Sir John Barbirolli - British Music. Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Delius, Purcell (2024)

Born in London of Italian-French parents, Sir John Barbirolli (1899–1970) trained as a cellist and played in theatre and café orchestras before joining the Queen’s Hall Orchestra under Sir Henry Wood in 1916. His conducting career began with the formation of his own orchestra in 1924, and between 1926 and 1933 he was active as an opera conductor at Covent Garden and elsewhere. Orchestral appointments followed: the Scottish Orchestra (1933–36), the New York Philharmonic (1936–42), the Hallé Orchestra (1943–70) and the Houston Symphony (1961–67). Barbirolli guest conducted many of the world’s leading orchestras and was especially admired as an interpreter of the music of Mahler, Sibelius, Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Delius, Puccini and Verdi. He made many outstanding recordings, including the complete Brahms and Sibelius symphonies, as well as operas by Verdi and Puccini and much English repertoire.

Barbirolli was a late convert to the music of Gustav Mahler. He had first come across it in 1930 when the Fourth Symphony, as heard for the first time at somebody else’s rehearsal, struck him as being thin, certainly by comparison with Berlioz and Wagner. After some early excursions at the beginning of his career – such as in 1931, when he conducted the Kindertotenlieder for Elena Gerhardt at a Royal Philharmonic Society concert in London – Mahler scarcely even figured in his programmes until 1946, when he included Das Lied von der Erde in his third season with the Halle Orchestra. Then in 1952 his friend, the critic Neville Cardus, recalling that Sir Hamilton Harty had given England its first hearing of the Ninth Symphony during his reign as Hallé conductor (1920–33), urged Barbirolli to consider conducting it himself. It was, said Cardus, “the ideal work” for him. Two years later the thing happened: moreover, that first-ever performance by Barbirolli of a Mahler symphony opened the floodgates to a 16-year period in which he embraced them all save No.8. The First, Fifth, Sixth and Ninth he subsequently recorded commercially, and radio recordings of several of the others have also appeared on CD.

The symphonies preoccupied Barbirolli for the rest of his life, possibly even to the detriment of his health, as the vast periods of time he spent studying them had to be squeezed into an already hopelessly overcrowded schedule. He reckoned that mastering a Mahler symphony took between 18 months and two years, and he would spend hours meticulously bowing all the string parts in preparation for his performances. "If you want to conduct Mahler well his music must be under your skin and in your bones", he said, adding: "It is a joy to me in my advancing years that I have found something which[…] is of such mighty dimensions. Of course, it does not take two years to read these scores, but if you prepare for a journey through such immeasurably wide musical spheres, you must know exactly where the musical ideas begin and where they end and how each fits into the pattern of the whole[…]." To this end he spent several days in 1956 memorizing the choral finale of the Second Symphony, despite the fact that his first attempt upon it was not scheduled until May 1958.

Although a born opera conductor, most of Barbirolli’s operatic conducting was confined to the early years of his career when, between 1926 and 1933, he amassed a repertoire of 20 or so operas while working with the British National Opera, Carl Rosa and Covent Garden companies. Among them was Wagner’s Die Meistersinger, which he toured to the provinces and conducted at Covent Garden: a celebrated souvenir of these performances exists in his 1931 recording of the Quintet with Elisabeth Schumann, Lauritz Melchior and Friedrich Schorr, no less, among the singers. Although he never again conducted the work in the opera house, its overture became a staple of his concert programmes, especially for significant occasions with the Hallé: indeed, in 1943 he chose it to launch the very first concert of the orchestra he had reformed and revitalized in just four weeks.

It was not until the 1960s, during his last decade, that the opportunity to take up again the old operatic scores he loved so deeply came his way. Puccini’s Manon Lescaut and, ironically, Die Meistersinger were among the operas planned for recording by him at this time, but although neither project materialized he did manage to record (besides Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas) Verdi’s Otello – happily bringing the family wheel full circle, as both his father and grandfather had played in the opera’s première at La Scala in 1887 – and Madama Butterfly.

The happy coincidence that Elgar’s Enigma Variations dated from the same year as his birth delighted Barbirolli, and the work became a cornerstone of his repertoire. He conducted it zealously all over the world, and it is a measure of his love for the music that even as late as 1969 he could still write to his friend Michael Kennedy: "I hadn’t done the Enigmas for some time and was completely bowled over by them again." He recorded the work twice on 78s, and twice more during the stereo era, in 1956 and 1962. Completely memorable accounts of Elgar’s Symphony No.1 and Introduction and Allegro date from this period, and this 1956 version of the Enigma Variations, delicate, noble and thrilling by turns, is unquestionably in the same category. His cultivated reading of Ma Mère l’oye, too, reveals a master conductor at work, with an equally fastidious ear for the French repertoire; he and the Hallé were at the peak of their association at this time, with the players wonderfully attuned and responsive to his artistic imagination.

Barbirolli's current EMI discography is extensive and comprises all of his great recorded performances, many in the British Composers series.

Tracklist
01. Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 "Enigma": Theme
02. Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 "Enigma": Introduction - Variation I. L'istesso tempo "C.A.E."
03. Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 "Enigma": Variation II. Allegro "H.D.S-P."
04. Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 "Enigma": Variation III. Allegretto "R.B.T."
05. Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 "Enigma": Variation IV. Allegro di molto "W.M.B."
06. Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 "Enigma": Variation V. Moderato "R.P.A."
07. Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 "Enigma": Variation VI. Andantino "Ysobel"
08. Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 "Enigma": Variation VII. Presto "Troyte"
09. Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 "Enigma": Variation VIII. Allegretto "W.N."
10. Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 "Enigma": Variation IX. Adagio "Nimrod"
11. Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 "Enigma": Variation X. Intermezzo. Allegretto "Dorabella"
12. Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 "Enigma": Variation XI. Allegro di molto "G.R.S."
13. Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 "Enigma": Variation XII. Andante "B.G.N."
14. Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 "Enigma": Variation XIII. Romanza. Moderato. "* * *"
15. Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 "Enigma": Variation XIV. Finale. Allegro "E.D.U."
16. Improvisations on Virginal Pieces by Giles Farnaby, Op. 50: No. 4, Loth to depart
17. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Introduction. Slow, Pastoral
18. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Theme. With Easy Movement
19. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Variation I
20. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Variation II
21. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Variation III
22. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Variation IV
23. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Variation V
24. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Variation VI
25. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Interlude I. Slow and Very Quietly
26. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Variation VII. Rather Quicker but Not Hurried
27. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Variation VIII
28. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Variation IX. With Easy Movement
29. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Variation X
30. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Variation XI. Slow, With Solemnity
31. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Variation XII. Maestoso
32. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Interlude II
33. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Variation XIII. Gaily
34. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Variation XIV
35. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Variation XV
36. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Variation XVI
37. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Interlude III. Rather Quicker
38. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Variation XVII. Rather Slower, Very Broadly
39. Brigg Fair "An English Rhapsody": Coda. Very Quietly
40. 5 Variants of "Dives and Lazarus": Theme. Adagio
41. 5 Variants of "Dives and Lazarus": Variant I
42. 5 Variants of "Dives and Lazarus": Variant II. Allegro moderato
43. 5 Variants of "Dives and Lazarus": Variant III
44. 5 Variants of "Dives and Lazarus": Variant IV. L'istesso tempo
45. 5 Variants of "Dives and Lazarus": Variant V. Adagio
46. Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85: I. Adagio - Moderato
47. Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85: II. Lento - Allegro molto
48. Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85: III. Adagio
49. Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85: IV. Allegro - Moderato - Allegro ma non troppo
50. Organ Concerto in B-Flat Major, Op. 7 No. 1, HWV 306: I. Andante
51. Organ Concerto in B-Flat Major, Op. 7 No. 1, HWV 306: II. Andante
52. Organ Concerto in B-Flat Major, Op. 7 No. 1, HWV 306: III. Largo e piano
53. Organ Concerto in B-Flat Major, Op. 7 No. 1, HWV 306: IV. Bourrée. Allegro
54. Fantasia on "Greensleeves" (Orch. Greaves)
55. Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act 3: "When I Am Laid in Earth" (Dido)
56. Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act 3: "With Drooping Wings Ye Cupids Come" (Chorus)
57. A Shropshire Lad
58. The Garden of Fand
59. Symphony No. 5 in D Major: I. Preludio
60. Symphony No. 5 in D Major: II. Scherzo
61. Symphony No. 5 in D Major: III. Romanza. Lento
62. Symphony No. 5 in D Major: IV. Passacaglia. Moderato
63. Pomp and Circumstance Marches, Op. 39: No. 1 in D Major
64. Elegy, Op. 58
65. A London Overture
66. Tintagel
67. Irmelin Prelude
68. Suite for Strings, Woodwinds and Horns: I. Andante maestoso - Allegro (After The Gordian Knot Untied, Z. 597)
69. Suite for Strings, Woodwinds and Horns: II. Tempo do menuetto (After The Virtuous Wife, Z. 611)
70. Suite for Strings, Woodwinds and Horns: III. Andantino (After King Arthur, Z. 628)
71. Suite for Strings, Woodwinds and Horns: IV. Allegrettto giocoso (After Abdelazar, Z. 570)
72. Suite for Strings, Woodwinds and Horns: V. Largo (After Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626)
73. Suite for Strings, Woodwinds and Horns: VI. Allegro (After King Arthur, Z. 628)
74. Oboe Concerto in A Minor: I. Rondo pastorale. Allegro moderato
75. Oboe Concerto in A Minor: II. Minuet and Musette. Allegro moderato
76. Oboe Concerto in A Minor: III. Finale. Scherzo