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MAHLER:
Symphony No. 7,
BRUCKNER
: Symphony No. 9
.
BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra/Hallé Orchestra Sir John Barbirolli.
BBC Legends BBCL4034-2 138m ADD.

Most of England could have been forgiven for having more on its mind on the night of July 29th 1966 than a performance of Bruckner's Ninth at the Royal Albert Hall. The following day the England football team would play in and win the World Cup Final at Wembley. This Proms performance the night before deserves a commercial outing because it reminds us what a superb Brucknerian Sir John Barbirolli was. Something we knew from a 1970 Eighth Symphony released on the old BBC Radio Classics label some years ago. This Ninth is certainly in the same class in performance terms but it cannot compare in recorded sound. The BBC have sourced an "off-air" tape and the engineers have done what they can with it, but the fact remains it alternates between "wrong-end-of-telescope" distance and monochrome glare with little of the hall atmosphere that aids this composer. Don't let this put you off, however, because here is a great performance of real power that is more remarkable for a tough, classical strength running through that aids concentration wonderfully. The basic sound just needs a little tolerance by the listener to enter into its spirit.

Barbirolli's Bruckner was quite free-spirited - more Furtwangler than Klemperer - but on no occasion does he allow his love for the music to get in the way of classical strength, as some colleagues can. He moulds the reaching string passages strongly, but these fit with the overall structure, which is to press on. So Barbirolli's view of the first movement is dark, haunted, dramatic and with only the merest quarter given to brief glimpses of "upper Austrian Anton" that poke out and are treated by Barbirolli as ripples on the surface where the undertow remains downward. That he grasps emotionally and intellectually the bleak vision this movement offers there's no doubt. Perhaps he sensed a kindred character. This movement can also sprawl unless a conductor takes a firm hand and Sir John certainly does that. The second movement has the ideal balance of weight and movement Bruckner's scherzos demand and the Trio is contrastingly fleet and creepy. But it's in the performance of the last movement Barbirolli's "tough but tender" approach pays greatest dividends. It comes over stoic in the face of restlessness. Like all depressives, Barbirolli would have known how much energy the "black dog" uses before he's done with you. So in that context his suggestion of constant activity rather than inertia, which can sometimes creep in here, is so appropriate. So, a fascinating performance, very complete and, like Sir John's febrile Eighth, not the kind of view you might expect. Also a tantalising view of what we were deprived of by EMI never allowing Barbirolli to record this composer commercially.

They certainly allowed him to record Mahler, of course, even though I have the impression he was only allowed to record those works Klemperer wasn't interested in. I had reservations about the decision to release this "live" Seventh given in Manchester on October 20th 1960. (Though, of course, I'd rather have it available than not.) In an interview in 1970 Sir John announced it was only by that time did he feel he had "got" Mahler's Seventh and the fact that he was scheduled to perform and record it in 1971 with the Berlin Philharmonic proved that. Alas, he died soon after that interview and we were robbed of his final thoughts on the work in the best sound and playing, leaving only privately-owned "off-air" tapes of this performance as all the evidence we have of him in this most problematic Mahler work. "Work in progress", but even that showing what a distinctive Mahlerian Sir John was. The BBC seems to have sourced a reasonable tape superior in sound to the Bruckner. It's in mono again but with more atmosphere, less distortion, an evenness of range throughout and more detail. For this performance the Halle teamed up with the BBC Northern Symphony and they all play well. Sticklers for precision will mutter about the playing in terms of ensemble and security, but only when compared with more recent versions. Mahler's Seventh was still quite unfamiliar in England in 1960 and there's much to be gained from this release.

Barbirolli's pulse for the first movement is measured and at the all-important slight tempo change at bar 19 he doesn't seem to react. In fact it's only at bar 45, with the transition material, does he do so and this means the sense of moving forward at that point is a little greater. Sir John then gives the second subject starting at bar 118 proper "schwung". It's moulded, held back, then projected forwards: a real JB moment. In the Development Sir John paints the wonderful details with relish and, with his measured underlying pace, gives himself all the time he needs. Some fine playing from the woodwinds also helps him. In the Recapitulation a very idiomatic trombone is well caught and searchingly played and notice too how Sir John seems to emphatically mark the recall of the second subject "schwung" theme showing that, even in 1960, he had mapped this movement well. The first Nachtmusik is hypnotic with no apparent tensions, which is a pity. But hear especially how well the cellos wrap themselves around the second theme, and have you ever heard the col legno snaps of the bows so emphatic in any other recording? There are some rather odd cowbells, it must be said. They sound like two suspended milk bottles jangled by a pencil. The Scherzo needs to be taken a little quicker, but Sir John doesn't cheat on detail or try to soften things. In fact he manages a kind of truculence. The second Nachtmusik is played as a true serenade, a full two minutes slower than most recorded performances, and Sir John makes no apologies for injecting Mediterranean atmosphere here. Then, in the last movement, the approach is to "carnival" and very bucolic at that. No injection of any elan or sophistication as in some performances but there's real charm to make up for a slight lack in energy. The honesty of the movement is certainly compelling, even if you have the impression the orchestras are "running on empty" by the end. In the first half of this concert they had already played Nielsen's Fifth.

This is a most welcome release because it means we now have recordings of Barbirolli in the three central Mahler symphonies. I still regret the loss of the version that was to be in Berlin, of course. This is also another splendid release in the continuing series from the archives by BBC Legends which are more than living up to their early promise. Collectors are fortunate the BBC keeps them coming and are also prepared to take chances, as they have with the accompanying Bruckner Ninth which a less enterprising label might have left unpublished.

Reviewer

Tony Duggan

Bruckner: Performance Sound

Mahler: Performance Sound

Another view from Gerald Fenech

Barbirolli's Mahler discography now embraces the seventh, a mostly peculiar work but no less a masterpiece than its more illustrious companions. Sir John finds much mysterious beauty throughout the score especially in the Night Music episodes which ring out with pathos and elegance. His is a relaxed view of the Langsam movement and one can also sense a firm command of a wayward structure precariously balanced, like all the long Mahler movements. This approach pays dividends with greater emphasis on the nobility and depth of emotion behind this tortuous composition. The raspingly deviant Scherzo is also brilliantly done with the BBC players going out of their way to play as menacingly as possible. Here I could almost imagine Sir John's facial expressions whilst trying to convey the slithering effect of this music. The Rondo Finale allows relaxation but the level of playing is no less masterly especially in the lilting ritornellos and the grandioso statements - vintage Mahler. I still retain affection for the tortoise-like Klemperer version but now must safely say that Sir John is my favourite as he strikes a compromise between that version and the frenzied Solti and Kubelik not to forget Bernstein's still authoritative NYPO account.

This Ninth is my first encounter with Barbirolli's Bruckner: a classic encounter of the highest order. Mysticism and power are matched in the awesome climaxes whilst the menacing brilliance of the Scherzo is quite amazingly played by the faithful Hallé. The strings are also exceptionally prominent in the heart-on-sleeve Adagio that concludes the work in trenchant passion, one is almost made to recall Sir John's justly legendary 1964 Mahler Ninth with the BPO. Recordings have come up quite clean, especially the Bruckner. The Mahler suffers from some fuzziness at higher levels. The combination of rare Barbirolli photographs and Michael Kennedy's perceptive notes makes this offering quite unmissable. Nice to see Deryck Cooke's approval of Barbirolli's interpretation of the Seventh. Another jewel in the constantly shining crown of the BBC archives has seen the light of day!

Reviewer

Gerald Fenech

Perfomance

Sound:

But Marc Bridle did not like these perfomances at all

Barbirolli could be a mercurial musician, but as these performances show - not always. If the problem with Mahler's Seventh is the lumbering gait, the Bruckner Nine is disadvantaged by extremely swift speeds. What the performances do have in common is poor orchestral playing, with the brass in particular often out of tune and too closely balanced. The woodwind in the Bruckner symphony range from pure-toned to sharp and unfocused.

The Bruckner Ninth is the third fastest ever to have appeared on record. Only Horenstein in his 1953 Vox recording and Georg Jochum in a Berlin recording from 1951 are faster. Neither of those recordings is ideal (and Horenstein's later recording with the BBC SO is vastly superior any way), but at least Horenstein and Jochum retain a modicum of continuity in their performances. Barbirolli's is the most fragmented interpretation of a Bruckner symphony I have ever heard. The sense of pedantry about this performance is unsettling (and where you would expect it to occur - in the Scherzo - it doesn't). Both the first movement and the last lack a sense of unity and flow, without which this music cannot generate the tensions which are embalmed within it. If this performance sounds more dissonant than is normally the case it is simply because Barbirolli allows his brass players to inject their notes with dynamics that are not in the score. At 18'13 onwards (1st movement) you will hear precisely the type of nakedly aggressive brass playing that allows this performance to degenerate into ugliness. Barbirolli takes the coda (20'01 onwards) surprisingly grandly, but the tonic and flattened supertonic in trumpets and horns are too stridently drawn. The triplets for violins (with first and second violins transposing the notes) sound clotted, and although Bruckner has preceded this passage with a marking of moderato, the tempo is anything but suggestive of this.

Barbirolli's Scherzo matches Horenstein's Vienna account to the second. It is, however, a very different interpretation. Whereas Horenstein lets the opening harmony float imperceptibly into the ether, Barbirolli's somehow remains firmly planted to the ground. As it develops towards the Trio, Barbirolli's comparative spaciousness (contrasted with the fleetness of the outer movements) fails to highlight the barbarity and demonic resilience of this movement. There is, again, an underlying dogmatism which robs this movement of its darkness (an error he made in Bruckner's Seventh as well).

The Adagio is one of Bruckner's grandest statements. It is ruined in Barbirolli's performance before we have even reached bar 5 by the early entry of the horn (played flat). Beyond this, the phrasing remains disjointed, with the rich string sonorities buried beneath gravelly brass and colourless woodwind. The performance remains shrouded in a dull, grey mistiness almost to the final bars. Where Celibidache, in his DG recording, reaches the moment of apotheosis at bar 173 in just over 17 minutes, Barbirolli races to it in under 15 minutes. Bruckner marked this passage sehr langsam, a marking Barbirolli seems unable to apply here. Whilst the woodwind, particularly oboes, are archingly expansive, the triplets on second violins are poorly articulated. dims and pp merge (or rather clash) obstructively so by the time we actually reach the great climax at Fig Q (bar 199) this shattering moment is all but underplayed. The triplets are now replaced by quadruplets playing ff toning up to fff at bar 203, but you would hardly notice this from the dynamics Barbirolli and his Hallé players employ.

I haven't left much space to discuss the performance of Mahler's Seventh. This is a rather odd affair, quite some way short of the inspiration Barbirolli brought to his studio performances of the Fifth and Ninth. Their success was partly due to the characterful playing of both the New Philharmonia and the Berlin Philharmonic. The Hallé is not in the same league, which is unfortunate because this symphony requires top-notch playing to help it work through the mysteries of this work. The final movement Rondo is too slow to generate the excitement needed, although the Night Music movements are infectiously drawn. The brass have some dreadful difficulties, particularly in the final movement.

Both recordings (the Bruckner from 1966 and the Mahler from 1960) are mono, and are satisfactory, but no more. Both of these works need stereo amplification for their treasures to be fully opened. I assume the Bruckner is from a Prom performance, in which case I am surprised it is in mono given that Guilini's Verdi Requiem, dating from a 1963 Prom (and also on BBC Legends), appears in very good stereo. Not recommended.

Reviewer

Marc Bridle

Performance

Sound


Reviewer

Tony Duggan
Bruckner:
Performance

Sound

Mahler:
Performance

Sound

Gerald Fenech

Perfomance

Sound:


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