Sir Adrian Boult = English Music: ARNOLD: 8 English Dances; BAX: Tintagel; ELGAR: 3 Bavarian Dances; Chanson de Matin; Chanson de nuit; HOLST: The Perfect Fool Ballet; BUTTERWORTH: A Shropshire Lad; The Banks of Green Willow; WALTON: Siesta – London Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Adrian Boult – Pristine Audio PASC193 [www.pristineclassical.com], 79:43 ****:
Sir Adrian Boult (1889-1983) had a long and productive recording career which included the acoustic and digital eras and a very wide range of repertoire not restricted by any means to the music of Great Britain. However, much of reputation for his interpretations of English music is due in part to these fine Decca recordings from 1954 which have pleased so many music lovers since their first release.
Boult never re-recorded Sir Malcolm Arnold’s rumbustious sets of English Dances in stereo; for that we have the composer’s own brilliant recording on Lyrita, yet Boult’s swagger and energy impress still after all these years. The Elgar pieces are beautifully rounded, the Bavarian Dances especially rhythmic, and the two Butterworth works shaped as sensitively as anyone has achieved. Tintagel’s ebb and flow and rough-hewn majesty is at least as finely done as Boult’s later Lyrita recording, and for contrast, the sultry Siesta hums with atmosphere. And after all these years, Holst’s trombones’ appearance out of the acoustic still raises the hairs on the back of the neck!
Recorded in the excellent acoustics of Kingsway Hall by the famous team of James Walker and Kenneth Wilkinson, the mono sound wears its years lightly; the application of ambient stereo for those who specify that opens up the sound, especially for headphone use. I spent some time comparing these new restorations with earlier issues on Belart and Decca and found small but important improvements particularly in the reproduction of the upper strings which now seem to me less astringent and better balanced. I look forward to a second volume.
— Peter Joelson
