59.00 PLN

CD:

Nr kat.: BBCL4039
Label  : BBC Legends

Boult wasn't one to insinuate celebrity into music. His approach was different (not better or worse) than Barbirolli's: let's be glad of both men. There's no lack of passion in Boult's conducting and one comes away from the symphonic music on his CD deeply satisfied. Boult oversees the music's structural considerations, illuminating instrumental dialogue and internal balance by having antiphonal violins. Thus the Sibelius emerges as an unbroken arc of musical achievement (with trumpets added for the final bars as Koussevitzky did) and the Ravel is distinguished by lovely woodwind playing (a Philharmonia hallmark) and radiant strings. Boult charts the sunrise with thrilling inevitability and doesn't miss the brass's `kiss' (as Daphnis and Chloe are reunited) at 4' 26" (Ansermet, but surprisingly not Monteux, is equally insightful here). I like Boult's flowing account of `Pantomime' enhanced by the poetic flute playing of, presumably, Gareth Morris; and I like too Boult's measured way with the closing `Danse generale'. In his notes, Rob Cowan suggests that this final section "has a slight whiff of the morning after". I know what he means but I think Boult's speed is perfect to feel the 2+3 division of five beats in the bar. There's no lack of excitement as Boult builds towards the final bars, and if the trumpets get lost just prior to these (compensated elsewhere by details not always heard) the ending is lustily abandoned. Boult never recorded the Ravel or Sibelius (although he did tape the latter's Tone Poems very persuasively for Vanguard in the 'fifties, now on CD in the States) so this archive material is invaluable, especially so given the marvellous renditions. Neither is the Bizet in Boult's discography. He plays this delightful music with a straight bat but no lack of charm, while the `Unfinished' reflects what Rob Cowan cites as Boult's "directness… authority… and wisdom". Cowan also relates what I found a touching anecdote about a meeting he had with Boult. I too have a Boult anecdote. I wrote to him a few years before he died (in 1983 aged 93). Not only did Sir Adrian write back, he did so in his own hand giving me a full reply, starting his letter: "You appear not to be on the telephone or I would have rung you." I was indeed without a 'phone - quite how I would have reacted to "Boult here" I'm not sure. https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2000/aug00/knights.htm