Sunday, October 11, 2020

The Other Barbirolli 78s

About a month ago it occurred to me that, if I really wanted to write a “history” of conductor John Barbirolli, I would do well to supplement my account of Sir John Barbirolli: The Complete Warner Recordings with the recordings he made during his tenure with the New York Philharmonic between 1936 and 1942. That recorded legacy is much more modest. In its entirety it fills only six CDs, released by Sony Masterworks under the title Sir John Barbirolli: The Complete RCA & Columbia Album Collection.

The story of Barbirolli in New York is not a particularly happy one. The musicians liked him, which is much more than one can say about their attitude towards Gustav Mahler, at least on the basis of interviews recorded by Gilbert Kaplan. The audiences, particularly the subscribers, tended to think otherwise, primarily because of his interest in bringing new compositions into the programs. Audience opinion was then reinforced by both Olin Downes (The New York Times), who preferred “native conductors” but could not say enough in praise of Arturo Toscanini, and Virgil Thomson (New York Herald Tribune), another Toscanini enthusiast. Ironically, Toscanini was the one to recommend Barbirolli to replace him when he left the New York Philharmonic to take over the NBC Symphony Orchestra. By 1942 Barbirolli had had enough and took a ship back to England when the Atlantic Ocean was at its most hazardous.

As might be guessed, Barbirolli’s interest in new works did not find its way into his recording sessions with the New York Philharmonic. Indeed, the most recent work in the Sony box is “Fountains of Rome,” which Ottorino Respighi completed in 1916. (Toscanini would record this with the NBC Symphony Orchestra for RCA, but that recording session would not take place until December 17, 1951. The symphonic poem filled one side of a long-playing disc, the other side being taken by “Pines of Rome.” As classical recordings go, this one could be classified as a “major hit.”)

My guess is that the shift by the New York Philharmonic from RCA to Columbia had at least something to do with Toscanini. There are a modest number of Philharmonic albums in Arturo Toscanini: The Complete RCA Collection, and it is reasonable to assume that the orchestra maintained its recording relationship with RCA after Barbirolli succeeded Toscanini. However, with Toscanini as its conductor, the NBC Symphony Orchestra become a “cash cow” for RCA and may well have been a significant factor in the Philharmonic moving over to Columbia. As a result, the RCA content fills only the first two CDs in the Barbirolli collection; and the remaining four CDs all account for Columbia releases.

The nature of this shift is a bit ironic. The Toscanini anthology still has an impressive number of admirers. There are any number of reasons for this, one being that the technical skills on the recording side were right up there with the performing skills of both Toscanini and the many different orchestras he conductor for RCA recordings. Unfortunately, those skills are not as evident on the two RCA CDs in the Barbirolli anthology. Whether this had something to do with how Barbirolli interacted with the technicians or a technical crew that might be called “second team” may never be resolved. However, the quality of the recordings improves markedly when the attentive listener makes the transition from the second CD to the third. This is particularly disappointing because the repertoire on those first two CDs presents many different dimensions of Barbirolli’s conducting skills (including “Fountains of Rome”); and it is unfortunate that the audio technology short-changes that repertoire.

Nevertheless, Columbia proved to be a good home for the Philharmonic, as much for soloists as for the conducting. I was particularly delighted with the opportunity to listen to the classical side of the skills of clarinetist Benny Goodman. Both he and Barbirolli understood the significance of Mozart’s music, and the recording of the K. 622 clarinet concerto in A major is one of the high points of the entire collection. However, as they say, “That’s not all, folks!” Goodman also recorded Debussy’s first rhapsody for clarinet and orchestra, and it is a pity that Debussy was no longer around to hear how Goodman and Barbirolli interpreted this music some 30 years after he had written it. Other Columbia soloists that worked particularly well with Barbirolli include Robert Casadesus playing Mozart’s K. 595 piano concerto in B-flat major and Nathan Milstein playing Max Bruch’s Opus 26 (first) violin concerto in G minor.

Thus for all of the technical flaws and unpleasant personal circumstances that Barbirolli had to endure, there is much to be gained from the 78 RPM recordings captured on these six CDs (particularly the four of Columbia sessions) that significantly complement the 26 CDs of 78s in the Warner collection.

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