Sir
Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was an English
conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical
studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in
London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei
Diaghilev's ballet company. As Adrian Boult recalled,
Victor Beigel much enjoyed the
punning name of the road—Howley Place—well suited as a venue which “daily
re-echoed” with the voluble sound of his pupils, straining to reach their most
difficult notes. “His companion,” Boult noted, “was a charming American
architect named Dickie
Borie,” whose infectious wit enlivened the couple’s frequent parties and
musicales. “It was always a pleasure to dine with them,” the musician
recalled, and then sit in the garden, when “finally they would bring the dogs
for a walk with us to the tube station at Warwick Avenue, with an occasional
whiff of what they called ‘parfum de Venise’ as one passed the canal.”
Boult's first prominent post was conductor of the City of Birmingham
Orchestra in 1924. When the British Broadcasting Corporation appointed him
director of music in 1930, he established the BBC Symphony Orchestra and
became its chief conductor. The orchestra set standards of excellence that
were rivalled in Britain only by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO),
founded two years later. Forced to leave the BBC in 1950 on reaching
retirement age, Boult took on the chief conductorship of the LPO. The
orchestra had declined from its peak of the 1930s, but under his guidance its
fortunes were revived. He retired as its chief conductor in 1957, and later
accepted the post of president. Although in the latter part of his career he
worked with other orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra,
the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and his former
orchestra, the BBC Symphony, it was the LPO with which he was primarily
associated, conducting it in concerts and recordings until 1978, in what was
widely called his "Indian Summer". Boult was known for his championing of
British music. He gave the first performance of his friend Gustav Holst's The
Planets, and introduced new works by, among
others, Elgar, Bliss, Britten, Delius, Rootham, Tippett, Vaughan
Williams and Walton. In his BBC years he introduced works by foreign
composers, including Bartók, Berg, Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Webern. A modest
man who disliked the limelight, Boult felt as comfortable in the recording
studio as on the concert platform, making recordings throughout his career.
From the mid-1960s until his retirement after his last sessions in 1978 he
recorded extensively for EMI. As well as a series of recordings that have
remained in the catalogue for three or four decades, Boult's legacy includes
his influence on prominent conductors of later generations, including Colin
Davis and Vernon Handley.
For many years, Boult had been a close friend of the tenor Steuart
Wilson and his wife Ann, née Bowles. When, in the late 1920s, Wilson began to
mistreat his wife, Boult took her side.[53][n
2] She divorced Wilson in 1931. In 1933, Boult astonished those who knew
his notorious shyness with women by marrying her and becoming a much-loved
stepfather to her four children; the marriage lasted for the rest of his life.[53] The
enmity it provoked in Wilson had repercussions in Boult's later career.[55] The
stigma attached to divorce in Britain in the 1930s affected Wilson's career
but not Boult's: Wilson was barred from performing in English cathedrals at
the Three Choirs Festival but Boult was invited to conduct the orchestra
at Westminster Abbey for the coronation of George VI in 1937.[56]
Boult was created a Knight Bachelor in 1937[7] and
was created a Companion
of Honour (CH) in 1969.[7] He
received the gold medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1944[5] and
the Harvard Glee Club medal (jointly with Vaughan Williams) in 1956.[5] He
received honorary degrees and fellowships from 13 universities and
conservatoires.[7] In
1951 he was invited to be the first president of the Elgar Society.[103] In
1959 he was made president of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music.[5]
Boult's old school, Westminster, has a music centre named in his honour,[104] and
the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire included in its home building the Adrian
Boult Hall. The hall was used for classical concerts, other musical
performances, and conferences.[105] The
hall was demolished in June 2016 as part of a redevelopment project.[106]
In the June 2013 issue of Gramophone Boult was added to the magazine's Hall of
Fame which recognises musicians who have made a lasting impact on the world of
recorded classical music.[107]
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