Barbirolli: The First Orchestral Recordings (Wagner, Elgar, Delius, Debussy etc.)
£10.93 £8.74
save £2.19 (20%)
special offer ending 27/05/2024
In stock - available for despatch within 1 working day
Despatch Information
This despatch estimate is based on information from both our own stock and the UK supplier's stock.
If ordering multiple items, we will aim to send everything together so the longest despatch estimate will apply to the complete order.
If you would rather receive certain items more quickly, please place them on a separate order.
If any unexpected delays occur, we will keep you informed of progress via email and not allow other items on the order to be held up.
If you would prefer to receive everything together regardless of any delay, please let us know via email.
Pre-orders will be despatched as close as possible to the release date.
Label: Barbirolli Society
Cat No: SJB1096
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Orchestral
Release Date: 15th November 2019
Contents
Works
SardanaDanses sacree et profane (piano and strings)
Summer Night on the River
Introduction and Allegro for strings, op.47
Hansel und Gretel
Artists
Ethel Bartlett (piano)London School of Cellos
National Gramophonic Society Chamber Orchestra
Conductor
John BarbirolliWorks
SardanaDanses sacree et profane (piano and strings)
Summer Night on the River
Introduction and Allegro for strings, op.47
Hansel und Gretel
Artists
Ethel Bartlett (piano)London School of Cellos
National Gramophonic Society Chamber Orchestra
Conductor
John BarbirolliAbout
Also included are two exceptionally rare Barbirolli recordings – unique in his repertoire – made in London for Spanish HMV with him conducting the London School of Cellos. The project must have been very close to the young JB’s heart – for although purists may look somewhat askance at the repertoire, it is the musicianship and depth of feeling – to say nothing, in the original work by Pablo Casals – that is most striking. The first is a world premiere recording of Casals’ La Sardana for cello ensemble, composed not long before in 1926. The ensemble and technical mastery of Barbirolli’s players – as the homage of one noted cellist to another – remains a remarkable listening experience. In the arrangement of the Mozart bass aria from Die Zauberflöte the sense of musical drama and emotional feeling fit the original so convincingly.
Our collection concludes with the recordings Barbirolli made with the Chamber Orchestra of London’s Chenil Galleries. The large famous art gallery was situated in King’s Road, Chelsea where regular concerts were given under Barbirolli’s direction. The recordings were made at the Vocalion Studios in central London in January and October 1927 for the National Gramophonic Society, when the ensemble was called the National Gramophonic Society Chamber Orchestra.
The two 1927 recording sessions from which our performances are taken are significant in that much of the music recorded was by living British composers. Each work was also a first recording, including music by Debussy and Marcello. By far the most important item is Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro for strings: at that time, Elgar had begun his immortal series of recordings of his own music for HMV. The one important orchestral score Elgar was never to record was the Introduction and Allegro. Peter Warlock’s Serenade (written for Delius’s 60th birthday in 1922) and Delius’s Summer Night on the River are from these sessions on 3 January 1927 where we hear another world premiere recording – the only such recording ever made. This is of Debussy’s Danse sacré et danse profane, commissioned in 1904 by the French harp manufacturers Pleyel and published in that year by Durand.
The new chromatic harp, for which the work was written, was not in general use at that time, and Durand persuaded Debussy that the publication should state ‘or piano’ in terms of the solo part. It remains a curiosity of gramophone history that the very first recording of this work should be in the piano and string orchestra version. In Barbirolli’s recording, the pianist is Ethel Bartlett and the piano timbre in this recording will come as a surprise to many listeners used to hearing a harp in this music, but the artistry of pianist and string orchestra is tangible.
The final music is an arrangement by Barbirolli of the Allegretto movement from the Sonata in C major, op.1 no.5, by Benedetto Marcello (1688-1739). In this performance the listener will readily appreciate the control of string dynamics that Barbirolli conveys: here, self-evidently, is a master conductor at work.
Error on this page? Let us know here
Need more information on this product? Click here