How good to welcome
back the Boult Coates album from Lyrita,
coupled here with a rather heterogeneous
selection of a half dozen other marches.
Boult wasn’t averse to the odd march,
nor guest-conducting unlikely aggregations
– he once conducted Glenn Miller’s band
I seem to remember. Still, an album
of Coates material wasn’t necessarily
the first thing to spring to the programmatic
mind back in 1976 – so retrospective
thanks are due to Lyrita. Maybe the
idea was planted by the Coates performances
Boult had given with the BBC Concert
Orchestra the previous year, about which
I’ll have something to say in passing,
as the running order for Lyrita pretty
well matches those earlier pieces.
There’s no doubt that
Boult, whilst sumptuously recorded by
Lyrita, was not quite so bracing and
incisive as he’d been the previous year.
The Merrymakers Overture is captured
in rather rawer but more immediate sound
by the BBC engineers on a now deleted
disc, BBCRD 9106 - one of the Radio
Classics series. On Lyrita he is mellow
but affectionate; for the BBC he swaggered
and was more boisterous – the live performance
doubtless driving him with greater tensile
strength. In the single example from
the Three Elizabeths Suite we
again find that whilst the BBC recording
is neither as warm nor as detailed as
the Lyrita the BBC trumpet solo is more
exciting; for Lyrita the trio is much
slower and more nostalgic – beautiful
of course on its own terms but perhaps
missing the necessary connection to
the more vigorous material surrounding
it. Incidentally I’ve retained the Princess
Elizabeth title which is as it was in
1944 – maybe Coates changed the designation
post 1953; Lyrita print Queen Elizabeth.
Boult had a penchant
for the Dambusters march, once
playing it as an encore, to everyone’s
amazement. He’s tighter in 1975 than
for Lyrita once again – the counter-themes
are more athletic and the air is more
spruce, and more adrenalin fuelled.
His tempo for the first and third movements
from the From Meadow to Mayfair suite
is rather reminiscent of Coates’s own
in his 1931 recording with the Light
Symphony Orchestra. Summer Days Suite
was a favourite of Elgar’s and its central
movement is especially lovely, and played
by Boult with felicitous distinction.
The Three Bears Phantasy is only
very slightly longer than the composer’s
own 1933 disc with the New Symphony
– though Coates has a natural way with
the swing of the rhythm that Boult hasn’t.
The best of the ancillary
marches is without question the Holst,
and Boult sounds entirely at one with
the music – it’s truly exciting as well.
The VW is a close second in terms of
interpretative insight and awareness
– splendidly florid in its folkloric
impress. The Walton is rather deadpan,
the Delius very early and not especially
distinguished as a work – though it
does reminds us that Boult conducted
the premiere of the Delius Violin Concerto
back in 1919.
This is a fine restoration
though I can hardly pretend that I admire
these more thoughtful and nostalgic
Coates performances more than the live
ones of the previous year. Toward the
end Boult’s live performances and broadcasts
could really flare into life and something
of that happened in June 1975. But if
you accept that this Lyrita constitutes
a mellower and beautifully recorded
collection than you will certainly not
be disappointed.
Jonathan Woolf
See also review
by Rob Barnett
for
details
New Philharmonia Orchestra/Sir Adrian
Boult 
