It was through a family connection with that wealthy patron of the arts Frank Schuster (1852-1927) that Adrian Boult – then a 15-year-old boarder at Westminster School – first came into contact with Edward Elgar. Schuster was famous for the lavish dinner and music parties he hosted at 22 Old Queen Street in Westminster, where Boult was able to witness at close hand Elgar’s discomfort in social situations and unpredictability of mood. (On their first meeting, Schuster told Boult how Elgar once fled a gaggle of journalists by escaping through a bedroom window!) In the South (inscribed ‘to my friend, Leo F Schuster’) was the first Elgar work conducted by Boult, and, the day before the concert, he was able to scrutinise the score with the composer. (In a 1951 radio talk, he recalled: ‘I can still see him sitting at the piano with the score in front of him, giving me his comments as he turned over the pages.’) Unstintingly generous in his support for both Elgar and Boult, Schuster bequeathed to Boult his substantial library of music and books on music (‘many signed by Elgar and Fauré, which I greatly prize’).

Nigel Simeone proves a lucid and perceptive guide through these formative years, lending particular scrutiny to the falling out between Elgar and Boult. This was triggered in 1924 when Boult informed the composer that budgetary constraints would force him to employ reduced winds for an upcoming performance of The Dream of Gerontius with the Birmingham Festival Chorus and City of Birmingham Orchestra. Elgar took serious umbrage, still hurt by memories of the work’s disastrous world premiere in Birmingham at the 1900 Triennial Festival. In the event Boult ended up paying for the full quota of players himself, but it was not until seven years later – by which time Boult had assumed the mantle of Director of Music at the BBC – that their mutual acquaintance WH (‘Billy’) Reed (1876-1942) effected a truce. Plans were already being drawn up for a festival to mark Elgar’s 75th birthday, and Reed persuaded Elgar to reach out to Boult, who in turn drove to Marl Bank in Worcester to meet the composer. Held between November 30 and December 14, 1932, the Elgar Celebration was a grand success, with podium duties shared by the composer, Boult and Landon Ronald. Elgar wrote to Boult to express his heartfelt thanks, while fondly recalling a performance of the Second Symphony that Boult had given with the British SO on December 18, 1921: ‘To you, my dear Adrian, I will say that the renewal of the atmosphere of the Second Symphony at the People’s Palace under your direction was one of the happiest events of my life and I thank you.’

Naturally, the Second Symphony (a pivotal work in Boult’s own fortunes – of which he left us no fewer than five commercial recordings) is assigned its own chapter, as is the First Symphony (which, I was surprised to learn, Boult didn’t perform until the King George V memorial broadcast on January 22, 1936). Other major works discussed include the Enigma Variations, Falstaff, Introduction and Allegro, Violin Concerto, Cello Concerto, The Dream of Gerontius, The Kingdom and The Apostles. Devotees of both Elgar and Boult will find much to stimulate them in Simeone’s assiduously detailed and painstakingly researched survey, which includes markings from Boult’s own scores (several of which contain notes of Elgar’s performance practice) as well as those left to him by Schuster, comparative timings and performance dates (meticulously collated by the conductor), and contemporaneous newspaper and record reviews (many drawn from the pages of Gramophone). Incidentally, how uncannily prescient of Boult’s own interpretative virtues are his youthful impressions of the legendary Hans Richter’s Elgar (‘an absolutely architectural conductor … he was a man who had the last bar in his mind when he was conducting the first’).

In addition to 29 illustrations, there are four appendices: a listing of the Elgar scores in Boult’s own library; a chronology of Boult’s Elgar performances from February 18, 1918 (In the South, with the LSO at Queen’s Hall) to June 24, 1978 (The Sanguine Fan, with the London Festival Ballet at the London Coliseum); a discography of Boult’s commercial recordings of Elgar as well as broadcasts housed in the British Library Sound Archive and private collections; and, last but not least, an instructive dialogue with Christopher Bishop, the producer of all but one of the Elgar recordings that Boult set down for EMI between December 1965 and January 1978. In sum, a veritable treasure trove for enthusiasts, as well as a delightful companion volume to this same author’s splendid Ralph Vaughan Williams and Adrian Boult (The Boydell Press, 1/23).