LPO Label digital booklet - D929 Elgar: The Legacy Vol. 3

ELGAR: THE LEGACY

VOL. 3 (1950–53)

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ELGAR: THE LEGACY VOL. 3 (1950–53) 1

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LPO–D929

POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE MILITARY MARCH IN D MAJOR, OP. 39. NO. 1

Sir Malcolm Sargent conductor | Royal Festival Orchestra (including players from the LPO) Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, London, on 3 May 1951 ℗ 2023 London Philharmonic Orchestra

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33:54

FALSTAFF: SYMPHONIC STUDY IN C MINOR, OP. 68

Sir Adrian Boult conductor

Recorded at Abbey Road Studio 1, London, on 17–19 July 1950 ℗ 2007 London Philharmonic Orchestra Producer Lawrance Collingwood Engineers Laurie Bamber & Robert Beckett

i) ii)

03:10 12:43

ii) iv) v) vi)

02:24 04:03 02:45 08:49

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Falstaff and Prince Henry Eastcheap – Gadshill – The Boar’s Head. Revelry and sleep – Dream Interlude: ‘Jack Falstaff, now Sir John, a boy, and page to Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk’ Dream Interlude (Poco allegretto) Falstaff’s March – The return through Gloucestershire Interlude: Gloucestershire. Shallow’s orchard – The new king – The hurried ride to London King Henry V’s progress – The repudiation of Falstaff, and his death

20:50

THE WAND OF YOUTH, SUITE NO. 1, OP. 1A

Sir Adrian Boult conductor

Recorded at Abbey Road Studio 1, London, on 20 May 1953 ℗ 2023 London Philharmonic Orchestra Producer Lawrance Collingwood Engineers Douglas Larter & Edward Huntley

i) 01:34 ii) 02:45 iii) 02:28 iv) 02:42 v) 03:56 vi) 03:57 vii) 03:28

Overture Serenade Minuet (Old Style) Sun Dance Fairy Pipers Slumber Scene Fairies and Giants

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POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE MILITARY MARCH IN C MINOR, OP. 39. NO. 3

Sir Adrian Boult conductor

Recorded at Abbey Road Studio 1, London, on 20 May 1953 ℗ 2023 London Philharmonic Orchestra Producer Lawrance Collingwood Engineers Douglas Larter & Edward Huntley

16–30 31:05

VARIATIONS ON AN ORIGINAL THEME, OP. 36 (‘ENIGMA’)

Sir Adrian Boult conductor

Recorded at Abbey Road Studio 1, London, on 28 September 1953 ℗ 2023 London Philharmonic Orchestra Producer Lawrance Collingwood Engineers Douglas Larter & Edward Huntley

01:40 01:55 00:49 01:38 00:29 02:02 01:21 00:56 01:54 03:58 02:49 00:58 02:23 02:36 05:37

Theme (Andante) Variation I. L’istesso tempo ‘C.A.E.’ Variation II. Allegro ‘H.D.S-P.’ Variation III. Allegretto ‘R.B.T.’ Variation IV. Allegro di molto ‘W.M.B.’ Variation V. Moderato ‘R.P.A.’ Variation VI. Andantino ‘Ysobel’ Variation VII. Presto ‘Troyte’ Variation VIII. Allegretto ‘W.N.’ Variation IX. Adagio ‘Nimrod’ Variation X. Intermezzo: Allegretto ‘Dorabella’ Variation XI. Allegro di molto ‘G.R.S.’ Variation XII. Andante ‘B.G.N.’ Variation XIII. Romanza: Moderato ‘* * *’ Variation XIV. Finale: Allegro Presto ‘E.D.U.’

Post-production Andrew Walton, K&A Productions Analogue Transfers Mike Clements (Tracks 1, 8–14); Andrew Walton (Tracks 15–30)

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ELGAR: THE LEGACY VOL. 2 (1949–50)

BY ANDREW NEILL The London Philharmonic Orchestra gave its first performance in the Queen’s Hall on 7 October 1932, directed by its founder, Sir Thomas Beecham. This prompted a review by the critic Ernest Newman, who wrote: ‘You want to know what an orchestra ought to be like? Well, just listen to this’. The following year the Orchestra recorded some of Elgar’s music under the composer’s direction (see Elgar: The Legacy Volume 1, cat. no. LPO-D927).

Sir Adrian Boult as the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor in 1950. He held the position until 1957, but maintained a close association with the Orchestra until his retirement in 1978.

Boult (1889–1983) was one of the few conductors who made recordings through an acoustic horn in 1920 and lived to see the introduction of the digital recording process. He recorded more of Elgar’s music than any other conductor, including the Second Symphony five times (three with the LPO) and the First Symphony three times (all with the LPO). Most of his recordings were made with the LPO during his so-called ‘Indian summer’, which began in the mid 1960s. It was EMI and its HMV label that captured most of Boult’s Elgar recordings made during the 1960s and 70s, the prelude for this being the series of recordings made in the years Boult was at the helm of the LPO.

Less than a year later, on 1 March 1934, the LPO gave a memorial concert for Elgar in the Queen’s Hall, this time under Dr Adrian Boult (as he was then; he was knighted three years later). This Royal Philharmonic Society concert concluded with Elgar’s Second Symphony, a work with which Boult had been associated since 1920, when his interpretation had garnered the praise of the composer. The first half of the concert began with the Prelude to The Dream of Gerontius and was followed by the Violin Concerto, with Albert Sammons as soloist. Elgar had died on 23 February but, for the Orchestra, this concert heralded a future association with Boult and with the music of Elgar.

1 POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE MILITARY MARCH IN D MAJOR, OP. 39. NO. 1

Sir Malcolm Sargent conductor

With one exception, all the recordings released here are directed by Boult. The exception is the opening track, which was conducted by one of the LPO’s founders, Sir Malcolm Sargent, who shared with Boult the opening concert of the Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank on 3 May 1951.

Built as a centrepiece for the Festival of Britain, the Hall was formally opened by King George VI before he attended this opening concert. Sargent directed the Royal Festival Orchestra

By the early 1950s the fortunes of the LPO had changed.

It had survived the Second World War and postwar austerity with difficulty. Beecham – who had spent the war years abroad – returned and, finding ‘his’ orchestra now selfgoverning, walked away and formed a new orchestra – the Royal Philharmonic. This resulted in a period of uncertainty which included the poaching of key players.

Stability was finally achieved by the appointment of

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in this performance of Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, featuring players from the LPO, as well as musicians from the BBC Symphony, London Symphony, New London and Philharmonia orchestras. This recording provides a snapshot of the inaugural concert of what would become Britain’s leading concert hall for the ensuing four decades.

Unlike Boult, Sargent was more of a showman, making this event particularly suited to his style. However, the performance highlights Sargent’s restraint, letting the opening arch evolve organically before the renowned trio tune surfaces naturally, without any undue emphasis.

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by Pathé. He began recording his ‘symphonic study’ Falstaff with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) the day before the opening of the Studios and completed it the following day. The result remained the only recording of Falstaff for nearly 20 years, before the current recording, made by the LPO under Boult in the summer of 1950. This is a fine performance of a complex work which would not have been familiar to many of the players, although some would have recalled a Royal Philharmonic Concert from November 1938 when Boult also conducted Falstaff. Boult would go on to record Falstaff twice more, each time with the LPO. That made for EMI in 1973 shows the consistency of approach he brought to Falstaff, his tempi being much the same as this recording made 23 years before.

FALSTAFF: SYMPHONIC STUDY IN C MINOR, OP. 68 Sir Adrian Boult conductor

8–14 THE WAND OF YOUTH, SUITE NO. 1, OP. 1A

It was for the Decca label that Boult and LPO made the first complete cycle of Vaughan Williams’s symphonies, beginning in 1952; one of the great landmarks in recording history.

These were exciting times, as Decca moved to recording on tape, abandoning the 78rpm format in favour of the longplaying (LP) record, the first British label to do so. However, the other recordings included in this issue were all made for commercial release by HMV in their Abbey Road studios.

Sir Adrian Boult conductor

Elgar’s First Wand of Youth Suite received its fourth recording three years later in 1954. In Volume 2 of this series Eduard van Beinum’s recordings of both Suites with the LPO for the Decca label are included. It is rewarding to compare the two performances of these exquisite miniatures. Note in particular, in Boult’s performance of ‘Fairy Pipers’ where a slight emphasis on the drone in the bass allows the second theme, as the key changes and the violins take over from the clarinets, to sound more ethereal – more ‘fairy-like’. This is conducting of great sympathy and understanding for music of subtle beauty.

In November 1931, less than a year before the LPO’s inaugural concert, Elgar had not only made the first commercial recording in EMI’s new Abbey Road Studios, but he performed at the formal opening, an event captured on film

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nothing ‘funereal’ in any of the four recordings of music which, if it is about anything, is about friendship.

MARCH IN C MINOR, OP. 39. NO. 3

Sir Adrian Boult conductor

Furthermore, Boult would have known that Elgar was the least sentimental interpreter of his own music. For example, in his recording from 1926, Elgar’s ‘Nimrod’ lasts just under three minutes, whilst Boult in 1936 takes the same time.

Seventeen years later he has broadened his approach.

In 1953 and 1970 (with the LSO) he takes a consistent 03:57 and 03:53 respectively, but in 1961 (with the LPO) Boult’s ‘Nimrod’ is 40 seconds longer at 04:38. In some ways this recording from 1953 is one of the finest interpretations of the Variations, its value barely compromised by the limitations of the mono sound.

Perhaps the least known of Elgar’s five Pomp and Circumstance Marches is the elusive third in C minor.

Scored with the addition of a third bassoon and tenor drum, the March, composed in 1904, begins quietly, the opening theme only emerging after a fff climax. The jaunty trio, initially in A flat, returns in the brightness of C major but this cannot disguise the underlying tension that is only increased by the protracted coda that brings the March to an abrupt conclusion. Boult recorded all five Marches twice with the LPO: in 1955 when the Third March was given a livelier interpretation, and again in 1976/77.

Andrew Neill was Chairman of the Elgar Society from 1992–2008. He has contributed programme and booklet notes on the music of Elgar, Strauss, Vaughan Williams and their contemporaries for the LPO and other orchestras, and has broadcast and written extensively about these composers for a wide range of journals and publications.

16–30 VARIATIONS ON AN ORIGINAL THEME, OP. 36 (‘ENIGMA’)

Sir Adrian Boult conductor

The LPO wishes to thank its discographer Philip Stuart for facilitating this release, and the writer and broadcaster Nigel Simeone for his advice regarding performances of Elgar’s music by Sir Adrian Boult.

Cover photograph © Adobe Stock.

By 1953 Elgar’s Enigma Variations were widely recorded, Boult having made his first recording in 1936 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He would record the Variations thrice more, the sessions from 1953 being included here. Boult, who remained a consistent interpreter of much of the music he conducted over many decades, came to slow his interpretation of Variation XI (‘Nimrod’). There is, however,

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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world’s finest orchestras, balancing a long and distinguished history with its present-day position as one of the most dynamic and forward-looking ensembles in the UK. This reputation has been secured by the Orchestra’s performances in the concert hall and opera house, its many award-winning recordings, trailblazing international tours and wide-ranging educational work.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra made its first recordings on 10 October 1932, just three days after its first public performance. It has recorded and broadcast regularly ever since, and in 2005 established its own record label. These recordings are taken mainly from live concerts given by conductors including those with LPO Principal Conductors from Beecham and Boult, through Haitink, Solti, Tennstedt and Masur, to Jurowski and Gardner.

Founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932, the Orchestra has since been headed by many of the world’s greatest conductors, including Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. In September 2021 Edward Gardner became the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor, succeeding Vladimir Jurowski, who became Conductor Emeritus in recognition of his transformative impact on the Orchestra as Principal Conductor from 2007–21.

lpo.org.uk

The Orchestra is based at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it has been Resident Orchestra since 1992. Each summer it takes up its annual residency at Glyndebourne Festival Opera where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra for over 50 years. The Orchestra performs at venues around the UK and has made numerous international tours, performing to sell-out audiences in America, Europe, Asia and Australasia.

LPO–D929

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