Barbirolli at the Proms
Johannes BRAHMS
(1833-1897)
Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 (1876) [42:21]
Franz Josef HAYDN
(1732-1809)
Die Schöpfung (The Creation) (1798); And God Created Man…In Native Worth [5:33]
L’Isola Disabitata (The Uninhabited Island) – overture (1779) [6:59]
David
Galliver (tenor)
Hallé Orchestra/John Barbirolli
rec. Royal Albert Hall, 24 August 1954
GUILD
GHCD 2320
[55:30]
We know Barbirolli’s symphonic Brahms best from his 1966-67 Vienna cycle. That was a rather enervated quartet of performances by common consent though there were rewarding things about it. But he did record the last two symphonies with the Hallé and made a fine New York 78 set of the Second.
It’s no great surprise then to find that this live 1954 Proms performance of the C minor is altogether a more lithe, vital and convincing document than the one with the Vienna Philharmonic made over a decade later. Tempo transitions are managed more effectively and the directional curve of the music making is very much tensile and determined. In fact it displays an urgency pretty much missing from that later performance and indeed from the studio recording that Furtwängler made in Vienna seven years previously. Barbirolli controls the opening movement with real symphonic power and control but it’s in the slow movement that he is most characteristically himself. This has surging accelerandi and an operatic intensity that binds the music to the lyric rather than the central European philosophic axis – not an absolute of course but it’s tempting to make the distinction in the light of the Italianate lyricism of his conducting here. The finale is taken at a fine tempo and Barbirolli avoids rhetorical excesses and bombast, especially brass bombast. There is a small amount of sectional indiscipline and lack of optimum blending. And there’s some slight tape distortion, which can be heard most audibly in exposed wind statements. But I wouldn’t make too much of these things – they’re minor.
The coupling consists of Haydn. Barbirolli makes a dashing, big band show in the fast sections of the overture to L’Isola Disabitata. This was a very obscure piece for him to parade at the time – and even sleeve note writer and Barbirolli authority David Ll. Jones can find no other performance of it by the conductor. Nor, rather amazingly, did Barbirolli ever perform The Creation in its entirety – only excerpts. So quite what galvanized him to programme these two at the Proms is really anyone’s guess. Gulliver sings well – a lyric tenor essentially but with sufficient weight to cope with any declamation put his way. I note he sang in Part I of Gerontius when Barbirolli performed it before Pope Pius XII in 1958.
Concert programmes were longer then, even in 1954. The rest of this Prom concert included Haydn’s Symphony No.104 and Brahms’s Double Concerto with Endre Wolf and André Navarra. The former work was a great favourite of Barbirolli’s and he recorded it twice on 78s. The Brahms he recorded with Campoli and Navarra. Even so I’m sure admirers would welcome the rest of this Prom concert – actually, assuming it still exists, it would have made a good two-for-the-price-of-one double CD set. Jonathan Woolf
· Franz Joseph Haydn:
o Overture: 'L'Isola Disabitata' (The Uninhabited Island)
o 'The Creation' – 'And God Created Man – In Native Worth'
· Johannes Brahms: Symphony #1 in C minor, Op. 68
The enterprising Swiss label Guild has now branched out into historical recordings that are excellently remastered.
This fine taping of Sir John Barbirolli's recording of Brahms' Symphony #1 with the Halle' Orchestra from a 1954 Promenade Concert is well worth reissue with its sweeping First Movement and heroic Finale.
I was pleasantly surprised by the clarity of the recording from the Royal Albert Hall with particular emphasis on the Halle's strings, a glorious ensemble in those heady days of the 1950's. The Haydn items are rarities, a bold interpretation of the overture from the opera, 'L'Isola Disabitata' and an aria from 'The Creation' sung by the underrated David Galliver are also extremely welcome. Thumbs up to this first issue from Guild and may we have many more rarities from the historical arena. © 2007 by Gerald Fenech
Page revised Tuesday July 24 2007