Schubert


Symphony No.9 �The Great'
Recorded in 1953

Rosamunde: Overture
Recorded in 1949

Brahms

Symphony No.3
Recorded in 1952

Double Concerto for Violin & Cello
André Navarra (cello)
Alfredo Campoli (violin)
Recorded in 1959

Mendelssohn Scherzo (Octet op.20)

Hallé Orchestra
Sir John Barbirolli (conductor)

Brahms and Schubert are two of the composers for whom Barbirolli had a particular affinity and he conducted their works to critical acclaim. As a young cellist, he gained knowledge and practical experience of their instrumental and chamber works, and as an orchestral musician he became familiar, whilst still in his teenage years, with their orchestral works. He included Brahms's E Minor Cello Sonata op. 38 at an Aeolian Hall recital in November 1917 and played in a trio arrangement of Schubert's Serenade during his army service. Later, he frequently gained engagements as an orchestral cellist before forming his own chamber orchestra in 1924.

In November 1930 he conducted six concerts in the Scottish Orchestra's Glasgow and Edinburgh seasons, and concluded the opening concert in Glasgow with Brahms's Second Symphony. During his five seasons with the Scottish Orchestra (1933-37) he programmed all the Brahms Symphonies, both Piano Concertos, Violin Concerto, �Haydn' Variations, Academic Festival Overture and Four Serious Songs; Schubert's Fifth, Eighth and Ninth Symphonies; Rosamunde Overture, Ballet Music and Entr'acte in B flat; Overture Alfonso & Estrella; and Salve Regina for Soprano, Organ and Orchestra. He first conducted Brahms's Third Symphony in Edinburgh and Glasgow in December 1934 and Schubert's �Great C Major� Symphony in December 1935.

Barbirolli included Brahms's Fourth Symphony in his first four concerts with the New York Philharmonic in Carnegie Hall in November 1936. During his seven years with the orchestra, he conducted all the major works of Brahms and added Schubert's Second and Fourth Symphonies and Five German Dances to his repertoire. He also conducted many, though not all, of these works on tour throughout the United States and Canada and on numerous guest-conducting engagements with other orchestras. In July 1940, at his debut at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, he conducted Brahms's Fourth Symphony before an audience of 12,000 and, shortly afterwards, conducted in Chicago at the Ravinia Park Festival where his concerts included Schubert's Fourth and Ninth Symphonies and Brahms's Fourth.

Audiences throughout Britain and abroad heard Barbirolli conduct numerous magnificent performances of the works of Brahms and Schubert between 1943 and 1970. He conducted all the Brahms symphonies in the 1945-46 season in Manchester. Schubert's Second, Fourth, Fifth and Eighth Symphonies all found their way into his Viennese Night programmes. Barbirolli also conducted several performances of Brahms Alto Rhapsody (two with Kathleen Ferrier, who also sang the Four Serious Songs) and, in 1955, two performances of the German Requiem. In the late 1960's, he recorded a Brahms cycle for EMI with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. In his last decade, when he conducted many of the world's great orchestras, Barbirolli's outstanding performances of Brahms and Schubert thrilled audiences throughout the world, nowhere more so than in Berlin and Boston where his interpretations (of Brahms's Second Symphony, in particular) also greatly impressed the orchestral players.

David Lloyd Jones, The Barbirolli Society, 2001

2 CD�SET - CDSJB 1020

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