Half a century and more ago, what might be termed the ‘standard repertoire’ for orchestral concerts and gramophone recordings was considerably different from what it has become today – even in the music of such a popular composer as Tchaikovsky.

When, in the late 1950s, Barbirolli and the Hallé came to set down Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies 4, 5 & 6 for Pye Records, the repertoire for recorded music was considerably more circumscribed than it is now. A complete integral series of recordings of Tchaikovsky’s numbered symphonies (plus the ‘Manfred’ symphony) by the same conductor and orchestra for the same company was unknown in the decade following the introduction of long-playing records in 1948 in the USA (and in 1950 in Europe). Today, it has become almost a commonplace.

Of Tchaikovsky’s six numbered symphonies, as with many of his contemporaries, Barbirolli only ever performed the last three – Barbirolli’s decision thus to restrict himself was not regarded as anything unusual half a century and more ago.

On the other hand, on listening to the quality of these performances after more than 50 years, we can but regret that we do not have recordings of those first three Tchaikovsky symphonies under Barbirolli’s baton: the three later symphonies, in this 2-CD set, may be amongst the most popular and well-known in the entire orchestral repertoire, but they are each very different, one from another, and consequently pose quite different interpretative challenges, which not all conductors can meet with equal artistry.

That Barbirolli was able to do so is demonstrated time and again in these recordings – for examples, such long stretches as the development in the first movement of No.6, the inner pulse of the middle movements of No.5 and the supreme majesty of the finale, together with the power Barbirolli unleashes at climactic moments in No.4 – plus a thrilling account of the Marche Slave – these are realisations such as would surely have excited the composer’s intense admiration, as they do for all of those who honour Tchaikovsky’s memory today, throughout the world.