Sir John Barbirolli (2 December 1899 – 29 July 1970) Born in London, of Italian and French parentage, he grew up in a family of professional musicians. His father and grandfather were violinists. Barbirolli was the first of the family to become a conductor. Barbirolli is remembered above all as conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, which he helped save from dissolution in 1943 and conducted for the rest of his life. Earlier in his career he was Arturo Toscanini's successor as music director of the New York Philharmonic, serving there from 1936 to 1943. He was also chief conductor of the Houston Symphony from 1961 to 1967, and was a guest conductor of many other orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic, making recordings with all these orchestras. After working as a cellist in his first years, Barbirolli's early conducting career was principally in opera, as conductor of the British National Opera Company and Covent Garden's touring company. After taking up the conductorship of the Hallé he had less opportunity to work in the opera house, but in the 1950s he conducted productions of works by Verdi, Wagner, Gluck, and Puccini at Covent Garden with such success that he was invited to become the company's permanent musical director, an invitation he declined. Late in his career he made several recordings of operas, of which his 1967 set of Puccini's Madama Butterfly for EMI is probably the best known. In the concert hall, Barbirolli was particularly associated with the music of English composers such as Elgar, Delius and Vaughan Williams. He was known for his performances of late 19th- and early 20th-century music by composers such as Mahler and Sibelius, but he was also admired for his interpretations of earlier classical composers, including Schubert. **************************  
Anton Arensky Variations on a theme of Tchaikovsky, Op. 35a
London Symphony Orchestra 1947
Richard Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30 BBC Symphony Orchestra 1970
John Barbirolli
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