Boult conducts Bridge & Ireland

London Philharmonic Orchestra
Sir Adrian Boult, conductor

Label: Lyrita
Copyright: 2007 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England
Catalogue number: SRCD.242
UPC/EAN: 5020926024220
Format: CD
Analogue / Digital recording: ADD
Number of discs: 1
Total playing time: 70.02
Price: £ 14.99 (+ postage & packing)

Tracks 1 - 6: No recording information available
Track 7: Recorded at Kingsway Hall, 30 September 1975, Producer: James Walker, Engineer: John Dunkerley
Track 8 - 11: Recorded at Kingsway Hall, 14 November 1973, Producer: James Mallinson, Engineer: Kenneth Wilkinson
Track 12 - 15: Recorded at Walthamstow, 8 January 1974

Recordings issued in the last thirty years have given us the much-needed chance to get to know some of Frank Bridge’s more radical later works — works which show an exploring, often elusive and sometimes disturbingly introspective musical mind. Oration, Phantasm, the 3rd and 4th string quartets, and the piano and violin sonatas are examples, but there are others.

"It's amazing how good these forty year old analogue tapes sound ... The Ireland is given a full-blooded performance with a gripping sound typical of Boult's EMI recordings of the Bliss Music for Strings and Howells Concerto for Strings for EMI Classics ..." Rob Barnett, www.musicweb-international.com Click here to read the full review

"This most welcome disc gathers together and restores to circulation a number of vintage Boult performances. In passing it’s interesting to note how many of his assignments for Lyrita consisted of short pieces though he was still doing big works in concerts and in the recording studios at the time. By recording him in such works, however, Lyrita helpfully – and probably deliberately – filled in a number of gaps in his discography. I’m not aware that he otherwise recorded any of the works in this collection yet all the performances are welcome and, at their best, treasurable ... Throughout the programme the LPO is on excellent form and so is Boult ..." John Quinn, www.musicweb-international.com Click here to read the full review

"Boult at the helm of the Rodney Friend-led LPO in British music – that spells invariable ascendancy. Add to it Lyrita’s remarkable facility with balance and engineering and their no less special remastering and reissuing package and you have a corpus of recordings that will not date. Whether the programme appeals depends on your enthusiasm for Bridge’s lighter style and for the Ireland Concertino Pastorale, though a look at the head note will show that there’s an enviable variety to it and something for all tastes ... Top marks for this compilation - idiomatic conducting, music of sensitivity and rustic abandon, accustomed excellence as regards recording and remastering - and good notes as ever from this source ..." Jonathan Woolf, www.musicweb-international.com Click here to read the full review