(+++) TWOFOLD TRIBUTE

Elgar: Symphony No. 2; In the South (Alassio) Concert Overture; Four Part Songs, Op. 53; Two Choral Songs, Op. 71; Death on the Hills, Op. 72; Two Choral Songs, Op. 73; Go, song of mine, Op. 57; interviews of and commentary by Sir Adrian Boult. Scottish National Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Chorus conducted by Sir Adrian Boult. Ariadne. $29.99 (2 CDs).

     New releases of historic recordings are almost always focused either on a specific composer or on a particular performer (or, sometimes, ensemble). A new two-CD Ariadne set, on the other hand, is equally balanced in its explorations of and revelations about a composer and a conductor: it is titled “Boult’s Elgar” but could just as reasonably be called “Boult/Elgar” to emphasize the equality of focus. The long career of Sir Adrian Boult (1889-1983) was extensively bound up with performances of Elgar’s music, and the trials and worries of the self-conscious and self-critical Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) were frequently assuaged by performances led by Boult.

     Arguably the most significant Boult/Elgar intertwining involved Elgar’s Symphony No. 2 (1911), which originally received at best a mixed reception but which hit its stride upon a 1920 performance in which Boult led the London Symphony Orchestra – a concert so successful that it led Elgar to tell Boult, “I feel that my reputation in the future is safe in your hands.” Boult recorded the symphony five times: in 1944 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra; in 1956, 1968 and 1976 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra – and in 1963 with the Scottish National Orchestra. It is the very little known 1963 reading that is heard here, and while the interpretation is something of a transitional one between Boult’s earlier and later handling of the symphony, and the orchestra a very good but not exceptional one, this recording provides fascinating insight into Boult’s evolving thinking about this symphony while also showcasing the many intriguing elements of the score – ranging from highly personal references to Elgar’s own music (The Dream of Gerontius) to structural echoes of works by other composers (notably Brahms and Wagner).

     A significantly earlier recording, from 1944, offers a first-rate performance of the tone poem In the South, which is rather too expansive and detailed for its official designation as a “concert overture.” The proto-symphonic structure of the work comes through particularly clearly in Boult’s reading with the BBC Symphony Orchestra: dating to 1903-1904, In the South is in various ways anticipatory of Elgar’s creation of his Symphony No. 1 in 1908, somewhat analogously to the way Brahms’ two Serenades of 1858 and 1859 were predecessors of his first symphony (1876). Many intriguing touches of the score come through admirably in Boult’s reading, even though the restored sound of the performance is scarcely ideal (although this release as a whole is remastered with admirable skill).

     The second CD in this set turns to vocal material, in the form of various unaccompanied choral works written by Elgar between 1907 and 1914 and sung with sensitivity and fine diction by the BBC Chorus. Boult is not usually thought of as a choral conductor, and indeed did little such conducting as his career progressed, but he had been a singer himself, and he shows in these performances that he clearly knows how to mold this music and meld the voices singing it. The packaging and presentation are lacking, though: no words are given (not even a link to a place to find them online), and sources are identified only by their last names (including one error: Serenade, Op. 73, No. 2, is said to use words by “Minski,” when they are actually by Apollon Maikov, whose poetry is also used for Op. 73, No. 1).

     The choral songs take up only 34 of the second CD’s 78 minutes, and it is the remainder of the disc – all of it verbal – that cements this release’s Elgar/Boult balance and makes the recording of exceptional interest to enthusiasts (although much less so to those who fancy Elgar only casually). Included here are a brief discussion about the Enigma Variations between Boult and Elgar’s daughter, Carice Elgar Blake, dating to 1944; a personal reminiscence by Boult about Elgar’s music and the Boult-Elgar relationship, also with some Enigma Variations references, from 1951; and a half-hour BBC interview of Boult from 1965, focusing entirely on the conductor’s own career and influences and mentioning Elgar only in passing. This final portion of the release places the limelight as clearly on Boult as the first disc, which proffers the symphony and tone poem, places it on Elgar. The result is a recording that elucidates more clearly than most the interrelationship between a conductor and a specific composer whose music he championed for many decades and with which he was intimately associated. The musical performances themselves are all quite fine, if not necessarily the last word on the works – not even necessarily Boult’s last word on them. But this release is about more than the music itself: its focus is on the way music comes to be presented to the public and the lengthy and sometimes arduous process through which dedicated advocates, over a period of many years, can bring composers a secure place in the repertoire and, as Elgar perceived where Boult was concerned, a safe reputation in the future.