Thursday, July 30, 2009

Thrilling music ...

I subscribe to BBC Music Magazine - and if you like classical music you should also. Each issue comes with a CD and this month's is a recording from the BBC archives of a 1975 performance of William Walton's first symphony conducted by Adrian Boult. It is a remarkably vigorous and insightful performance, especially when you consider that Boult was 85 at the time. The first movement in particular seems to get inside not only the music but also the elusive Sir William himself. And what a great piece of music it is, as clear a window onto the 20th century as any work of art I know of.

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