The performances on this disc, recorded between 1951 and 1957, represent Sir John Barbirolli and the Hallé in party mood – most of the pieces, at any rate, for you can’t raise much of a laugh with Valse triste or Elegiac Melodies. J.B. had a natural flair for lighter music. He adored the tunes, he admired the orchestration and craftmanship, and he relished the chance it gave him and his players to let their hair down and – why not? – show off a bit. Franz Lehár's name was first made, in 1902, with the concert waltz Gold-und-Silber (Gold and Silver) which he wrote for the Princess Metternich-Sandór’s Gold and Silver Ball. Soon it was being played everywhere, and no wonder. It marvellously captures the feel of a great ball. J.B. liked to conduct it at the Hallé Balls held in the 1950s, sometimes with a balloon tied to his baton. But he never treated the music in a cavalier fashion. He regarded it as a great piece which deserved the best from him and his players. As Richard Osborne has written in his biography of Karajan: “If all Sir John Barbirolli’s recordings were lost except that of Lehár’s Gold and Silver waltz, there would be reason enough to say ‘Now, there was a conductor’.” This performance was recorded in April 1952. J.B. recorded the waltz again in May 1957 (released on ‘Viennese Night‘ SJB1037) and also in 1966 (released on ‘Glorious John‘ SJB1999). Turina's Danzas fantásticas date from 1920 and are exactly what their title implies. The recording, in January 1952, was the first to be made commercially in the rebuilt Free Trade Hall, Manchester. Emil Waldteufel composed over 250 dances, particularly waltzes, so it’s no surprise that his Skaters’ Waltz (Les Patineurs) Opus 183, should have become one of the most famous examples of its kind, heard in many arrangements but never so effectively as in its own orchestration. Incidentally, he wrote an España in 1886 which is sometimes confused with Chabrier’s as perhaps he intended it to be! The Elegiac Melodies by Grieg are transcriptions for strings of two of the 12 songs in his Op.33. Their titles, Heart’s Wounds and Last Spring, tell us all we need to know about these poignant pieces, so magically conducted here by J.B. when he recorded them in August 1957 at the same session as the First Suite from the incidental music to Ibsen’s extraordinary play Peer Gynt.
