Sold on Boughton
I was most interested in Michael Scott Rohan’s piece The Original Glastonbury (June issue) and in particular its founder Rutland Boughton. I certainly agree with you (Editor’s letter) that it’s time to bring Boughton back into the fray! In 1983, Edward Downes gave a broadcast performance with the BBC Philharmonic of Boughton’s Third Symphony, which came as a revelation to me. Premiered in 1939 in front of an audience that included the composers Vaughan Williams and Quilter, its four movements are cogently argued from closely knit thematic cells and its finale is one of the most thrilling and inspired of 20th-century British music. I would urge readers to seek out Vernon Handley’s fine recording with the RPO on the Hyperion label, and would love to hear this neglected masterpiece at the BBC Proms one day.
Peter Frankland, Bury