecessarily far, and the presentperformances preserve, in general, Schumann’s ownscoring. Where Schumann’s safety measures haveproduced a disagreeable thickness, we have sometimescut out these doublings, of course without losing any ofthe harmony notes, and in other places we have reducedthe dynamic markings of Schumann’s accompanimentsin order that his exquisite tunes may be fully enjoyed.By their occasional amendments we hope that the fullbeauty of these lovely works can be realised.

Sir Adrian Boult

Notes reproduced by kind permission of the Boult Estate

Issue note

These recordings were set down by the Americanlabel, Westminster, in conjunction with its Britishpartner, Nixa Records (owned by the electronicscompany, Pye), at Walthamstow Assembly Hallbetween August 15 and 31, 1956. With the LondonPhilharmonic Orchestra recording as the PhilharmonicPromenade Orchestra – its nom de disque for ‘out-of-contract’ engagements – the sessions comprised notonly the symphonies and overtures on this FHRreissue, but works by Britten, Elgar and Walton(released on FHR06). They were produced by KurtList, Vice President and Music Director of WestminsterRecords, and, most unusually for the period,engineered only in stereo by Herbert Zeithammer,assisted by Mario Mizzaro, using a two-track Ampexrecorder and a simple set-up of ‘two Altecmicrophones with the left-hand microphone placedhalf-way along the first violin section and the right-hand microphone similarly placed by the cello section’(John Snashall, ‘The Nixa/Pye story Part Two’,International Classical Record Collector, September1995, pp.57-58).1 These sessions constituted not onlySir Adrian Boult’s first stereo recordings for the Nixa-Westminster partnership,2 but the first stereo tapingsof Schumann’s Symphonies Nos. 1, 3 and 4, as wellas of two of the Berlioz Overtures, Rob Roy andWaverley. Mixed down mono versions of therecordings were derived from the stereo masters atthe Nixa and Westminster editing suites in Londonand New York.3

Utilising its own edited masters,4 Westminster issuedall of the recordings on stereo LP in the USA inSeptember 1958, the record sleeves and labelsbearing the legend ‘Nixa licence – A Westminsterrecording made for the Nixa Company of London’.Nixa limited itself, however, to a partial release ofmono versions only. Both companies used thepseudonymous title Philharmonic PromenadeOrchestra. It was not until March 1967 that stereo


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versions of the Schumann Symphonies were firstreleased in the UK, with the Berlioz Overturesfollowing in June, in Pye’s Golden Guinea series, theorchestra now correctly called the LondonPhilharmonic Orchestra. The Schumann Symphonieswere first released on compact disc in 1989 by PRT-Nixa. With the exception of Rob Roy, issued in 2002by EMI on CZS5 75459.2 (this Great Conductors ofthe 20th Century set also included Schumann’sSymphony No. 4), the Berlioz Overtures have onlypreviously been available on compact disc as ‘private’issues transferred from LP.

For this second and final volume of the LPO/BoultAugust 1956 Nixa-Westminster stereo recordings, theWestminster master tapes for Berlioz’s overtures to LeRoi Lear, Le Corsaire, Béatrice et Bénédict and RobRoy have been made available courtesy of theUniversal Music Westminster archive5 at Gütersloh,Germany. The remaining Berlioz Overtures and theSchumann Symphonies have been newly transferredfrom the Pye Nixa tapes held by EMI as thecorresponding Westminster master tapes appear notto have survived.

1 For a fuller account of the chequered history ofNixa/Pye, as well as an informative and, at times,amusing account of Boult’s 1956 Walthamstowsessions see ‘The Nixa/Pye Story’, John Snashall,(International Classical Record Collector, May,September, November 1995).2 Boult’s first studio recordings with the LPO weremade for HMV in 1949, while his first Decca sessionsearly in 1952 followed his appointment as theorchestra’s Principal Conductor. Both companiesevidently regarded him as a safe accompanist andreliable advocate for British music, but seemedhesitant about offering him core symphonicrepertoire. Nixa-Westminster began similarly in 1953

by confining Boult to Holst, Walton and VaughanWilliams. But the next year they allowed him aBrahms cycle, with Schubert, Mendelssohn,Schumann and Berlioz to follow. In the late 1950s,Vanguard engaged him for some Sibelius plus four ofBeethoven’s Symphonies and Everest for Mahler,Hindemith and Shostakovich. After his retirementBoult recorded with the LPO for another two decades,HMV eventually letting him range from Bach toWagner, while Lyrita recorded much more of his Britishrepertoire. Even today his LPO recordings faroutnumber those with any other conductor, a worthylegacy from their first President (1965-83).3 Mario Mizzaro, who was second engineer on thesessions, has confirmed that separate monorecordings were not made.4 Ursula Franz (née Stenz), who joined Westminster asa Music Editor from 1955 and can be seen in thephotograph reproduced on page 5, was married toKurt List, who died in 1970. Affectionately known as‘Golden Ears’, she was present at the sessions in therôle of assistant to the producer and has confirmedthat Westminster edited its own versions of the mastertapes. She also recalls an amusing exchange betweenher husband and Sir Adrian, when the former asked fora section with horns to be repeated as the instrumentswere out of tune. “Sir Adrian responded gently:‘Shocking, isn’t it!’” 5 Founded in New York in 1949, Westminster Records,ceased regular operation in 1965, having beenacquired by ABC-Paramount Records in 1961. In 1979MCA Records acquired ABC Records together with itsWestminster subsidiary. Ownership of theWestminster catalogue passed to Universal Music in2000.

Peter Bromley

With thanks to Philip Stuart for LPO discographic information


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Control Room, Walthamstow Assembly Hall, 1956

(Unknown assistant; Herbert Zeithammer, Principal Balance Engineer; Mario Mizzaro, Second Balance Engineer)


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CD 1

Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)

Symphony No. 1 in B flat major, ‘Spring’, Op. 38 30:55

1 I Andante un poco maestoso – Allegro molto vivace 11:23

2 II Larghetto – 6:103 III Scherzo: Molto vivace – Trio I/II 5:004 IV Allegro animato e grazioso 8:22

Recorded 21-24 August 1956First issued on Westminster WST 14013(stereo LP) Stereo source: Pye production master

59:37

Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120 28:42

5 I Ziemlich langsam – Lebhaft – 10:396 II Romanze: Ziemlich langsam – 4:507 III Scherzo: Lebhaft – 5:088 IV Langsam – Lebhaft 8:04

Recorded 21-24 August 1956First issued on Westminster WST 14016 (stereo LP)Stereo source: Pye production master

CD 2

Robert SCHUMANN

Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61 30:33

1 I Sostenuto assai – Allegro ma non troppo 9:022 II Scherzo: Allegro vivace 6:283 III Adagio espressivo 7:044 IV Allegro molto vivace 7:59


Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, ‘Rhenish’, Op. 97 29:21

5 I Lebhaft 7:396 II Scherzo: Sehr massig 5:587 III Nicht schnell 5:178 IV Feierlich 5:279 V Lebhaft 5:00

70:18


Hector BERLIOZ (1803-1869)

0 Waverley – Overture, Op. 1 10:24



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CD 3

Hector BERLIOZ

Overtures

1 Le Corsaire, Op. 21 * 8:372 Le Roi Lear, Op. 4 † 15:483 Béatrice et Bénédict,

Act I: Overture † 7:384 Rob Roy * 12:05

Recorded 28-29 August 1956First issued on Westminster WST 14009 (stereo LP)Stereo source: Westminster XSV 27628 * & XSV 27629 †

76:51

5 Benvenuto Cellini, Act I: Overture ‡ 10:466 Les Francs-juges, Op. 3 13:197 Le Carnaval romain, Op. 9 8:37

Recorded 24 ‡ & 28-29 August 1956First issued on Westminster WST 14008(stereo LP)Stereo source: Pye production master

Producer: Kurt ListPrincipal Balance Engineer: Herbert ZeithammerSecond Balance Engineer: Mario Mizzaro

First release on CD of the original Westminster source masters: CD 3, 1-4First stereo release on CD: CD 2, Track 10, CD 3, Tracks 1-3, 5-7First stereo recordings: CD 1, CD 2, Tracks 5-10, CD 3, Track 4


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Sir Adrian Boult and Kurt List, Walthamstow Assembly Hall, 1956 †

Special thanks to Peter Bromley.

Thanks also to Colin Anderson, Ursula Franz, Michael Gray, Phil Hateley (Launch Music International), Ian Jones, Mario Mizzaro, Duncan Moore (EMI Classics), Alan Newcombe (Universal Classics),

Nick Staines, Philip Stuart and Malcolm Walker.

FHR07

† First Hand Records has not been able by reasonable enquiry to ascertain the identity of the owner of the copyright in these photographs.

For enquiries, please contact [email protected]


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