Bill Hill wrote:

>...  BTW, my sole experience with Barbirolli comes through this Brahms
>recording & his Mahler symphonies, which are also quite spiffy IMHO.
>Can anyone recommend other noteworthy Barbirolli recordings that I
>should hunt down?

His set of Sibelius symphonies is second-to-none; his Bruckner 8 on BBC
Legends, his Elgar recordings:- both symphonies and the legendary cello
concerto with Du Pre, and the 1956 Mercury-recorded Enigma Variations,
for my money the finest on record.

That last used to be on the short-lived Phoenixa label, which was EMI's
pun on their reissuing of recordings originally made in the 1950s for
Pye's Nixa label (but they never issued the Boult Belshazzars Feast).
Also on this label was the first stereo Nielsen 4, again Barbirolli,
which IMHO has yet to be bettered.

And the old IMP BBC Masters series also had a live Sibelius 5/Nielsen 4
from the Proms; the Nielsen wasn't quite up to the studio (brass tuning
suspect for one thing) but the Sibelius may be the finest I've ever
heard.

If you see any of these snap them up.

In fact, I can't think of any Barbirolli recording that is actually *bad*
and not worth having.

Oh yes, the Dutton (?) issue of Vaughan WIlliams conducting his 4th and
Barbirolli conducting RVW's 5th (both premiere recordings) is absolutely
essential.  The 5th, in particular, has been cleaned up (cf the 1980s
LP transfer on EMI which was virtually unlistenable).

Which reminds me that any Barbirolli Vaughan Williams (the 8th was
dedicated to "Glorious John") is worth having.  His 1960s 5th is IMHO
the finest of all and his 1950s stereo "London" and 8th (Barbirolli
Society I believe) are fabulous.

And there's a Brahms symphony cycle with the VPO which is superb.

A great conductor grievously underrated - probably because he dedicated
the last 30 years (almost) of his life to the Halle and turned down
numerous (and lucrative) appearances elsewhere.

And he was performing Mahler with the BPO when Karajan was still turning
up his nose...'

Deryk Barker <[log in to unmask]>