Stravinsky’s Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra

Stravinsky was one of the then cutting-edge innovators whose rhythmically dangerous music held no difficulties at all for Sir Adrian’s ever unflappable cool-headed control. The BBC Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Viola in the 1930s, Bernard Shore, related that “Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring was a tough nut to crack in the 1930s, and several foreign conductors made a terrible fuss of its difficulties and the orchestra’s shortcomings; yet Boult directed us in this work in Paris, that veritable sanctum of Stravinsky, without the slightest sense of strain or fuss of any kind”. In this recording of Capriccio, Sir Adrian accompanies the prodigiously gifted Noel Mewton-Wood in a BBC live studio performance on 22 May, 19488 – just under two years before he was unceremoniously retired by the BBC after a sequence of events that has been well documented in several publications. Suffice it to say here that it was a deeply hurtful experience for him after 20 years of devoted loyal dedication to the Symphony Orchestra and the BBC, during which time he turned down several very tempting offers to take up prestigious and lucrative posts elsewhere.