Berlioz La Carnaval romain: Overture

Debussy

Petite Suite – Ballet (orch. Büsser)

Première Rapsodie pour orchestre avec clarinette
Benny Goodman (clarinet)

Ravel La Valse – Poème choréographique

Bruch Violin Concerto No.1 in G op.26
Nathan Milstein (violin)

New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra
John Barbirolli (conductor)

Recorded at the Liederkranz Hall, New York City, 1940-42

The following extracts are from Michael Kennedy’s biography of Sir John ...

In his last Carnegie Hall programmes Barbirolli conducted Strauss waltzes, Skriabin's Prometheus, Elgar's Enigma Variations, Debussy's rare Fantasy for piano and orchestra and, as the final work on 7 March, Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. John described the scene after the symphony, in a letter to Harold Holt (17 April):

“After a good ten minutes' applause with the audience and orchestra just sitting and cheering, I made a brief speech during which I said ‘Now as I come to the end of my seven year period in New York’ and this was greeted by shouts from the gallery of ‘NO!’ Even after the speech nobody moved and finally the orchestra and audience stood and sang Auld Lang Syne. It was really a moving and unforgettable occasion, and people here tell me quite unprecedented.”

What the audience did not yet know was that Barbirolli's next post was already almost settled. On 25 February, the day he was conducting the Vaughan Williams symphony, a telegram was sent from Manchester, signed by Robert J. Forbes, the Principal of the Royal Manchester College of Music. It said: ‘Would you be interested permanent conductorship Hallé? Important developments pending.’ Since his visit to England John had been hoping for a suitable opportunity to return home, even though the Los Angeles Philharmonic were on the verge of offering him their post. As soon as he read this telegram he said to Evelyn, ‘This is it,’ and cabled back: ‘Am always interested to consider a permanent conductorship of an orchestra with as great traditions as the Halle. Regards.’

With the start of the Halle negotiations Barbirolli's American period ended. Was it a success or was it, as the London critic Desmond Shawe-Taylor was to say in his obituary of Barbirolli in the Sunday Times, ‘a flop’? In financial terms and in attendance at the Philharmonic concerts it was a proved and provable success. Artistically? This can be measured only by his effect on the standard of the orchestra and by individual judgment. Harold Schonberg, writing in the New York Times on 9 August 1970, asserted that under Barbirolli the orchestra ‘lost the tight ensemble that Toscanini had given it... He was too inexperienced at that stage of his career and could not impose his will upon the temperamental virtuosos of the Philharmonic.’ That is simply not true. Erno Balogh, in the Washington Sunday Star of 6 September 1970, said that the orchestra ‘relaxed too much, and the result was evident in the performances, which lacked the precision and virtuosity that had been developed under Toscanini.’

All that these otherwise sympathetic writers are saying is that Barbirolli's approach to music-making was at the opposite extremity from his great predecessor's. Zirato considered that Barbirolli ‘was the rightful unsurpassed interpreter of the authentic traditional, and like Toscanini he taught how to understand music and how to be faithful to the score, how to pour out the real essence of the music, how to encourage the orchestra to approach masterpieces with the same humility as he himself did.’

The contrast between Toscanini and Barbirolli was symbolic of the contrast between two generations of conductors and the altering role of conductors. Toscanini was the supreme autocrat of the old school, ruling by terror, insult, tantrums and his own daemonic drive. Barbirolli, over thirty years younger, was the benevolent autocrat, more democratic, ruling through comradeship with his players, inviting them and the audience to share his own delight in music. The contrast in their philosophy was reflected in their interpretations: Toscanini inspired awe for the music he conducted; Barbirolli inspired love and affection. Their different approaches are crystallized in their respective recordings of Verdi's Otello and Requiem: the older man relentless, electric, dramatic in the extreme, incomparably exciting; the younger broader, with more humanity, many felicitous touches of detail, and caressing the phrases like a lover. Both are valid interpretations, both are true to the spirit of the music, both reveal different aspects of Verdi's and of their own genius. It is overlooked that Barbirolli not only succeeded Toscanini in New York: that would have soon been accomplished, a nine-day wonder. For seven years he conducted almost alongside him, the one in Carnegie hall, the other in the NBC studio. It is a pity that some of the artificial and excitement-craving New York public, egged on by the critics, regarded this as a gladiatorial contest, with Toscanini as the Lion and Barbirolli as the Christian. It is a pity the critics were not broad-minded enough to relish the fascinating contrast of styles that was being laid before them for thirty weeks of the year.

CDSJB 1027