Sir Adrian Boult explains his conducting technique (video)

Fascinating - and instructive!

Ah, yes, Sir Nigel Twitt-Thornwaite.

Sir Adrian was born just a short walk away from where I live.

Wonderful! He's one of my very favorite conductors, too. Thanks much, Erwin. ☺

it would be fantastic to see the whole of the documentary 'point of the stick'

My favourite conductor without doubt.

In my opinion Boult was the finest of all the British conductors and one of the worlds finest.

Is that Vernon Handley narrating?

Yes, Nikisch, Walter and quite a few others have had a positive influence on him. But his conducting 'style' decidedly evolved in a personal way, powerful for sheer concentration and precision and, at the same time, 'minimalist' on gestures unlike the more 'boiling' Barbirolli to name one example. Sir Adrian will always remain one of the greatest musicians, for numerous reasons. We will continue to discover that greatness through the countless recordings he has done through the years as a treasure trove of musical legacy for all of us to hear. I like the fact that there can be a different approach to music, a la Boult vs the other equallly excellent Barbirolli, Beecham, Previn, etc...

I took part in performances of "Dream of Gerontius" with Sir Adrian, well remember the stick technique...and his reminiscences of Elgar!

Cheers for posting this.

I have one of his sticks at home (a family heirloom), and I now understand so much more about how he used it, even in this short excerpt. I've searched for "The Point of the Stick" (a full documentary), but there is nothing online. Does anyone know of a resource?

H

Boult was a great conductor; second-rate and third-rate conductors like Harding, Rattle, Thielemann, Nelsons and Dudamel need to watch this class in conducting and may learn something.....

He came to conduct the Bedford School Orchestra!!

Highly underrated conductor. Here's a recording of the Enigma variations with the LSO, much worth listening to.

The best British conductor together with Barbirolli. Beecham is a fake

I wish this had been much longer. It's remarkable to think his teacher was on working terms with Brahms, Wagner and Bruckner. I've just finished John Lucas's biography of Beecham; he and Boult were not on warm terms. Btw does anyone know who the orchestra is playing the excerpt from Perfect Fool?

What a marvellous piece of film - I was particularly struck by the slightly impish half-smile as he conducted the Holst.

I thought it unforgivable for Todd Handley to comment " A great conductor yes, but not a great man " !
He did not really explain or elaborate on why he held such views. You should always be extremely careful about what you say about someone who is not here to defend themselves , that is if you have any decency at all about you.

A very individual conducting technique using the tips of two fingers - doesn't appeal to me and certainly nothing like Nikisch.

A great conductor! We'll never see his like again

Britten , according to the diaries, loathed every performance Boult ever gave.

I love everything about this gentleman, including the received pronounciation he used...
I have some 78s of him conducting Elgar's works... I am slowly digitising them, so that people can enjoy them...

Believe it or not, I did guess what Boult was conducting without hearing the music. You can see exactly what the music sounds like: now, what do I know that sounds like that? Elgar? No. Probably English, though... VW? Perhaps, but nothing springs to mind. Holst? AH! It's The Perfect Fool! It's a jolly good party game.

Boult once visited the young Mark Elder in his dressing room after one of the latter's performances. Boult said “Ah-ha! I see you are one of the sweaty ones”.

It seems to me that Boult's technique has the great advantage that when he did use his whole arm, this was so out of the ordinary that it was perfectly clear to the musicians that he meant them really to go for it. If a conductor is always waving his arms about, it is much less clear what he actually wants, and he has to resort to ludicrous grandiloquent gestures and melodramatic miming, sometimes jumping into the air, to get the point across, like (the almost always awful) Leonard Bernstein.

According to Sir William McKie, Organist & Master of the Choristers, Westminster Abbey and Director of Music for the Queen's Coronation Service in 1953, Boult (who conducted the orchestral music before and after the actual service) summed up Walton's brand new Coronation Te Deum in one word, "PAGAN!" I wonder what he thought of Belshazzar's Feast???!!!

Richrd Strauss was even more minimalist in his approach.

A remarkable likeness to Edward Elgar.