Gramophone Magazine - December 2010
Boult’s solid Schumann symphonies and much-loved Berlioz reappear in stereo.

The high production values that distinguished Volume 1 of First Hand Records’ reissue of Sir Adrian Boult’s “1956 Nixa-Westminster Stereo Recordings” with the London Philharmonic are again in evidence for Vol 2. The transfers are admirably honest, the annotations (some by Boult himself) are unostentatiously authoritative and the presentation - three CDs and a booklet neatly packed into a sturdy gatefold envelope - is both space-saving and user-friendly. In other words, it’s a model product of its kind.
In his original album notes Boult reminisces about playing through piano-duet versions of the Schumann symphonies with Clara Schumann-pupil Fanny Davies. The story goes that at the end of the session Davies “produced a modern Czech symphony” (I’d love to know what that was) but young Adrian couldn’t break the spell of Schumann’s music and escaped to bed. He sees the second Symphony as a “Bright and dramatic work”, and that’s how he conducts it, with fast tempi in the outer movements (breathlessly speeding towards the Allegro though with no first-movement exposition repeat), a lively Scherzo and an Adagio that although refreshingly unsentimental is hardly espressivo in the way we’ve come to expect. The First Symphony (with repeat) is bracing and well judged but I’d agree with annotator Colin Anderson that the first movement of the Rhenish is just that bit too fast, or rather, too fast given that the London Philharmonic of the period wasn’t quite in the virtuoso league. If it had been, then the hard driving might have worked better. However, the middle movements, none of them rushed, are sensitively phrased and the positive qualities that apply there are very much in evidence throughout the whole of the Forth Symphony (again with its first movement repeat intact), a compelling performance by any standards, with some well-managed transitions. Interesting, too, how Boult employs subtle ritardandos in the first movement’s development section.
The Berlioz recordings were for many years de rigueur for anyone in need of a comprehensive survey of the overture and they still stand up fairly well, though Waverly and Le corsaire are a mite too stolid for my liking. Best are les franc-juges and a powerhouse Le carnaval romian.
The recorded balance tends to shift from piece to piece and the aura of primitive stereophony leaves a vague impression of Boult’s seating plan for the orchestra (sometimes the violin desks sound as if they might be divided, at other times they seem seated together), but in most other respects the sound is remarkably good for its period. So a very welcome addition to the Boult discography, and added proof that this most straight-backed of maestros was quite capable of making sparks fly.
Reviewed by: Rob Cowan