Twenty-seven players had been offered positions in the new orchestra. Among those who joined were Aubrey Brain, Arthur Catterall, Eugene Cruft, Sidonie Goossens, Lauri Kennedy and Frederick Thurston. Although many of the principals were stars recruited from the LSO, the Hallé and other orchestras, a high proportion of the rank and file members were fresh from music colleges. Boult wrote, "a brilliant group of young and inexperienced players came to sit behind the well-known old stagers." A substantial number of the players performed at the 1930 Promenade Concerts under Wood, and the full BBC Symphony Orchestra gave its first concert on 22 October 1930, conducted by Boult at the Queen's Hall. The programme consisted of music by Wagner, Brahms, Saint-Saëns and Ravel. Of the 21 programmes in the orchestra's first season, Boult conducted nine and Wood five. The reviews of the new orchestra were enthusiastic. "The Times" wrote of its "virtuosity" and of Boult's "superb" conducting. "The Musical Times" commented, "The boast of the B.B.C. that it intended to get together a first-class orchestra was not an idle one", spoke of "exhilaration at the playing", and called another concert later in the season "an occasion for national pride". "The Observer" called the playing "altogether magnificent". After the initial concerts Reith was told by his advisers that the orchestra had played better for Boult than anyone else. Reith asked him if he wished to take on the chief conductorship, and if so whether he would resign as director of music or occupy both posts simultaneously. Boult opted for the latter. During the 1930s, the orchestra became renowned for its high standard of playing and for performing new and unfamiliar music. The pioneering work of Boult and the BBC SO included an early performance of Schoenberg's "Variations," Op. 31, British premieres, including Berg's "Wozzeck" and "Three Movements from the Lyric Suite", and world premieres, including Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 4 in F minor. Anton Webern conducted eight BBC SO concerts between 1931 and 1936. During the 1930s the orchestra presented rarely heard large-scale works from the past, including Berlioz's "Grande Messe des morts" and "Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale". Mahler's Eighth and Ninth Symphonies, and Purcell's "King Arthur".