"Now DO try..." Gets me every time. @1:33

Extraordinary. One of the greatest conductors of all time. Thank you for posting.

I like so much to watch a rehearses🎼💖🎼💖💝💫💫💫Wonderful.recording🎼💙🎶🎼💙🎶💙💙💙

Thanks so much.

Thanks for this, from which excerpts were taken for the BBC Monitor 'Portrait of Sir John Barbirolli', but here we have the complete sequence including shots of the leader Martin Milner and other members of a vintage Halle Orchestra - an instantly recognizable sound from a time when most of the members were from Yorkshire and Lancashire - and it shows! This is the orchestra that as a schoolboy I heard regularly at the Nottingham Albert Hall in the 1960s, under JB, George Weldon, Maurice Handford, Lawrence Leonard and others. Unforgettable!

@garryhumphreys3054

7 жыл бұрын

I am mistaken: watching the documentary again (posted here by jazeuk1) I realize it is all there, but I had forgotten some of the scenes. Apologies for the confusion.

@TheVaughan5

5 жыл бұрын

I only saw/heard Barbirolli conduct once, at the RFH in 1968. I was very young and don't remember much about the concert except that the main work was Brahms symphony no2.

@barbarasavill252

4 жыл бұрын

Saw these wonderful musicians many times in Bradford St George's Halll Halcyon days

My great uncle

Compare this to Fürtwangler standing at the entrance of the concert hall and listening to the music change just because he was THERE. He wasn’t even leading the rehearsal! That’s what makes a conductor GREAT!

'the truth needs so little rehearsals.' indeed.

Beating the music stand to keep everyone together is a "no no"!

@johnrowland8375

2 жыл бұрын

There are no ' no-nos' in a rehearsal

@philzmusic8098

Жыл бұрын

@@johnrowland8375 Well, I once said "Don't give me that shit" to a clarinetist in a conservatory orchestra rehearsal I was conducting, and I would classify that as a no-no. Although it did make the violins sit up straight and play better . . .

My wife had the privilege of playing for many years under the baton of one of Barbirolli's students, Patrick Flynn. Flynn's rehearsal methods were just like this, nearly identical. The orchestra absolutely hated it. But the results he obtained were indisputably spectacular.

Play it like an invading mass of ground troops sneaking into town at 3:30 am alas, i wasn't allowed to conduct But.. if the Berlin OR the Halle is interested, I'm available. (No New York bookings, please)

Fact is that when he complains that it is too slow, around 2:49, that the orchestra are playing, more or less, the speed he set at the beginning. Watch his beat for the proof. At the start they were in time, but under-articulated. Had they been conducted/ played it faster in the first place, it would also have had the articulation he was demanding from the start.

@dionbaillargeon4899

Жыл бұрын

I was thinking the same. He says "too slow!". And it's he himself who's giving them that tempo (see 1:12). And he's complaining about articulation problems that are being caused by the slow tempo in the first place! It was so frustrating because I could see what he was asking for from the beggining, but then he keeps sabotaging himself. I guess anyone can have an off day...

@philzmusic8098

2 ай бұрын

@@dionbaillargeon4899 The first three seconds alone are like a caricature of a bad conductor. "On your mark, set . . . now when I say go, you should" etc. Must have been an off day indeed.

Se sufre viendo como estos voluntariosos músicos no querían hacer caso a las más que insistentes indicaciones del maestro.

How frustrating it must be to work with such an orchestra!

@philipkuttner7945

5 жыл бұрын

You've got it backwards. How frustrating to play under such a conductor! in the first three seconds he's totally alienated them, with the equivalent of "On your mark . . . set . . . wait a minute, I have something to tell you."

@Lolawestie

5 жыл бұрын

Philip Kuttner.... Conductors do that all the time. The orchestra has no energy and just sounds completely tired. Just because he faked them out the first time does not give them permission to play it with such little energy and even slightly slower that the tempo he gives. Just because he fakes them out once doesn’t mean he has alienated himself, like what? It shouldn’t take an orchestra a million times to get it, even middle school orchestras are better.

@last9bars709

5 жыл бұрын

Agree!

@jeanghika7653

5 жыл бұрын

@@Lolawestie Take it easy! The Hallé Orchestra was (under Sir John) one of the 2 or 3 best of the world. I played with him, and it was fantastic.

@mrinman7407

5 жыл бұрын

@@Lolawestie Well, it takes time to mould an orchestra as you want it: At the time of filming, Sir John had only been their conductor for twenty - odd years.

This is a perfect demonstration of how not to rehearse an orchestra.

@last9bars709

5 жыл бұрын

Couldn't agree more (sadly) - seemed to get worse every time he stopped. Just communicate through your eyes and hands ...

@tomgauterin1723

4 жыл бұрын

Bizarre, isn't it? JB was widely recognised as a marvellous communicator and warm man, but you don't see any hint of that here. And his rhythm is all over the place - it's not wonder the orchestra can't do what he wants because it's so unclear. Don't get me wrong, he clearly wasn't always like this but this seems a very odd choice of clip to show his methods.

@Viola2727

3 жыл бұрын

Indeed! Sir John or not, I've sat through far to many rehearsals like that in my so far 32 year career! There is nothing as frustrating as hardly getting your bow on the string, play 2 notes then for the conductor to stop the rehearsal to say "It's too loud" or "too slow" etc! As as happened, I have been in rehearsals for 30 mins - 1 hour and play 30 seconds of music!! If this style of rehearsing goes on for for too long the conductor will indeed "lose" the band. Our rehearsals usually start at 10am, my desk partner once asked my what the time was, "It's 10.10am", "it's going to be a very long day" was the reply! Indeed, it did feel like we had been there for 3 days!! The concert was fine but the tortuous road getting there was.....torture!

@philipkuttner7945

3 жыл бұрын

​@@Viola2727 For an antidote, look at Sir Thomas Beecham. kzread.info/dash/bejne/eX-bqZWnot3Hoco.html

@Viola2727

3 жыл бұрын

@@philipkuttner7945 One extreme to another!

Not one of Bruckner's great scherzos.

@padraigohooligan8363

Ай бұрын

Yet many people regard it as their favourite scherzo. How many *great* scherzos did he have?

too much talking. this is demoralizing to the orchestra, which consists of highly trained individuals. Better to convey the gist of his ideas thru movements and speech while conducting. this stopping and starting over and over again is so demoralizing to the orchestra.

Awful....: why doesn't he let them play before to stop ??!!...That's why the result is not good !