Adrian Boult

Boult established the BBC Symphony Orchestra and became its chief conductor. He introduced new works by Elgar, Bliss, Britten, Delius, Rootham, Tippett, Vaughan Williams and Walton. His legacy includes his influence on prominent conductors of later generations, including Colin Davis and Vernon Handley.

About Adrian Boult in brief

Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH, was an English conductor. 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. Forced to leave the BBC in 1950 on reaching retirement age, Boult took on the chief conductorship of the LPO. 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 Elgar, Bliss, Britten, Delius, Rootham, Tippett, Vaughan Williams and Walton. From the mid-1960s until his retirement after his last sessions in 1978 he recorded extensively for EMI. His legacy includes his influence on prominent conductors of later generations, including Colin Davis and Vernon Handley. He was also a keen rower, and remained a member of the Leander Club for the rest of his life. He continued his musical education at the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany, where he graduated in 1912, with a basic degree in musical education. The musician Hans Sittandhaus was one of Boult’s main interpreters, but there were others who were greater interpreters who admired Boult. He died in London on October 17, 2013, at the age of 87. He is survived by his wife, Katharine Florence née Barman, and a son, Cedric Randal Boult, and a daughter,  Katharine Florence Barman-Boult, who were married for more than 50 years.

The couple had two sons,  Cedric, a Justice of the Peace and a successful businessman connected with Liverpool shipping and the oil trade; Cedric and his family had a Liberal Unitarian outlook on public affairs with a history of philanthropy. The family moved to Blundellsands, Cheshire, in North West England, when he was two years old. He attended Westminster School in London, where in his free time he attended concerts conducted by, among others, Sir Henry Wood, Claude Debussy, Arthur Nikisch, Fritz Steinbach, and Richard Strauss. In 1909 Boult presented a paper to an Oxford musical group, the Oriana Society, entitled Some Notes on Performance, in which he laid down three precepts for an ideal performance: observance of the composer’s wishes, clarity through emphasis on balance and structure, and the effect of music made without apparent effort. While still a schoolboy he met the composer Edward Elgar through Frank Schuster, a family friend. While at Christ Church college at Oxford, he was an undergraduate from 1908 to 1912, and studied history but later switched to music. Among the musical friends he made at Oxford was Ralph Vaughan Williams, who became a lifelong friend. He was president of the University Musical Club for a year in 1910, but his interests were not wholly confined to music: he remained a keen rowing club member.

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