Barbirolli at Hallé: Soloists

The final category of recordings that John Barbirolli made with the Hallé Orchestra consists of compositions involving instrumental and vocal soloists, the latter sometimes involving choral resources as well. In Sir John Barbirolli: The Complete Warner Recordings, these tend to be organized around the soloists, meaning that, on all of the CDs, the Hallé “shares space” with other orchestras. That said, I shall do my best to focus only on the Hallé performances, holding the other tracks in check until I turn to their respective ensembles.

The most prominent of the soloists is oboist Evelyn Barbirolli, the conductor’s wife, who performed and recorded professionally under her birth name, Evelyn Rothwell, and only took the Barbirolli name after she was widowed. Two CDs are devoted to her performances, and most of the tracks are made with the Hallé. What is interesting is that the latest composition is the undated Hoboken VIIg/C1 oboe concerto in C major by Joseph Haydn, which is listed as having “dubious authenticity.” Indeed, the online Haydn catalog acknowledges only the first of the three movements that appear on the CD with no mention of an editor or arranger. However, Lady Barbirolli is credited with preparing the cadenzas for the first and third movements.

The fact is that almost all of the oboe concertos on these CDs are arrangements of concertos written for another instrument. The only concertos actually written for oboe come from Tomaso Albinoni’s Opus 7 collection of concertos, the third in B-flat major and the sixth in D major. The others are arrangements, primarily by the conductor, with two by the oboist and contributions by Charles Mackerras and Arthur Benjamin. Nevertheless, those willing to forego purism will definitely be impressed by the soloist’s solid command of tone and rhetoric without worrying too much about how many hands went into the music she was playing.

Among the other concerto offerings, the most interesting is that of Benjamin Britten’s Opus 15 violin concerto. This work was premiered in New York on March 29, 1940 during Barbirolli’s tenure on the podium of the New York Philharmonic. The recording would only be made with the Hallé in April of 1948 with violinist Theo Olof, rather than Antonio Brosa, who played the concerto in New York. This is the only recording of Britten’s music in the entire Warner collection; but it definitely deserves the attention of the serious listener, particularly since it predates the revisions that Britten would make during the following decade. Equally interesting are the two concertos that Barbirolli recorded with cellist André Navarra, Edward Elgar’s Opus 85 in E minor and Johannes Brahms’ Opus 102 (double) concerto in A minor, performed with violinist Alfredo Campoli.

The Fisk Jubilee Singers, whose repertoire may have influences Delius’ “Appalachia” (1873 engraving from The Illustrated London News, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

On the vocal side the “jewel in the crown” is the recording of Elgar’s Opus 38 oratorio The Dream of Gerontius with tenor Richard Lewis in the title role and mezzo Janet Baker as the Angel, as well as three different choral resources. One interesting feature of this composition is that the second part is about twice as long as the first. Since the second part fits comfortably on an entire CD, the CD for the first part usually has a preceding selection serving somewhat as an overture. In the Benjamin Britten recording made with tenor Peter Pears and mezzo Yvonne Minton, the first CD opens with Gustav Holst’s Opus 37 “The Hymn of Jesus.” The Barbirolli CD, on the other hand, begins with John Ireland’s “These Things Shall Be,” featuring tenor Parry Jones singing with the Hallé Choir. Since there are few opportunities to listen to Ireland’s music, this makes for an informative coupling. The other “discovery” in this category is “Appalachia,” a seldom-performed rhapsody by Frederick Delius that involves variations on an Appalachian folk tune. (Following the time he spent in Florida, Delius moved to Danville, Virginia, where he was probably exposed to the music that inspired his rhapsody.)

Finally, there is a CD that reproduces an album from my LP collection. Barbirolli conducted Baker in an album of the music of Gustav Maher with the Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen (songs of a wayfarer) on one side and the Kindertotenlieder (songs on the death of children) on the other, along with a “bonus track” of “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” (O garish world, long since thou hast lost me), one of the five songs that Mahler published under the title Rückert-Lieder. Friedrich Rückert was also the author of the Kindertotenlieder texts. Both his words and Mahler’s settings were well suited to Baker’s dark tones; but, for my money at least, she never managed to capture the optimistic spirit of the second of the wayfarer songs. However, that involves quibbling over only one track on the entire album!

I should also note that the Warner collection includes a “bonus” CD of excerpts from rehearsal sessions; and I was glad to see that a section from Appalachia” was included among those excerpts.