BBC SO, Adrian Boult conducting M3.

[Seán]

I understand that this 2 CD set has just been re-issued.  I am wondering if any of you have listened to it and if you have what do you think of it?

Symphony No. 3
BBC Symphony Orchestra; Sir Adrian Boult, conductor
Live BBC retransmission, November 29, 1947, recorded at Maida Vale Studios, London

Kindertotenlieder
Concertgebouw Orchestra-Amsterdam; Otto Klemperer, conductor
Recorded July 12, 1951, Amsterdam

CBC Interview with Eric McLean
KATHLEEN FERRIER, contralto
Recorded March 10, 1950, Montréal

Testament SBT2 1422 (2 CDs), Mono, 57:38/72:41, ADD

[Dave H]

It's a surprisingly good performance. The sonics are quite limited, but the brass playing is remarkably fine for the period, particularly in the first movement. The second movement is very charmless, but the scherzo is bubbly (even with the posthorn front and center and louder than anything else--again, the solo is amazingly well played). Ferrier is tolerable, despite her usual pitch problems and weird diction, and the finale really is special. Boult invests it with that I can only call "Elgarian nobilmente," and it works very well. The Kindertotenlieder are even less well recorded, and the performance strikes me as for Ferrier fans only; but the Third is worth hearing if your interest is in historical recordings of Mahler from unexpected sources.

Dave H

[Don]

I have never heard Boult do Mahler,or much else outside of the English repertoire (Vaughan Williams, Holst, etc) for that matter, so it would be interesting to hear.

[Dave H]

He also did Mahler 1 for Everest (with the LPO), a performance of near total characterlessness. This Third is far more interesting.

Dave H

[Amphissa]

 
He recorded some rather "yawing deadnaught" performances of Rachmaninoff symphonies. And there is an EMI Classics Great Masters 2-CD set with Boult conducting Tchaikovsky,  Schubert, Schumann, Franck, Beethoven and Sibelius. Then there is the DVD of the Beethoven Violin Concerto, featuring Boult in his 80s and Milstein at about 70.

It was best, IMO, that he stuck mostly with the British composers. He seemed to suffer a lack of insight and inspiration when dealing with music beyond the shores.
 

[Dave H]

I would agree with that, unfortunately. Boult was seldom at his best in music outside of the British school in which he specialized (but he was pretty terrific on that score, for the most part). He also did an absolutely atrociously clunky Hindemith Symphony in E-flat, and a Brahms cycle which, though praised in some quarters, is distressingly flaccid and dull. However, there are a few exceptions--one being his Brahms serenades, which are really beautifully shaped and full of life.

Dave H