Sir John Barbirolli & the Hallé
Mendelssohn - Italian Symphony
Hebrides Overture
Grieg - Peer Gynt Suite No 1
Grainger - Londonderry Air
Delibes - Sylvia Suite
CDMOIR446
With the exception of the Midsummer Night’s Dream ‘Scherzo’ from February 1945, all of the present selection was recorded during 1948, by which time the relationship between Barbirolli and the Hallé had cemented to such a degree that their charismatic chief felt no compunction about turning down the prestigious post of principal conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (in succession to Sir Adrian Boult): with typical selflessness, he simply demanded an increase in salary for the players (not for him) and the assurance that the orchestra would be increased to its pre-war size of 96 members in time for the re-opening of the Free Trade Hall.
It was also during these post-war years that the Hallé, well and truly established itself as Britain’s favourite orchestra, touring incessantly and performing at countless music festivals. Hundreds of thousands of music-lovers revelled in his vivid interpretations of such tried-and-tested, unashamedly mainstream classics such as the Mendelssohn and Grieg items represented here.
In the Italian Symphony, many of the Barbirolli hallmarks are there to hear: the infectious humanity and big-hearted spontaneity of the orchestral response; the generous lyrical flow and memorable cantabile string tone (even as early as 1926, one critic wrote of the 27-year-old rising star: “What is certain is that the soul of music is in him... he can make an orchestra sing.”); and the very occasional interpretative idiosyncrasy, always at the service of the music and never merely attention-seeking. The Hebrides Overture, too, receives a reading of plentiful temperament, drive and character (listen out for some touching, old-style string portamenti in that haunting bridge passage beginning at 4’l2”), while the Midsummer Night’s Dream ‘Scherzo’ fairly beams with mischievous sparkle and point.
Grieg was another of JB’s favourites (there’s an extraordinarily moving Lyric Suite with his beloved Hallé, from 1969), and his spine-thrilling conducting of the ‘First Suite’ from Peer Gynt betokens a very real affection for the idiom (what supple poetry he brings to the fragrant closing bars of ‘Morning’, for example). The 1948 account of Grainger’s 1913 string-orchestra arrangement of the Irish Tune from County Berry (better known as the ‘Londonderry Air’) is one of the most fervent on disc, its poignant heartache and tender nostalgia surpassed only by his remake for Pye of nine years later.
French repertoire, too, always was a Barbirolli speciality (his Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, which he recorded twice in 1947 and 1959, was a marvellous beast — and the same goes for his Debussy La mer). With the charming concert suite from Delibes’s 1876 ballet, Sylvia, Barbirolli well and truly enters Beecham territory, but survives the comparison with ease; indeed the whole enterprise is a little jewel of delectable grace, theatrical flair and joyful swagger.
© Andrew Achenbach, 1999
