Editing Adrian Boult (section)

===BBC Symphony Orchestra===
Visits to London by the [[The Hallé|Hallé Orchestra]] and particularly the [[Berlin Philharmonic]] under [[Wilhelm Furtwängler]] in 1929, had highlighted the relatively poor standards of London orchestras.  [[Thomas Beecham|Sir Thomas Beecham]] and the director general of the [[BBC]] [[John Reith, 1st Baron Reith|Sir John Reith]] were keen to establish a first-class symphony orchestra,<ref>Kennedy, p. 138</ref> and they agreed in principle to do so jointly. Only a small number of core players were recruited before negotiations foundered. Beecham withdrew, and with [[Malcolm Sargent]] soon established the rival [[London Philharmonic Orchestra]].<ref>Reid, p. 204</ref>

In 1930 Boult returned to London to succeed [[Percy Pitt]] as director of music at the BBC.<ref>Kennedy, p. 139</ref> On taking up the post, Boult and his department recruited enough musicians to bring the complement of the new [[BBC Symphony Orchestra]] to&nbsp;114. A substantial number of these players performed at the 1930 [[The Proms|Promenade Concerts]] under Sir Henry Wood,<ref>"The Promenade Concerts" ''[[The Observer]]'', 20 July 1930, p. 12</ref> and the full BBC Symphony Orchestra gave its first concert on 22 October 1930, conducted by Boult at the Queen's Hall. The programme consisted of music by Wagner, [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]], [[Camille Saint-Saëns|Saint-Saëns]] and [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]].<ref>"Wireless Notes and Programmes", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 22 October 1930, p. 12</ref> Of the 21&nbsp;programmes in the orchestra's first season, Boult conducted nine and Wood five.<ref>''The Musical Times'', October 1930, p. 935. The other concerts were divided between Ansermet, [[Hermann Scherchen]], [[Oskar Fried]], [[Landon Ronald]] and [[Albert Coates (musician)|Albert Coates]].</ref>

[[File:Bbc broadcasting house front.jpg|left|thumb|upright|alt=exterior of large twentieth-century office building|[[Broadcasting House]], London, headquarters of the BBC, where Boult was director of music from 1930 to 1942]]

The reviews of the new orchestra were enthusiastic. ''[[The Times]]'' wrote of its "virtuosity" and of Boult's "superb" conducting.<ref>''The Times'', 23 October 1930, p. 12</ref> ''[[The Musical Times]]'' commented, "The boast of the B.B.C. that it intended to get together a first-class orchestra was not an idle one" and spoke of "exhilaration" at the playing.<ref>''The Musical Times'', 1 December 1930, p. 1124</ref> ''[[The Observer]]'' called the playing "altogether magnificent" and said that Boult "deserves an instrument of this fine calibre to work on, and the orchestra deserves a conductor of his efficiency and insight."<ref>''The Observer'', 26 October 1930, p. 14</ref> After the initial concerts Reith was told by his advisers that the orchestra had played better for Boult than anyone else. Reith asked him if he wished to take on the chief conductorship, and if so whether he would resign as director of music or occupy both posts simultaneously. Boult opted for the latter.<ref>Boult, p. 99</ref> He later said that this was a rash decision, and that he could not have sustained the two roles at once without the efforts of his staff in the music department, which included [[Edward Clark (conductor)|Edward Clark]], [[Julian Herbage]] and [[Kenneth Anthony Wright|Kenneth Wright]].<ref>Boult, p. 99 and Kennedy, p. 141</ref>

During the 1930s the BBC Symphony Orchestra became renowned for its high standard of playing and for Boult's capable performances of new and unfamiliar music. Like Henry Wood before him, Boult regarded it as his duty to give the best possible performances of a wide range of composers, including those whose works were not personally congenial to him. His biographer, Michael Kennedy, writes that there was a very short list of composers whose works Boult refused to conduct, "but it would be difficult to deduce who they were."<ref>Kennedy, p. 155</ref> Boult's pioneering work with the BBC included an early performance of [[Arnold Schoenberg|Schoenberg]]'s ''Variations,'' Op. 31, British premières, including [[Alban Berg]]'s opera ''[[Wozzeck]]'' and ''[[Lyric Suite (Berg)|Three Movements from the Lyric Suite]]'',<ref name=cummings>Cummings, David. "Boult's premières: Problems of Musical Lexicography", ''The Musical Times'', May 1989, pp. 272–75</ref> and world premières, including Vaughan Williams's [[Symphony No. 4 (Vaughan Williams)|Symphony No. 4 in F minor]]<ref>Boult, pp. 186–87</ref> and [[Béla Bartók|Bartók]]'s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra.<ref name=cummings/> He introduced Mahler's [[Symphony No. 9 (Mahler)|Ninth Symphony]] to London in 1934,<ref name=dnb/> and Bartók's [[Concerto for Orchestra (Bartók)|Concerto for Orchestra]] in 1946.<ref name=cummings/> Boult invited [[Anton Webern]] to conduct eight BBC concerts between 1931 and 1936.<ref>Foreman, Lewis. "Webern, the BBC and the Berg Violin Concerto" ''Tempo'', September 1991, pp. 2–10</ref>

[[File:Boult-guests1.jpg|thumb|right|upright|alt=panel of eight small photographs of men's portraits dating from the decades around 1900|Guest conducting for Boult in the 1930s: from top left, clockwise, [[Thomas Beecham|Beecham]], [[Serge Koussevitzky|Koussevitzky]], [[Willem Mengelberg|Mengelberg]], [[Richard Strauss]], [[Arturo Toscanini|Toscanini]], [[Bruno Walter|Walter]], [[Anton Webern|Webern]], [[Felix Weingartner|Weingartner]].]]

The excellence of Boult's orchestra attracted leading international conductors. In its second season guest conductors included [[Richard Strauss]], [[Felix Weingartner]] and [[Bruno Walter]],<ref>''The Times'', 27 August 1931, p. 8</ref> followed, in later seasons, by [[Serge Koussevitzky]],<ref>''The Times'', 10 September 1932, p. 8</ref> Beecham and [[Willem Mengelberg]].<ref>11 August 1936, p. 10</ref> [[Arturo Toscanini]], widely regarded at the time as the world's leading conductor, conducted the BBC orchestra in 1935 and said that it was the finest he had ever directed.<ref>Morrison, p. 74</ref> He returned to conduct the orchestra in 1937, 1938 and 1939.<ref>Boult, p. 102</ref>

During this period, Boult accepted some international guest conductorships, appearing with the [[Vienna Philharmonic]], [[Boston Symphony Orchestra|Boston Symphony]], and [[New York Philharmonic]] orchestras.<ref name=dnb/> In 1936 and 1937 he headed European tours with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, giving concerts in Brussels, Paris, Zurich, Budapest and Vienna, where they were especially well received.<ref name=grove/><ref name=osborne/> During his BBC years, Boult did not entirely lose contact with the world of opera and his performances of ''Die Walküre'' at Covent Garden in 1931 and ''[[Fidelio]]'' at [[Sadler's Wells Theatre]] in 1930 were considered outstanding.<ref name=osborne/>

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.<ref name=Kennedy161>Kennedy, pp. 161–63</ref>{{refn|Richard Aldous, in his biography of Malcolm Sargent, alleges that Boult and Ann Wilson were having an affair before her divorce from Wilson, but the source he cites (Kennedy, pp. 81, 111, 161–63) does not corroborate his statement.<ref>Aldous, p. 156</ref>|group=n}} 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.<ref name=Kennedy161 /> The enmity it provoked in Wilson had repercussions in Boult's later career.<ref>Kennedy, p. 215, ''et seq''.</ref> 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 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth|coronation of George VI]] in 1937.<ref>Kennedy, pp. 162 and 181</ref>

During the Second World War the BBC Symphony Orchestra was evacuated first to [[Bristol]], where it suffered from bombing, and later to [[Bedford]]. Boult strove to maintain standards and morale as he lost key players. Between 1939 and the end of the war, forty players left for active service or other activities.<ref name=dnb/> In 1942 Boult resigned as the BBC's director of music, while remaining chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.<ref name=Kennedy195>Kennedy, p. 195</ref> This move, made as a favour to the composer [[Arthur Bliss]] to provide a suitable war-time job for him, later came to be Boult's undoing at the BBC.<ref name=Kennedy195/> Meanwhile, he made recordings of Elgar's Second Symphony, Holst's ''The Planets'' and Vaughan Williams's ''Job, A Masque for Dancing''. At the end of the war Boult "found a changed attitude to the orchestra in the upper echelons of the BBC". Reith was no longer director general, and without his backing Boult had to fight hard to restore the orchestra to its pre-war glory.<ref name=dnb/>

On 29 September 1946 Boult conducted [[Benjamin Britten|Britten]]'s new ''Festival Overture'', to inaugurate the [[BBC Radio 3|BBC Third Programme]].<ref name=cummings/> For this innovative cultural channel, Boult was concerned in pioneering ventures including the British premiere of Mahler's [[Symphony No. 3 (Mahler)|Third Symphony]].<ref>Boult, p. 188</ref> ''The Times'' later said of this period, "The Third Programme could not possibly have had the scope which made it world-famous musically without Boult."<ref name=times/> Nevertheless, Boult's BBC days were numbered. When he was appointed in 1930, Reith had informally promised him that would be exempt from the BBC's rule that staff must retire at age 60.<ref>Kennedy, p. 214</ref> However, Reith had left the BBC in 1938 and his promise carried no weight with his successors.<ref>Kennedy, p. 185</ref> In 1948 Steuart Wilson was appointed head of music at the BBC, the post previously occupied by Boult and Bliss. He made it clear from the start of his appointment that he intended that Boult should be replaced as chief conductor,<ref>Kennedy, p. 215</ref> and he used his authority to insist on Boult's enforced retirement.<ref>ODNB; Kennedy p. 215; and Aldous, pp. 156–57</ref>{{refn|In a biography of Wilson (''English Singer'', London, Duckworth, 1970, {{ISBN|0-7156-0468-6}}), Wilson's third wife, Margaret, disputes this and says that relations between the two were now amicable, and it was others at the BBC who were pressing for Boult's removal.|group=n}} The director general of the BBC at the time, [[William Haley|Sir William Haley]], was unaware of Wilson's animus against Boult and later acknowledged, in a broadcast tribute to Boult, that he "had listened to ill-judged advice in retiring him."<ref>Kennedy, p. 222</ref> By the time of his retirement in 1950, Boult had made 1,536 broadcasts.<ref name=grove/>