Search - Boston Symphony Orchestra, Sir John Barbirolli: 1959 - Brahms/Arr. Barbirolli/Delius/Walton on DVD

Vintage Barbirolli

J. Tyrrell | Birmingham UK | 09/22/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I had the good fortune to attend Barbirolli's concerts on several occasions and they never failed to please. It's good then to find a video of him at work with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It can't be pretended that this is in first class sound and the photography is b&w. Nevertheless the music making shines through.

The arrangements of Elizabethan music by Barbirolli don't chime in with authenticity and I didn't find this work of much appeal. Delius was a composer associated with this conductor as well as Beecham so it's good to have this included.

Walton's Partita is an infectious work and here the orchestral playing is frankly better than it was with Barbirolli's recording with the Halle Orchestra on a BBC CD.

It is the Brahms Second Symphony which makes its mark and the audience rise to the occasion. Barbirolli is undemonstrative but allows the work to unfold naturally. This DVD was a great "find" among other treasures from the recording archives of those television companies that regularly televised concerts of orchestras like those in Boston and Chicago. It may be a period piece, but it is great to have such archive material available to enjoy once more."