When Barbirolli returned in 1959 to the New York Philharmonic-Symphony,
as it still was, sixteen years after he had relinquished chief
conductorship of the orchestra to assume leadership of the wartime
Hallé, he brought with him four programmes. We hear almost all
the items in this four disc set, and the omissions of Gina Bachauer’s
Brahms Second Concerto and Weber’s Der Freischütz overture,
whilst regrettable, are not earth-shattering.
The Brahms Violin Concerto features soloist Berl Senofsky, the
admirably equipped American fiddle player about whom I have
written before (review 1,
2,
3).
Only now, perhaps, do we see how much depth there was at the
time when players such as Senofsky, and Rosand, and Nadien,
in their own individual ways, carved out good carers even whilst
such as Stern lorded the domestic American scene. Senofsky’s
Brahms is strongly projected, and he turns on vibrato usage
when necessary. It’s a generously lyric performance, with a
beefy finale, and a good collaboration between soloist and conductor.
Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro was a favourite piece
of Barbirolli’s, one he recorded several times. It was a work
that the composer himself famously never recorded. But he knew
of, and admired, Barbirolli’s early 78 traversal, which was
always unapologetically big. This New York traversal is similarly
large-boned, its defiantly powerful character marked by strong
emphases and phrasal sculpting. I happen to find these exaggerated,
and more malleably organized in his Sinfonia of London recording,
but there’s no doubting the commitment of all concerned.
Barbirolli had recorded Haydn’s Symphony No. 88 in G major in
1953 along with Nos. 83 and 96, all now collected on Dutton
CDBP9750. He remained a consistent Haydn performer and when
one remembers his Symphony No.104 set, recorded on 78s back
in 1928, with his Chamber Orchestra [SJB1899], one realises
the discographic extent of his commitment to those symphonies
he chose, or was asked, to record. This NY performance is strong,
powerful, adept at contrasting vigour with the refined wind
writing, and at excavating the drone effects in the minuetto.
Alma Mahler was in the audience for the performance of her late
husband’s First Symphony. This was another work closely associated
with JB’s recording schedule of the time. His 1957 studio traversal
[CDSJB1015] is admired, and rightly so. This NY performance
has previously been released in a box devoted to ‘The Mahler
Broadcasts, 1948-1982’ which I’ve not auditioned, but my colleague
John Quinn has, and he makes some important comments on the
subject in his own review of this JB box. I like this Barbirolli
performance very much; I like the way he keeps things moving
in the B section of the second movement, and I like the weary,
bleached solo bass tone at the start of the third, and the incrementally
exciting, tension-augmenting finale.
Barbirolli’s nemesis, Thomas Beecham, had his Handel arrangements
but JB had his An Elizabethan Suite (from The Fitzwilliam
Virginal Book) which he often performed. Back in New York
in 1942, but unpublished at the time, he had set down a recording
[now on ‘The Columbia Masters Volume 4’ - CDSJB1028]. His 1959
reading is inevitably perhaps, slower, but equally full of grandeur
and gravity and real string warmth. In November 1957 he performed
The Planets in Turin with the RAI Symphony Orchestra
[now on SJB1042-43] in his habitual five movement selection
(Mars, Venus, Mercury, Uranus and Jupiter only). This New York
traversal is much more convincing and secure. One telling point
is that he trusts his NY forces to stretch the tempos quite
significantly in a couple of movements (especially Venus), whereas
he tends to play faster (and safer) in Turin. Note the fine
violin solo and warm string tone in Venus.
Vaughan Williams dedicated his Eighth Symphony to Barbirolli
[see SJB1021
for the studio inscription, but also, for instance, Aura
181-2 for the Lugano 1961 performance with the touring Hallé].
In Lugano he was rather brisker than in New York, when familiarity
with his own orchestra meant that, whilst detailing remained
meticulous - and Barbirolli was exacting in rehearsals - the
contours of the music were familiar. Yet New York had its own
VW tradition in concert and on disc – Mitropoulos and Stokowski
to cite just two, who performed his music there; Stokowski had,
in fact, performed the Ninth Symphony the previous year [see
review]
– and Barbirolli’s old orchestra slips into the milieu very
adeptly indeed. Once again the strings (solo and unison) play
with Barbirolli-rich tone, the flutes are impressively mellifluous
– indeed the wind choir is highly characterful throughout –
and the performance is notably successful in almost all respects.
The final work is The Dream of Gerontius with Richard
Lewis, Maureen Forrester and Morley Meredith. Fortunately the
recent arrival of the latest edition of the journal of the Barbirolli
Society has illuminated a few things for me regarding JB’s aspirations
to record the work. Westminster approached EMI in 1955 to ask
if they’d release the conductor to record it for them. EMI refused.
Then Walter Legge suggested Barbirolli should record it with
the Philharmonia and – wait for it – Christa Ludwig, Nicolai
Gedda and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. This was also refused. Legge
responded with Richard Lewis. In 1963 JB did perform it with
the Philharmonia and Anna Reynolds, Ronald Dowd and Donald Bell.
There is a surviving tape and I’m told that Dowd in particular
was excellent. In 1964 tests were made at EMI with David Ward,
Anna Reynolds, Janet Baker and Forbes Robinson. Of these singers,
Barbirolli, who was already soundly displeased by Sargent’s
monopoly of the work on disc, was only happy with Baker, who
went on to record it with him and with Lewis and Kim Borg.
In New York Lewis is excellent, as ever, as good as in his recording
with Sargent, though he’s not as clarion or expressive a singer
as his great predecessor, Heddle Nash. I would point to Lewis’s
beautiful singing of Novissima hora est as one of the
high points of this performance, and Barbirolli’s hugely eloquent
moulding of string textures. Maureen Forrester makes a fine
impression as the Angel, singing with excellent tone and careful
enunciation. Morley Meredith is not on the level of his two
colleagues; sample his way with the ‘omnipotent father‘ passage,
when his voice goes woolly. It’s a role that really lies too
low for him, and he struggles audibly too often. These things
are, of course, a question of personal taste, but I prefer Sargent’s
lithe way with Gerontius to Barbirolli’s more obviously reverent
one. Nevertheless this is another hugely valuable account, to
set beside the live Vickers. Let’s hope that the Barbirolli
Society, or whoever, can in time give us the 1963 Dowd-Reynolds-Bell.
This admirable box is very well documented, and has some excellently
reproduced photographs as well. The restorations have been very
well realised as well. I’m sure admirers of the conductor will
find this set indispensable.
Jonathan Woolf
see also review by John
Quinn
Full track listing:
Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Violin Concerto in D major, op. 77 [41:07]
Berl Senofsky (violin)
rec. 18 January 1959
Sir Edward ELGAR (1857-1934)
The Dream of Gerontius, Op 38 [95:48]
Richard Lewis (tenor); Maureen Forrester (contralto); Morley
Meredith (baritone); The Westminster Choir
rec. 25 January 1959
Sir Edward ELGAR
Introduction and Allegro for String Quartet and String Orchestra,
Op. 47 [14:30]
John Corigliano and Leopold Rybb (violins); William Lincer (viola);
Laszlo Varga (cello)
rec. 3 January 1959
Josef HAYDN (1732-1809)
Symphony No. 88 in G major [21:00]
rec. 10 January 1959
Gustav MAHLER (1860-1911)
Symphony No. 1 in D major [53:14]
rec. 10 January 1959
Arr. Barbirolli
An Elizabethan Suite (from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book)
[11:59]
rec. 10 January 1959
Gustav HOLST (1874-1934)
The Planets - Suite for Large Orchestra (excerpts)
Mars, the Bringer of War [7:28]
Venus, the Bringer of Peace [8:42]
Mercury, the Winged Messenger [3:59]
Uranus, the Magician [6:41]
Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity [8:16]
rec. 18 January 1959
Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958)
Symphony No. 8 in D minor [28:38]
rec. 3 January 1959
New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra/Sir John Barbirolli
rec. Carnegie Hall, New York, 1959.
New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra/Sir John Barbirolli 
