Thursday February 21 2008
Sir John
Barbirolli conducts Russian Favorites = RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Capriccio espagnol, Op.
34; LIADOV: Enchanted Lake, Op. 62; TCHAIKOVSKY: Swan Lake, Op. 20: 5 Scenes;
Romeo and Juliet--Overture Fantasy in B Minor; Marche Slav, Op. 31 - Halle
Orchestra/Sir John Barbirolli
Guild GHCD, 67:13 (Distr. by Albany) ****:
Culled from HMV and Pye sources--with the cooperation of The Barbirolli
Society-- these spirited traversals of standard Russian fare led by Sir John
Barbirolli (1899-1970) date from 1950-1959 in mono sound except for the
Marche Slav (April 1959) in stereo. The concert opens with an idiomatically
lilting reading of Rimsky-Korsakov’s orchestral showpiece in its first CD
release, Capriccio espagnol (20 December 1953) taped for HMV and
featuring Laurance Turner in the solo violin part. Snare drum and harp receive
no direct credit, but their sonic participation proves delightfully present. The
string attacks and horn punctuations, feral and vividly pungent, rival the
inscription George Szell made in Cleveland that long remained my personal
favorite in this volatile music. The fandango bristles with whirling, color
excitement at every turn--“veronica” would be a more appropriate term.
From a 23 December 1953 recording from Free Trade Hall, Manchester (also for
HMV) comes an item new to CD, Liadov’s sultry mood piece, Enchanted Lake,
long a Koussevitzky staple with the BSO. The languor--likely derivative of
Wagner’s Forest Murmurs--floats in a luxurious sea of undulating sound.
The Halle strings and winds pipe, chirp, and sigh in mystical fashion, an
inspired miniature. The brief, previously unissued suite from Tchaikovsky’s
Swan Lake is the earliest of the inscriptions (17 October 1950) on this
disc, taped at Kingsway Hall, London for HMV. Barbirolli opens with the famous
oboe and strings scene that Fricsay also favors in his DGG version from around
the same period. Barbirolli drives the full string statement hard, the trumpets
ablaze and the bass fiddles palpitating. We move to the harp introduction to the
Dance of Queen of the Swans from Act II, with its lovely violin solo with
harp obbligato that eventually adds the cello for a wonderful duet. A pert
bassoon-led Dance of the Little Swans leads to the big Waltz from
Act I, rife with rubato sentimentale. Here, I wish Barbirolli had taken
repeats. Finally, an earthy version of the Hungarian Dance, the Act III
Csardas stealthily paced, adding a bit more briskness through each
statement of the lassu until it reaches critical mass and boils over in a flurry
of virtuoso dervishes, interrupted by a pregnant pause.
Barbirolli kept a soft spot for Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet, here
inscribed in Manchester 13 June 1957. The conception is broad but not inflated,
with lovely touches from harp, flute, strings, and brass. Striking attacks and
tympani pedal for the street brawl between Montagues and Capulets. Several
gorgeous statements of the love theme and the polyphonic development section,
then the exalted closing pages in their anguished lament for this “tale of woe”
in the strong, tumultuous coda, not the softer version Stokowski favored. I have
lived with Marche Slav ever since I owned the 78 rpm account with
Rodzinski, later favoring the feverish New York Philharmonic rendition with
Mitropoulos. Barbirolli opts for a version played for ceremonial pomp. The
middle section with snare drum and pizzicato strings carries a real
brass-band-fanfare effect. Nice triplets in the brass, the whole quite rousing
as it carries the tune God Save the Tsar.
Gary Lemco
MusicWeb Tuesday 19 Febraury 2008
Barbirolli –
Russian Favourites
Peter Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
Swan Lake Ballet Op 20 – excerpts (1875/7) [16:54]
Romeo and Juliet (1869, rev 1880) [20:38]
Marche Slave Op.31 (1876) [8:34]
Nikolai RIMSKY-KORSAKOV (1844-1908)
Capriccio Espagnol Op. 34 (1887) [14:24]
Anatole LIADOV (1855-1914)
The Enchanted Lake Op. 62 (1909) [6:08]
Hallé
Orchestra/John Barbirolli
rec.
Free Trade
Hall Manchester, 1953-59; Kingsway Hall, London, 1950 (Swan Lake)
GUILD
GHCD 2325
[67:13]
Guild, in association with the Barbirolli Society, gives us a quintet of Russian performances culled from the 1950s. Only the last of them, the Marche Slave, which was recorded in the Free Trade Hall in Manchester in 1959, was taped in stereo. The rest exist in very serviceable mono. Barbirolli discographers will want to note that the Rimsky and Tchaikovsky Swan Lake extracts were in the HMV BLP series whilst the Liadov was in their HMV 7ER seven-inch series. Romeo and Juliet and the Marche Slav date from Barbirolli’s Pye contract – 1957 and 1959 respectively.
Capriccio Espagnol gets proceedings off to a rather pot-boiling but nevertheless very exciting start. As English conductors went Barbirolli was not quite in Albert Coates’ league of incendiary Russian performances, nor perhaps in Beecham’s, but he proves to lack for little in this sizzling traversal. The Free Trade Hall recording still packs a punch and the solos are taken with real verve, Laurence Turner – the leader – prominently, though the wind principals and the principal cellist all acquit themselves splendidly. Liadov’s The Enchanted Lake is suitably languorous and evocative – there’s a pleasurable sheen on the fiddles and a sense of languid movement that gives a sense of pulse to the impressionism.
Swan Lake was the earliest of this selection to be recorded, at Kingsway Hall in October 1950. The selections were the Swan theme, the Introduction and Dance of the Queen of the Swans (Act II), dance of the Little Swans (also Act II), the Act I Waltz and finally the Hungarian Dance (Czardas – Act III) – in that order. It’s obviously a more boxy recording than its more up-to-date disc confreres – the later Free Trade Hall was distinctly more diaphanous than the 1950 Kingsway, at least in this set-up - but we can hear Barbirolli in all his balletic warmth in this selection. Though well balanced the Hallé brass does sound a little recessed – no Stokowski blockbuster, this – but there are compensations once more in Turner’s eloquent playing of the Introduction and Dance; similarly the principal cello once again. There’s real vitality in the Act I Waltz, which is programmed after the Act II Dance of the Little Swans and before the Act II Czardas. Romeo and Juliet is the only complete recording Barbirolli left of the work – his 1969 traversal is missing the coda. It’s a considered, powerful reading and though not always flattered by the mono sound, a valuable example of Barbirolli’s way with the work.
Three of these performances are making their first appearance on CD, another inducement to purchase, along with the characteristically fine notes. Jonathan Woolf
NEW CLASSICS WEDNESDAY JUNE 20 2007
BARBIROLLI – RUSSIAN FAVOURITES
The much-loved conductor and cellist Sir John Giovanni Battista Barbirolli was most closely associated with the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, which he led for almost three decades. He was also music director of the New York Philharmonic and the Houston Symphony Orchestra, and conducted many other orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Renowned for his interpretations of music by English composers such as Elgar and Vaughan Williams, Barbirolli was also well-known as a conductor of the music of Gustav Mahler. Since his sudden death in 1970, the reputation of Sir John Barbirolli has grown, aided by a series of broadcast recordings which were never available during his lifetime, and many of his sterling qualities can be appreciated in the new anthology of performances from the 1950s featured on this highly desirable disc. The great man and his beloved Hallé Orchestra play works by Russian composers Nicolay Rimsky-Korsakov (Capriccio espagnol), Anatole Liadov (his mystical ‘fable-tableau’ The Enchanted Lake) and Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky (excerpts from his Swan Lake ballet, Marche slave, and the Romeo and Juliet fantasy overture). All receive deeply sympathetic and virtuosic performances in admirable sound, making this a highly enjoyable collection.
Page revised Friday February 22 2008