Brahms: Symphony No. 1 - Elgar: Enigma Variations

BRAHMS Symphony No. 1. ELGAR Enigma Variations 1 • Adrian Boult, cond; 1 George Thalben Ball (org); BBC SO • ICA 5019 (78:21) Live: London 1 3/29/1971, 7/17/1976 & John Douglas Todd interviews Sir Adrian Boult (1974) When EMI, at the instigation of producer Christopher Bishop, issued recordings of the four Brahms symphonies in the early 1970s, Sir Adrian Boult’s 20 years with the BBC and the steady broadcast reminders of the catholicity of his tastes and skills were well past. Bishop was troubled that the aging conductor’s reputation as an English music specialist, built on years of service to the composers of his homeland, had resulted in an insufficient recorded legacy of his art. The Austro-German and Russian Romantics had been an important part of his repertoire throughout a career that stretched back to his conducting debut with a professional orchestra in 1914. He had performed Bartók, Shostakovich, Mahler, and the Second Viennese School when most