Since his sudden death in 1970, the reputation of the great British conductor Sir John Barbirolli has grown, aided by a series of broadcast recordings which were never available during his lifetime. We can now appreciate many of the qualities which marked him out as a conductor of the front rank, and this new anthology of his performances with the Halle Orchestra from the 1950s demonstrates Barbirolli's genius anew in a collection of some of the most popular Russian orchestral works of all time. Here is music by Rimsky-Korsakov, Anton Liadov and no fewer than three works by Peter Tchaikovsky, all given deeply sympathetic and virtuosic performances in admirable sound to make a highly desirable record.

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