The Englishmen Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) and Adrian Cedric Boult (1889-1983) both enjoyed long, full and distinguished lives. They also enjoyed a close personal and musical friendship (as Boult also did with numerous other British composers). Even allowing that another great champion of Vaughan Williams' music, Sir John Barbirolli, had passed away in 1970, it was thus entirely appropriate that Sir Adrian Boult should conduct a concert to mark the centenary of Vaughan Williams' birth, one hundred years later to the day, on 12 October 1972.
At the time of this Royal Festival Hall concert Boult was eighty-three but still vigorous, alert and authoritative. He was conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra in his capacity as its President (he had been its Principal Conductor between 1950, when his tenure as Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra finished, and 1957). From the BBC's archives, this programme restores to circulation film of Boult leading two works by Vaughan Williams from the centenary concert.
Source: Colin Anderson/ICA
