These performances by the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York conducted by John Barbirolli are off-the-air recordings made during his first and second seasons (1936-7 and 1937-8) as the orchestra’s principal conductor and music director, in succession to Arturo Toscanini.

We hear so much about Barbirolli’s ‘failure’ in New York that it is pertinent to recall words written by a distinguished American critic, Lawrence Gilman, about a performance of Beethoven’s Second Symphony during JB’s first few weeks in America. It was, Gilman said, "like all that we have heard thus far from him, vital, clear, distinctly felt and perceived - perceived with the eye on the object: on that is to say, the music. This conducting has unassailable integrity. It is never phoney, insincere, external. It is the product of a musician who seems to have but one concern, the highest possible to an interpreter: the unobstructed and unadorned conveyance of the master’s thought". That sounds like the JB we knew with the Hallé and Berlin Philharmonic. The New York Philharmonic directors a few weeks later reported on ‘the public’s enthusiasm, evident in an amazing growth in attendance, especially at the Sunday afternoon concerts’.

Contents:
[1] Beethoven: Overture ‘Coriolan’ Op.62
Recorded ‘live’ in Carnegie Hall, New York, 19 December 1937
[2] Mozart: Symphony No.33 in B minor, K.319
Recorded ‘live’ in Carnegie Hall, New York, 29 November 1936
[3] Mendelssohn: Scherzo (from Octet Op.20)
Recorded ‘live’ in Carnegie Hall, New York, 13 December 1936
[4] Beethoven: Symphony No.4 in B flat major, Op.60
Recorded ‘live’ in Carnegie Hall, New York, 13 December 1936