A massive hope for the future

I am one of those boring old farts who laments the demise of the CD and its eclipse by ephemeral streaming. So it is very pleasing to report that one of the major players in the media industry has found a valid and valuable strategy for prolonging the life of the venerable CD format. 

Warner Classics are remastering and reissuing CDs of classic recordings in massive 'binge boxes'. Latest release is the 79 CD box of Sir Adrian Boult's complete EMI stereo recordings. (Perversely, the box is titled 'Complete Warner Recordings', because although Warner acquired the EMI classical catalogue, competitor Universal Music owns the EMI trade mark.)

The legendary team of producer Christopher Bishop and engineer Christopher Parker produced the majority of the recordings in the box, and the original mostly analogue master tapes set a benchmark in sound quality. However many of EMI's original first generation CD transfers in the 1980s compromised the reproduced sound. So the remastering by Art et Son Studio is welcome, and adds a new dimension to these classic albums. 

As reported here, in 2023 I arranged for Christopher Bishop to audition Art et Son Studio's remastering in my home listening room, and he approved of this 'spring cleaning' of his work. Warner Music and the other media megaliths come in for a lot of criticism, some justified, for their commercially-driven agendas. But this 'complete recordings' box tells a different story. The discs are skillfully remastered, are enhanced by the original sleeve artwork (alas, again for legal reasons without the EMI dog and trumpet), and come with an erudite booklet essay by old school music writer Tully Potter. The discs are presented in chronological order, concluding with a valedictory account of Hubert Parry's Fifth Symphony. Below is the title page of Sir Adrian's autobiography which he signed for me at the sessions for that recording.  

In the box, of course, is Sir Adrian's 1978 recording of Elgar's First Symphony. Elgar’s only public statement about the meaning of his First Symphony was that "There is no program beyond a wide experience of human life with a great charity (love) and a massive hope in the future.” A few days ago I spent some time with the 93 year old Christopher Bishop who produced that recording. There was no lamenting for a lost classical paradise. Instead Christopher was fulsome in his praise for Warner's tireless championing of great recordings from the past, and was touched that they had kept him personally involved.

When I returned home I listened to these remastered classics of the gramophone, and that massive hope for the future resonated with me. We live in increasingly dark times. But a massive media corporation - American to boot - has created a bridge that links the great music, recordings, and technology of the past with the future classical audience. This Warner/EMI box is a beautiful and important cultural document, and it was probably created by Warner team members who were not even born when Sir Adrian was in the recording studio.  

In their own small way Warner Classics have helped keep Elgar's massive hope for the future alive. In 2006 I wrote that if you only buy 34 CDs, you should buy Scott Ross' recordings of the complete Scarlatti keyboard sonatas. Twenty years later, I suggest that if you only by 79 CDs, buy Sir Adrian Boult: Complete Warner Recordings - The Stereo Recordings 1956 - 1978.


Sir Adrian Boult: Complete Warner Recordings was bought by me for £176.77; Warner Classics had no involvement in the writing of this post. On An Overgrown Path will now pause for some weeks as, probably unwisely in the light of current global events, I am off on more long distance travels. Take care until I return.

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