This 2-CD set marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Sir John Barbirolli (1899-1970) and features recordings ranging from boy cellist in 1911 to international conductor in 1969 – in both ‘live’ and studio recordings.

John Barbirolli was born in Southampton Row, Bloomsbury, on 2 December 1899, a Cockney as he proudly boasted. Or, to be accurate, Giovanni Battista Barbirolli was born, son of an Italian émigré violinist and his French wife. English-born with Italian-French parentage – a wonderful pedigree for a musician. And so it proved, for he conducted Elgar, Verdi and Debussy, Vaughan Williams, Puccini and Ravel, with equal sensitivity and perception and intuition.

This album of recordings forms a kind of musical biography; and Michael Kennedy’s notes (with many rare photos) trace that life alongside the recordings.

A special bonus is the 1947 Austrian Radio recording of two works, Weber’s Euryanthe overture and Delius’s Walk to the Paradise Garden, from the Salzburg Festival concert on 20 August at which he conducted the Vienna Philharmonic. Was this, Michael Kennedy asks, the first time this orchestra had played the Delius?

Two rare mementos of the New York period are included in this album. Anthony Collins had long been a friend of Barbirolli (they played in the LSO together) and worked in the USA from 1936 to 1945 and his Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, based on the two comic characters in Twelfth Night, is an example of his overlooked talent.

Another composer almost forgotten today is the Czech-born Jaromir Weinberger whose opera Schwanda the Bagpiper enjoyed inter-war popularity. His Christmas for organ and orchestra was composed in 1929. In 1939 he dedicated his Variations and Fugue on an old English tune, ‘Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree’, to Barbirolli and the New York Philharmonic.

Contents:
CD 1 [76:16]
Van Biene: The Broken Melody
John Barbirolli (cello), 1911

Mozart: String Quartet in E flat K.428 – Menuetto
Kutcher Quartet, 1925

Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana – Santuzza’s Aria
Lilian Stiles-Allen, 1927

Verdi: Otello – Niun me tema
Renato Zanelli, 1928

Puccini: Tosca – Tre sbirri, una carozza
Giovanni Inghilleri, 1929

J Strauss: Die Fledermaus – Brother dear and sister dear
CGOC, 1930

Saint-Saens: Valse caprice Op.76
Yvonne Arnaud September, 1932

Balfe: The Bohemian Girl – Overture
Symphony Orchestra, 1933

Collins: Sir Toby and Sir Andrew – Overture
22 March 1942, ‘live’ in Carnegie Hall, New York

Weinberger: Christmas
New York Philharmonic Orchestra, 24 December 1939, ‘live’ in Carnegie Hall, New York

Weber: Euryanthe – Overture
Delius: The Walk to the Paradise Garden
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, 20 August 1947 ‘live’ in the Festspielhaus, Salzburg

CD 2 [78:29]
Stravinsky: Concerto in D
Hallé Orchestra, 1948

Mozart: Cassation in G, K.63 – Andante
Hallé Orchestra, 1950

Mozart: Divertimento No.11 in D, K251 – Minuet
Hallé Orchestra, 1952

Grieg (arr: Barbirolli): Secret
Hallé Orchestra, 1953

Villa Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras No.4
Hallé Orchestra, 1955

Falla (arr: Halffter): Seguidilla murciana
Marina de Gabarain, 1957

Lehar: Gold and Silver Waltz
Hallé Orchestra, 1966

J S Bach (arr: Barbirolli): Sheep may safely graze
Hallé Orchestra, 1969

Rehearsal Sequence:
Berlioz: The Damnation of Faust, Op.24
Hallé Orchestra, 1957

Interview: Sir John Barbirolli and R Kinloch Anderson
The complete interview, recorded by EMI in 1964