Adrian Boult had the good fortune to study at Leipzig where he watched the conductor Arthur Nikisch at work. Nikisch's stick technique impressed the young Boult who thereafter always used a long stick controlled by wrist movement. This sometimes gave the audience the impression of little effort being exerted by Boult. However the musicians watched the swish of the long stick and Boult's piecing eyes. For six years from 1924 Boult directed the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

In 1930 Sir John Reith, Director General of the BBC invited Boult to form a symphony orchestra. Boult trawled the Hallé and Queens Hall Orchestras for his principles and many of the rank and file of the new BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Having already established himself as a leading exponent of Elgar's music Boult used the new orchestra to broadcast the music of Elgar to a wider audience. To the ageing composer the young Boult's performance of the Second Symphony came as a revelation. "I feel that my reputation in he future is safe in your hands," he wrote after Boult's re-introduction of the work to London in 1920 after its neglect for nearly a decade.

Boult remained with the BBC until, reaching the age of sixty, when he was required to retire in accordance with BBC employment conditions.

It just so happened that at the same time the London Philharmonic Orchestra's conductor Eduard van Beinum relinquished his post due to ill health. Boult was appointed conductor to the LPO, a post he held until the end of 1956. During this time they were often engaged to make recordings. Having spent twenty years with one of the world's leading radio orchestras he was no stranger to the recording studio and could work quickly and closely with recording producers.

Boult is often associated with British composers, such as Elgar and Vaughan Williams. During his time in Leipzig he conducted Wagner, a composer that he was to return to at the end of his career in the 1970s.

Respected by soloists as a great accompanist, Boult kept a card index of soloists he worked with. On the cards would be details of works performed with such information as speeds taken so that he would acquaint himself with a soloist's performance style prior to a further performance.

Boult was equally good at giving orchestral support for dancers and throughout his life he remained in demand as a ballet conductor, in fact his very last conducting engagement was with the London Festival Ballet.