Portal:University of Oxford/Selected biography/30

Sir Adrian Boult (1889–1983) was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family he followed musical studies at Christ Church, Oxford and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company. His 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. Forced to leave the BBC in 1950 on reaching retirement age, Boult took on the chief conductorship of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO). The orchestra had declined from its peak of the 1930s, but under his guidance its fortunes were revived. 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. Known for his championing of British music, he gave the first performance of Holst's The Planets, and introduced new works by, among others, Bliss, Britten, Delius, Tippett, Vaughan Williams and Walton. In his BBC years he introduced works by foreign composers, including Bartók, Berg, Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Webern. 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. (more...)