Roger Hecht wrote regarding the BBC Classics recording of Barbirolli
in Bruckner's Eighth Symphony:

>As for the Bruckner under discussion, any admirer of Barbirolli should
>have it.  It's typical of the conductor's work, very romantic in his unique
>way, sometimes impulsive, but always interesting, human, heartfelt and
>passionate.  It's also the only recording I know of Barbirolli conducting
>Bruckner(Are there others?), and he does have a flair for it.

This was Barbirolli's last ever London appearance: he died eight weeks
later.  It was a Royal Philharmonic Society concert of a performance he and
the Halle Orchestra had already given in Manchester and Sheffield in the
days before.  The Halle were therefore coming into London well-rehearsed
and, I imagine, determined to show London a thing or two under the old man.

The recorded sound is what you expect from the Royal Festival Hall in
that it's very close and bright with little reverberation.  The brass are
a touch "pinched" full out and high in their registers, but that may be the
recording source not helping.  The liner notes refer to the BBC archives
but the BBC lost the tape and this is a recording made off-air by the Vice
President of the Barbirolli Society.

It's a fascinating performance for all manner of reasons.  Firstly it's
live with all the benefits that can bring in tension and risk-taking but
with few of the drawbacks.  There is an occasional brass fluff, a few
platform thumps from JB, a cough or two from the audience, but nothing
serious.  The Halle are not the Berlin or Vienna Philharmonics.  They're
a little wanting in the bass department and the brass sound is very "North
of England" (I love it, but don't expect golden-toned Vienna), but their
rapport with JB was by this time almost instinctive, so there's a definite
feeling of security in their corporate response and in their commitment
which only thirty years of his influence could have brought about.  Give
me that against beauty of tone any time.

It's not what I expected when I first sat down to listen, but that doesn't
mean I was (am) disappointed - quite the opposite.  Overall this is a quick
performance.  Barbirolli gets through the work in under 73 minutes which is
almost 8 minutes faster than Horenstein, recorded just sixteen weeks later
at the Royal Albert Hall, at 81.  Now, before anyone says it, JB uses the
Haas edition of the score like Horenstein, so the time comparison is valid.

Though the first movement is kept moving along at a flowing tempo, (more
allegro than moderato), JB is able to be expressive within it, especially
in the strings.  In fact, it's possible to hear that unmistakable way he
had with rubato that he had to teach other orchestras but which his Halle
girls and boys knew without being asked.  But this is still a very edgy,
quite febrile performance, helped by the piercing trumpets and creepy
woodwinds.  I wonder if this is how Mahler would have conducted it?

The scherzo is fast.  I don't like this movement taken too slowly, as
Karajan did in his first EMI recording, but I do prefer a bit more solidity
than here.  Horenstein is supreme in this movement for me, striking the
happy medium.  One thing that does help with Barbirolli taking a fast
approach to the main scherzo material is that the trio is able to sound
more relaxed, even though I was aware of the clock ticking beneath.

By the adagio Barbirolli's overall approach is obvious.  Again just
that bit faster than we are used to, but slower enough when compared
with what has gone before for it to sound an adagio in relation to the
other movements.  Now we can hear that this a really "thought through"
performance, stressing drama and tension rather than spirituality.  This
is Bruckner with all his complexes rather than Bruckner with his Bible.
However, don't get the impression Barbirolli is trying to be something
he isn't.  Anyone hearing the way the unison cellos play can recognise
that it is him conducting.  I bet in rehearsal he even seized one of the
instruments and played it for them.  The lead up to the great climax is
the only place where he abandons his overall tempo approach, speeding up
dramatically, then slowing down, then speeding up again before the brass
blaze and the cymbals crash.

The last movement seems to reflect the three that have gone and I was also
impressed by the power of the brass especially.  Barbirolli's tempo makes
the whole movement hang together well, but within that his expressive
moulding of melody and his singing line adds emotion to the drama.  There
are also one or two rhetorical touches which one suspects he wouldn't have
done in the recording studio.  But this is not a recording studio.  This
is music making with an audience.

He recorded no Bruckner commercially.  This live Eighth is the only
Bruckner performance recording by him that has seen the light of day
officially.  There are other recordings of him in Bruckner in archives and
in private hands.  I myself have a couple and I know of others which I am
patiently tracking down and collecting along with other JB goodies.

>I have another observation which is also a question.  I have always been a
>great admirer of Barbirolli.  I have a ton of his recordings, many of which
>I bought because they were his recordings.  But what comes to mind after
>all that discussion of his problems in New York with the Philharmonic and
>the critics, is that, much as I hate to admit it, though he conducted the
>Halle for something like 26 years, it never developed into a real world
>class orchestra.  (Admittedly, this is based solely on recordings.  I've
>never heard the orchestra live.) This recording, I assume without splices,
>makes me wonder more about this.  I'm not that familiar with Barbirolli's
>career, but it seems to me that, great as he was as an interpreter, he was
>not a great orchestra builder.  Am I right? I'd be interested in comments
>on this.

I don't think you are right, but I can understand why you reach this
conclusion.

Actually he was a great orchestra builder and the Halle was his monument.
The problem was that he was never given the kind of money that Beecham
had at his personal disposal and so it is Beecham's efforts at building
orchestras that are more renowned because he could afford better players.
The same applies to Walter Legge with the Philharmonia and their recording
activities.  Remember too this is Britain we are talking about where
extracting money for the arts from the great and the good is very hard.
I don't know the kind of money that was placed at the disposal of Georg
Szell in Cleveland around the same time, but I'm willing to bet that if
Barbirolli had been given it in Manchester he would have been able to
mould an instrument of near equal quality.  There was also a war on when
Barbirolli arrived in Manchester in 1943 and, after the war, a period of
severe austerity whilst we paid our considerable debts for the war we had
just participated in winning.  All this had its effect.

When he arrived in Manchester in 1943 from New York JB found that the Halle
Orchestra was almost non-existent.  All the players of military age were
away in uniform and those that were left were mostly elderly or second
rate.  There was another problem.  The Halle had finished an arrangement
with the BBC in which it had shared half its players with them.  (The BBC
were often reluctant to release them and so many engagements that the Halle
could have taken on were being refused.) The Halle decided for the first
time to place players on contract, give 200 concerts a year instead of
40, and engage Barbirolli which was what had brought him back to England.
The 35 players the orchestra shared with the BBC were then given a choice
- Halle or BBC.  Only four chose the Halle.  So, on arrival in June 1943
Barbirolli found he had 33 days in which to engage over 30 more players to
go with the ones he had already AND form them into an orchestra worthy of
the name of the oldest in Britain.  One other thing: their concert hall
had been bombed flat by the Luftwaffe

The fact that he pulled it all off is remarkable in itself.  The fact
that he pulled it all off with the results that can be heard on the great
recording of the Bax Third Symphony, made on New Year's Eve 1943, is proof
of what one critic at the time called "the Halle miracle."

No, Barbirolli was a great orchestra builder.  It was simply a case of
making the bricks with very little straw.  The wonder is that the Halle
under him was as good as it was.

Tony Duggan
Staffordshire,
United Kingdom.