Schubert: Symphony No. 9 in C major, D944 'The Great'

Barbirolli had a particular affinity for the music of Brahms and Schubert and he conducted their works to critical acclaim. As a young cellist, he gained knowledge and practical experience of their instrumental and chamber works, and as an orchestral musician he became familiar with their orchestral works, whilst still in his teenage years. He included Brahms’s E Minor Cello Sonata op. 38 at an Aeolian Hall recital in November 1917 and played in a trio arrangement of Schubert’s Serenade during his army service. Barbirolli included the Fourth Symphony by Brahms in his first four concerts with the New York Philharmonic in Carnegie Hall in November 1936.

During his seven years with the orchestra, he conducted all the major works of Brahms as well as Schubert’s Second and Fourth Symphonies and Five German Dances. In July 1940, at his debut at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, he conducted Brahms’s Fourth Symphony before an audience of 12,000 and, shortly afterwards, conducted in Chicago at the Ravinia Park Festival where his concerts included Schubert’s Fourth and Ninth Symphonies and Brahms’s Fourth Symphony. Audiences throughout Britain and abroad heard Barbirolli conduct magnificent performances of the works of Brahms and Schubert.

He conducted all the Brahms symphonies in the 1945-46 season in Manchester. Schubert’s Second, Fourth, Fifth and Eighth Symphonies all found their way into his Viennese Night programmes. Barbirolli also conducted several performances of the Brahms Alto Rhapsody (two with Kathleen Ferrier, who also sang the Four Serious Songs) and, in 1955, two performances of the German Requiem. In the late 1960’s, he recorded a Brahms cycle for EMI with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. In his last decade, when he conducted many of the world’s great orchestras, Barbirolli’s outstanding performances of Brahms and Schubert thrilled audiences throughout the world, nowhere more so than in Berlin and Boston where his interpretations (of Brahms’s Second Symphony, in particular) also greatly impressed the orchestral players. This set brings together Barbirolli's HMV recordings of Schubert's Symphony No.9 (1953), the Rosamunde Overture (1948/49), the Symphony No.3 by Brahms (1952) and Mendelssohn's Scherzo (1949). Also included is the famous Pye recording of the Brahms Double Concerto (1959) with André Navarra and Alfredo Campoli as soloists.

BIS releases the next in their ‘Opening Doors’ series in which Thomas Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra make a case for performing 19th-century symphonic works with a chamber ensemble. They have previously recorded Schumann’s symphonies as well as a recording of Dvorák’s Sixth and Ninth Symphonies. This disc now features the final works in Franz Schubert’s symphonic genre both of which are arguably the most celebrated of all Schubert symphonies.

Reissue Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert

Recorded live in New York.

John Ardoin writes in his note: "[In 1950] Furtwängler made his only studio version of the Eighth, and its sound is surprisingly harsh (with the Vienna strings more glassy than glossy), and the performance unexpectedly exaggerated in many places. Luckily, this EMI recording is not our principal means of measuring Furtwängler and the Eighth. Offsetting it is the more fluid and spontaneous live performance issued by DG from a live concert in Berlin in 1952. All the qualities that Furtwängler seems to have been reaching for in the score come to fruition here. From the opening, with its freedom of phrase, there is a feeling of being present at the birth of an original and poetic entity. The famous G major melody in particular has a unique, living sway to it, and not once does Furtwängler's imagination flag. During the course of this individual performance, one hears every detail in the score in miraculous balance." As to the major work on this CD, he writes, "Despite the magisterial results [Furtwängler] often achieves, no one performance stands out as ideal, though oddly enough his single studio performance (DG) comes closest to tying up all the work's loose ends and creating a consistently expressive whole."

Both performances have been re-processed with state-of-the-art digital technology.