Editing John Barbirolli (section)

==Biography==

===Early years===
[[File:John Barbirolli Southampton Row blue plaque.jpg|thumb|alt=blue commemorative plaque on Barbirolli's birthplace|upright|Southampton Row blue plaque]]
Giovanni Battista Barbirolli was born on 2 December 1899 in [[Southampton Row]], [[Holborn]], London, the second child and eldest son of an Italian father and a French mother. He was a British national from birth, and as Southampton Row is within the sound of [[Bow Bells]], Barbirolli always regarded himself as a [[Cockney]].<ref>Ayre, p. 18; and Kennedy (1982), p. 34</ref> His father, Lorenzo Barbirolli (1864–1929), was a [[Venice|Venetian]] violinist who had settled in London with his wife, Louise Marie, ''née'' Ribeyrol (1870–1962).<ref name=dnb>Kennedy, Michael. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30578 Barbirolli, Sir John (1899–1970)], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, October 2009, accessed 7 February 2010 {{subscription required}}</ref> Lorenzo and his father had played in the orchestra at [[La Scala]], Milan, where they had taken part in the première of ''[[Otello]]'' in 1887.<ref>Rothwell, p. 1</ref> In London they played in West End theatre orchestras, principally that of the [[Empire, Leicester Square]].<ref>Rigby, p. 15</ref>

The young Barbirolli began to play the violin when he was four, but soon changed to the cello.<ref name=times>''[[The Times]]'', obituary, 30 July 1970, p. 8</ref> He later said that this was at the instigation of his grandfather who, exasperated at the child's habit of wandering around while practising the violin, bought him a small cello to stop him from "getting in everybody's way".{{refn|In adult life, Barbirolli, when he needed to play the violin to show how he wanted a passage to be phrased, would hold the violin upright on his lap like a miniature cello.<ref>Rigby, p. 17</ref>|group= n}} His education at [[St Clement Danes Grammar School]] overlapped, from 1910, with a scholarship at [[Trinity College of Music]].<ref name=dnb/><ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/905690 "Miscellaneous Intelligence"], ''The Musical Times'', 1 September 1910, p. 599 {{subscription required}}</ref> As a Trinity student, he made his concert debut in a cello concerto in the [[Queen's Hall]] in 1911.<ref name=times/>

[[File:Royal Academy of Music.jpg|left|alt=a classical building with a modern sign identifying it as the Royal Academy of Music| thumb| [[Royal Academy of Music]], London]]
The following year he won the [[Ada Lewis-Hill|Ada Lewis]] Scholarship to study at the [[Royal Academy of Music]],<ref>Kennedy (1971), p. 28</ref> which he attended from 1912 to 1916, studying harmony, counterpoint and theory under J. B. McEwen and the cello with [[William_Henry_Walenn#Musical_family|Herbert Walenn]].<ref name=dnb/><ref name=graves>Graves, Perceval. "From Cellist to Conductor", ''The Gramophone'', September 1929, p. 5</ref> In 1914 he was joint winner of the academy's Charles Rube Prize for ensemble playing,<ref>"Royal Academy of Music", ''The Times'', 30 May 1914, p. 5</ref> and in 1916 ''[[The Musical Times]]'' singled him out as "that excellent young 'cello player, Mr Giovanni Barbirolli."<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/909989 "Royal Academy of Music"], ''The Musical Times'', 1 August 1916, p. 381 {{subscription required}}</ref> The principal of the Academy, [[Alexander Mackenzie (composer)|Sir Alexander Mackenzie]], had forbidden students to play the chamber music of [[Ravel]], which he regarded as "a pernicious influence". Barbirolli was keenly interested in modern music, and he and three colleagues secretly rehearsed Ravel's [[String Quartet (Ravel)|String Quartet]] in the privacy of a men's lavatory in the Academy.<ref>Rothwell, p. 19</ref>

From 1916 to 1918 Barbirolli was a freelance cellist in London. He recalled, "My first orchestral engagement was with the Queen's Hall Orchestra – I was probably the youngest orchestral musician ever, joining them in 1916. We had an enormous repertory – six concerts a week, three hours or more rehearsal a day. In those days we were happy if we began and finished together".<ref name=blyth>Blyth, Alan. "Sir John Barbirolli talks to Alan Blyth", ''The Gramophone'', December 1969, p. 34</ref> While playing in the Queen's Hall Orchestra, Barbirolli also played in the opera pit for the [[Beecham Opera Company|Beecham]] and [[Carl Rosa Opera Company|Carl Rosa]] opera companies, in recitals with the pianist [[Ethel Bartlett]], with orchestras in theatres, cinemas, hotels and dance-halls, and, as he said, "everywhere except the street".<ref>Rothwell, pp. 19–20 (Bartlett and quotation); and Kennedy p. 30 (theatres, cinemas, halls)</ref> During the last year of the First World War, Barbirolli enlisted in the army and became a lance-corporal in the [[Suffolk Regiment]].<ref name=graves/> Here he had his first opportunity to conduct, when an orchestra of volunteers was formed. He later described the experience:
{{quote| I was stationed on the [[Isle of Grain]] – a ghastly place but the first line of defence against invasion – and in our battalion of the Suffolks we had a number of professional musicians. So we formed an orchestra and played in the equivalent of the [[NAAFI]] during our spare time. I was the principal cello and we were conducted by the bandmaster, one Lieutenant Bonham. The other boys knew that I was longing to conduct and one day when Bonham fell ill with 'flu, they thought "old Barby" – as I was known – should have a go. It was really rather romantic – I was scrubbing the floor in the Officers' Mess when they came and invited me to take over. We did the ''[[Light Cavalry Overture|Light Cavalry]]'' overture and [[Coleridge-Taylor]]'s ''Petite Suite de Concert'' but I can't say I recall the rest of the programme.<ref name=blyth/>}}
While in the army, Barbirolli adopted the anglicised form of his first name for the sake of simplicity: "The sergeant-major had great difficulty in reading my name on the roll-call. 'Who is this Guy Vanni?' he used to ask. So I chose John."<ref>Ayre, p. 19</ref> After demobilisation he reverted to the original form of his name, using it until 1922.<ref>"Music", ''The Times'', 27 October 1919, p. 10; "Royal Academy of Music Awards", ''The Times'',  14 June 1922, p. 11; and Kennedy (1971), p. 41</ref>

On re-entering civilian life, Barbirolli resumed his career as a cellist. His association with [[Edward Elgar]]'s [[Cello Concerto (Elgar)|Cello Concerto]] began with its première in 1919, when he played as a rank and file member of the [[London Symphony Orchestra]].<ref>Kennedy (1971), p. 38</ref> He was the soloist at another performance of the concerto just over a year later.{{refn|Some sources state that Barbirolli gave the second performance of the concerto, but the original soloist, [[Felix Salmond]], gave the work its second performance, with the Hallé in Manchester on 20 March 1920, and [[Beatrice Harrison]] also played the solo part before Barbirolli did: see Kennedy (1971), p. 40. |group= n}} ''The Musical Times'' commented, "Signor Giovanni Barbirolli was not entirely equal to the demands of the solo music, but his playing unquestionably gave a considerable amount of pleasure."<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/910956 "Music in the Provinces"], ''The Musical Times'', March 1921, p. 195 {{subscription required}}</ref> At the [[Three Choirs Festival]] of 1920 he took part in his first ''[[Dream of Gerontius]]'', under Elgar's baton, in the LSO cellos.<ref name=mt>Anderson, Robert, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/956180 "Obituary, Sir John Barbirolli"], ''The Musical Times'', September 1970, p. 926 {{subscription required}}</ref> He joined two newly founded string quartets as cellist: the Kutcher Quartet, led by his former fellow student at Trinity, Samuel Kutcher,<ref>"Concerts", ''[[The Observer]]'', 22 June 1924, p. 1</ref> and the Music Society Quartet (later called the International Quartet) led by [[André Mangeot]]. He also made several early broadcasts with Mangeot's quartet.<ref>"Today's Programmes", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 16 November 1925. p. 11; 25 November 1925, p. 11; 16 December 1925, p. 13; and 10 April 1926, p. 12</ref>

===First conducting posts===
Barbirolli's ambition was to conduct. He was the prime mover in establishing the Guild of Singers and Players Chamber Orchestra in 1924,<ref>Kennedy (1971), p. 43</ref> and in 1926 he was invited to conduct a new ensemble at the [[Chenil Gallery]] in [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]],<ref name=graves/><ref>"Our London Correspondence", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 25 May 1926, p. 6</ref> initially called the "Chenil Chamber Orchestra" but later renamed "John Barbirolli's Chamber Orchestra".<ref>"Wireless Notes and Programmes", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 7 June 1928, p. 12</ref> Barbirolli's concerts impressed [[Frederic Austin]], director of the [[British National Opera Company]] (BNOC), who in the same year invited him to conduct some performances with the company. Barbirolli had never conducted a chorus or a large orchestra, but had the confidence to accept.<ref name=blyth/> He made his operatic debut directing [[Gounod]]'s ''[[Roméo et Juliette]]'' at [[Newcastle upon Tyne|Newcastle]], followed within days by performances of ''[[Aida]]'' and ''[[Madama Butterfly]]''.<ref>Kennedy (1971), p. 49 and "British National Opera Company", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 17 November 1926, p. 1</ref> He conducted the BNOC frequently over the next two years, and made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with ''Madama Butterfly'' in 1928.<ref>Kennedy (1971), p. 57</ref> The following year he was invited to conduct the opening work in Covent Garden's international season, ''[[Don Giovanni]]'', with a cast that included [[Mariano Stabile]], [[Elisabeth Schumann]] and [[Heddle Nash]].<ref>Blom, Eric, "Covent Garden Opera: 'Don Giovanni'", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 29 May 1929, p. 8</ref>

[[File:Royal Opera House at night.jpg|left|thumb|alt=exterior shot of a classical facade of a large building|[[Royal Opera House|Royal Opera House, Covent Garden]]]]
In 1929, after financial problems had forced the BNOC to disband, the Covent Garden management set up a touring company to fill the gap, and appointed Barbirolli as its musical director and conductor. The operas in the company's first provincial tour included ''[[Die Meistersinger]]'', ''[[Lohengrin (opera)|Lohengrin]]'', ''[[La bohème]]'', ''Madama Butterfly'', ''[[The Barber of Seville]]'', ''[[Tosca]]'', ''[[Falstaff (opera)|Falstaff]]'', ''[[Faust (opera)|Faust]]'', ''[[Cavalleria rusticana]]'', ''[[Pagliacci]]'', ''[[Il trovatore]]'', and the first performances in English of ''[[Turandot]].''<ref>"Covent Garden Opera Tour", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 7 September 1929, p. 7</ref> In later tours with the company Barbirolli had the chance to conduct more of the German opera repertory, including ''[[Der Rosenkavalier]]'', ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]'', and ''[[Die Walküre]]''.<ref>"Covent Garden Opera Company", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 4 October 1932, p. 9</ref> During his years with the touring opera companies Barbirolli did not neglect the concert hall. In 1927, deputising at short notice for [[Sir Thomas Beecham]], he conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Elgar's [[Symphony No. 2 (Elgar)|Symphony No. 2]], winning the thanks of the composer. Barbirolli also won warm praise from [[Pablo Casals]], whom he had accompanied in Haydn's D major cello concerto at the same concert.<ref name=graves/>{{refn|The critic of ''The Times'' did not share Elgar's and Casals's enthusiasm, criticising "Mr. Barbirolli's excessively jerky manner&nbsp;... a lack of flow in the playing&nbsp;... disastrous in Elgar's symphony."<ref>"The London Symphony Orchestra", ''The Times'', 13 December 1927, p. 14</ref>|group= n}}  He conducted a [[Royal Philharmonic Society]] concert at which [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]] was presented with the society's Gold Medal,<ref>"Gold Medal for Dr. Vaughan Williams", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 14 March 1930, p. 5</ref> and another RPS concert at which [[Gustav Mahler]]'s music, rarely heard at that time, was given – ''[[Kindertotenlieder]]'', with [[Elena Gerhardt]] as soloist.<ref>Blom, Eric, "Royal Philharmonic Society: A Mahler Song Cycle", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 30 January 1931, p. 4</ref> Although Barbirolli later came to love Mahler's music, in the 1930s he thought it sounded thin.<ref name=emi>[http://www.emiclassics.com/artistbiography.php?aid=70 "John Barbirolli"], EMI Classics, accessed 7 February 2010 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100104115716/http://www.emiclassics.com/artistbiography.php?aid=70 |date=4 January 2010 }}</ref>

When the [[Hallé Orchestra]] announced in 1932 that its regular conductor, [[Hamilton Harty]], was to spend some time conducting overseas, Barbirolli was one of four guest conductors named to direct the orchestra in Harty's absence: the other three were Elgar, Beecham and [[Pierre Monteux]]. Barbirolli's programmes included works by composers as diverse as [[Purcell]], [[Delius]], [[Mozart]] and [[César Franck|Franck]].<ref>"Concerts", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 6 October 1932, p. 1; and "The Hallé Concert", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 13 January 1933, p. 11.</ref> In June 1932, Barbirolli married the singer Marjorie Parry, a member of the BNOC.<ref name=divorce>"Decree Nisi for Conductor's Wife", ''The Times'', 6 December 1938, p. 5</ref> In 1933 he was invited to become conductor of the [[Scottish Orchestra]]. It was not then, as its successor the Scottish National Orchestra was later to be, a permanent ensemble, but gave a season lasting about six months of each year.<ref>Lindsay, p. 233</ref> Barbirolli remained with the Scottish Orchestra for three seasons, "rejuvenating the playing and programmes and winning most favourable opinions".<ref name=dnb/> Notwithstanding his growing reputation in Britain, Barbirolli's name was little known internationally, and most of the musical world was taken by surprise in 1936 when he was invited to conduct the [[New York Philharmonic Orchestra]] in succession to [[Arturo Toscanini]].{{refn|Barbirolli's biographer Charles Reid writes, "Barbirolli's appointment was announced by the New York Philharmonic Society's directorial board on 7 April 1936. The musical world rubbed incredulous eyes. … In much newspaper comment the following day surprise verged on perplexity. Nobody had heard of John Barbirolli. … What sense was there in giving the New York Philharmonic to a man who had never been on an American front page before or, so far as could be made out, on any front page of moment anywhere?"<ref>Reid (1971), p. 149</ref>|group= n}}

===New York Philharmonic===
By the spring of 1936, the management of the New York Philharmonic was confronted with a problem. Toscanini had left in search of higher fees with the [[NBC Symphony Orchestra]].{{refn|NBC paid Toscanini $3,334 a concert, compared with his fee of  $1,833 a concert with the Philharmonic. Barbirolli's fee with the Philharmonic was $312 a concert.<ref>Horowitz, p. 153</ref>|group= n}} [[Wilhelm Furtwängler]] had accepted the orchestra's invitation to fill the post, but he was politically unacceptable to a section of the Philharmonic's audience because he continued to live and work in Germany under the [[Nazi]] government. Following a campaign of protest in New York he felt unable to take up the appointment. For want of any available conductor of comparable fame the management of the orchestra invited five guest conductors to divide the season among them. Barbirolli was allotted the first ten weeks of the season, comprising 26 concerts.<ref>Kennedy (1971), p. 105</ref> He was followed by the composer-conductors [[Igor Stravinsky]], [[Georges Enescu]] and [[Carlos Chávez]], each conducting for two weeks, and finally by [[Artur Rodziński]] of the [[Cleveland Orchestra]], for eight weeks.<ref>"New York Philharmonic's Guest Conductors", ''The Times'', 9 April 1936, p. 12</ref>

[[File:Carnegie-hall-isaac-stern.jpg|alt=the interior of a nineteenth century concert hall looking from the auditorium towards the platform|thumb|[[Carnegie Hall]], New York, where Barbirolli conducted from 1936 to 1943 {{ external media | float = center|width=230px |audio1 = You may listen to John Barbirolli conducting his orchestral transcription of [[Johann Sebastian Bach]]'s [[Sheep May Safely Graze]] from his Cantata ''[[Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd]]'', BWV 208 with the [[New York Philharmonic]] in 1940 [https://archive.org/details/J.S.BACH-OrchestralTranscriptions-NEWTRANSFER/07.Bach-stokowski-PassacagliaAndFugueInCMinorphiladelphia.mp3'''here on archive.org''']}}]]
Barbirolli's first concert in New York was on 5 November 1936. The programme consisted of short pieces by [[Hector Berlioz|Berlioz]] and [[Arnold Bax]], and symphonies by Mozart (the ''[[Symphony No. 36 (Mozart)|Linz]]'') and [[Brahms]] (the [[Symphony No. 4 (Brahms)|Fourth]]).<ref>Kennedy (1971), p. 111</ref> During his ten weeks, he programmed several American novelties including [[Charles Martin Loeffler]]'s tone-poem ''Memories of My Childhood'', a symphony by [[Anis Fuleihan]], and [[Philip James]]'s ''Bret Harte'' overture. He also conducted [[Serge Koussevitzky]]'s Double Bass Concerto.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1937/12/19/archives/barbirolli-gives-youths-concert-he-opens-the-philharmonics.html?sq=Barbirolli%2520AND%2520Double%2520Bass%2520Concerto&scp=1&st=cse "Barbirolli Gives Youths' Concert"],''The New York Times'', 19 December 1937 {{subscription required}}</ref> The players told the Philharmonic management that they would be happy for Barbirolli to be appointed to a permanent position.<ref>Kennedy (1971), p. 116</ref> The outcome of this was an invitation to him to become music director and permanent conductor for three years starting with the 1937–38 season.<ref>Kennedy (1971), p. 221</ref> At the same time as this great change in his professional life, Barbirolli's personal life was also transformed. His marriage had not lasted; within four years he and Marjorie Barbirolli had been living apart. In 1938 she sued for divorce on the grounds of his desertion. The suit was undefended, and the divorce was granted in December 1938.<ref name=divorce/> In 1939, Barbirolli married the British oboist [[Evelyn Rothwell]]. The marriage lasted for the rest of Barbirolli's life.{{refn|There were no children of either of Barbirolli's marriages.<ref name=times/>|group= n}}

One of the features of Barbirolli's time in New York was his regular programming of modern works. He gave the world premières of [[William Walton|Walton]]'s second ''[[Façade (entertainment)|Façade Suite]]'',<ref>Kennedy (1989), p. 99</ref> and [[Britten]]'s ''[[Sinfonia da Requiem]]'' and [[Violin Concerto (Britten)|Violin Concerto]]; he also introduced pieces by [[Jacques Ibert]], [[Eugene Aynsley Goossens|Eugene Goossens]], and [[Arthur Bliss]] and by many American composers including [[Samuel Barber]], [[Deems Taylor]] and [[Daniel Gregory Mason]]. The new works he presented were not avant-garde, but they nevertheless alienated the conservative subscription audience, and after an initial increase in ticket sales in his early years sales declined.<ref>Kennedy (1971), p. 144</ref> Barbirolli also had to cope with what ''[[The Gramophone]]'' described as "a rough press campaign in New York from interested parties who wished to evict him from his post".<ref name=bicknell>Bicknell, David, and Ronald Kinloch Anderson. "Sir John Barbirolli", ''[[The Gramophone]]'', September 1970, p. 33</ref> The influential critic [[Olin Downes]] had opposed Barbirolli's appointment from the outset, insisting that, though "we abhor chauvinism", preference should have been given to "native conductors".<ref>Downes, Olin. "And After Toscanini: What?", ''The North American Review'', Vol. 241, No. 2 (June 1936), pp. 218–219</ref> Downes had a grudge against the Philharmonic: shortly before Barbirolli's appointment Downes was sacked as the commentator for the orchestra's prestigious Sunday broadcasts.<ref>Rothwell, p. 64</ref> He and the composer [[Virgil Thomson]] continually wrote disparagingly about Barbirolli, comparing him unfavourably with Toscanini.<ref>Horowitz, pp. 159 and 183; and Kennedy (1971), pp. 129–130</ref> The management of the orchestra nevertheless renewed Barbirolli's appointment in 1940.  In 1942, when his second contract was reaching its expiry, he was offered 18 concerts for the 1943–44 season, and the [[Los Angeles Philharmonic]] invited him to become its conductor, but he accepted neither offer as he had decided to return to England.<ref>Kennedy (1971), pp. 152 and 167–168</ref>

Barbirolli's first reason for leaving was local musical politics. He later said, "The Musicians Union there&nbsp;... brought out a new regulation saying that everyone, even soloists and conductors, must become members. [[Vladimir Horowitz|Horowitz]], [[Jascha Heifetz|Heifetz]] and the rest were shocked by this but there was little they could do about it. They also said that conductors must become American citizens. I couldn't do that during the war, or at any time for that matter."<ref name=blyth/> His second reason for leaving was that he felt strongly that he was needed in England. In the spring of 1942 he made a hazardous Atlantic crossing:
{{quote|I was in America when the war broke out, as conductor of the New York Philharmonic. [[A. V. Alexander]], who was First Sea Lord,{{refn|Alexander was in fact [[First Lord of the Admiralty]] – the government minister responsible for the Royal Navy – rather than [[First Sea Lord]], who is the senior serving officer of the navy. |group= n}} wrote to me to say that, contrary to expectations, music was flourishing and would I come back as I was missed. I was longing to return and it was just a question of how it was to be managed. A.V. went to Churchill, who apparently said, "If he's fool enough to come, let him come". It took us 23 days to cross on a fruit trader and, of our convoy of 75, only 32 ships arrived in Liverpool. I played here for ten weeks with the LSO and [[London Philharmonic Orchestra|LPO]] for the benefit of the musicians, and then went back on a [[Fyffes Line|Fyffe]] banana boat of 5,000 tons. We were spotted by U-boats the moment we left Northern Ireland but that kind of thing never worries me as I'm something of a fatalist. It had been wonderful anyhow to be back, to see England at its greatest, and to visit my old mother.<ref name=blyth/>}}

Barbirolli returned to New York to complete his contractual obligations to the Philharmonic.{{refn|Barbirolli's last concert as conductor of the New York Philharmonic was on 7 March 1943. He did not conduct the orchestra again until he appeared as guest conductor in 1959, after which he conducted a further 27 concerts, the last of which was on 4 April 1968.<ref>[http://history.nyphil.org/nypwcpub/dbweb.asp?ac=a1 Performance History Search] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140724114145/http://history.nyphil.org/nypwcpub/dbweb.asp?ac=a1 |date=24 July 2014 }}, New York Philharmonic archives, accessed 29 January 2011.</ref>|group= n}} Shortly after his return he received an appeal from the Hallé Orchestra to become its conductor. The orchestra was in danger of extinction for lack of players, and Barbirolli seized the opportunity to help it.<ref name=blyth/>

===Hallé Orchestra===
[[File:The Free Trade Hall, Manchester.jpg|thumb|right|alt=exterior of a Victorian building with ornate brickwork|[[Free Trade Hall]], Manchester, the Hallé's main base in the Barbirolli years {{ external media | float = left|audio1 = You may listen to Barbirolli conducting his Hallé Orchestra in [[Edward Elgar]]'s ''[[Enigma Variations]]'', Op. 36 in 1947 [https://archive.org/details/EdwardElgar-EnigmaVariations/08Viii.W.n..mp3 '''here''']}}]]
In 1943 Barbirolli made another Atlantic crossing, avoiding death by a fluke: he changed flights from Lisbon with the actor [[Leslie Howard (actor)|Leslie Howard]] when the latter wished to postpone his own flight for a few days.<ref>Rothwell, pp. 93–94</ref> Barbirolli's plane landed safely; [[BOAC Flight 777|Howard's]] was shot down.<ref name=blyth/> In Manchester, Barbirolli immediately set about reviving the Hallé. The number of players in the orchestra was down to about 30. Most younger players were serving in the armed forces, and to compound the shortage the management of the orchestra had ended the arrangement by which many of its players were also members of the [[BBC Northern Orchestra]].<ref>Kennedy (1971), pp. 165–166</ref> The Hallé board resolved that its orchestra must follow the example of the [[Liverpool Philharmonic]], which the Hallé's former conductor [[Malcolm Sargent]] had transformed into a full-time, permanent orchestra.<ref name=times/><ref>Rigby, pp. 130–132</ref> Only four of the players shared with the BBC chose to join the Hallé.<ref>Kennedy (1971), p. 167</ref>

''[[The Times]]'' later wrote of Barbirolli's first actions for the orchestra: "In a couple of months of endless auditions, he rebuilt the Hallé, accepting any good player, whatever his musical background – he found himself with a schoolboy first flute, a schoolmistress hornist, and various brass players recruited from brass and military bands in the Manchester area&nbsp;... The reborn Hallé's first concert somehow lived up to the Hallé's great reputation."<ref name=times/> ''The Musical Times'' also noted, "From his earliest days with the orchestra it was the string tone that commanded immediate attention and respect. There was a fiery intensity and glowing warmth that proclaimed the born string coach".<ref name=mt/> Barbirolli retained his reputation for training orchestras: after his death, one of his former players commented, "If you wanted orchestral experience you'd be set for life, starting in the Hallé with John Barbirolli."<ref>Previn, p. 67</ref> Further afield, critics, audiences and players in Europe and the United States commented on the improvement in the playing of their orchestras when Barbirolli was in charge.<ref>Kennedy (1971), pp. 266, 273 and 281</ref> Later he extended his teaching skills to the Royal Academy of Music, where he took charge of the student orchestra from 1961.<ref>Kennedy (1971), p. 289</ref>

Barbirolli refused invitations to take up more prestigious and lucrative conductorships.<ref name=times/> Shortly after he took over the Hallé he received an offer from the sponsors of an ambitious scheme that would have put him in charge of the London Symphony Orchestra,<ref>Rigby, p. 154</ref> and in the early 1950s the [[BBC]] sought to recruit him for the [[BBC Symphony Orchestra]].<ref>Reid (1968), p. 353</ref> Also in the early 1950s the head of the Royal Opera House, [[David Webster (opera manager)|David Webster]], wanted him to become the musical director there. Barbirolli conducted six operas for Webster, ''Turandot'', ''Aida'', ''[[Orfeo ed Euridice]]'', ''Tristan und Isolde'', ''La bohème'' and ''Madama Butterfly'', 1951–53,<ref>"Covent Garden Opera: 'Turandot' to Open New Season", ''The Times'', 5 October 1951, p. 8; "The Covent Garden Season", ''The Times'',  23 December 1952, p. 2;  "Covent Garden Opera: 'Tristan und Isolde'", ''The Times'', 10 January 1953, p. 8; "Royal Opera House: 'La Bohème'",  ''The Times'',  5 November 1953, p. 4; and "Covent Garden Opera:  'Madam Butterfly'", ''The Times'', 9 December 1953, p. 3</ref> but he declined to be wooed away from the Hallé.<ref>Haltrecht, p. 185 and ODNB</ref> His biographer Charles Reid wrote, "His Manchester kingdom is a kingdom indeed. He is not manacled or chivied in his choice of programmes. Broadly speaking he conducts only what he loves&nbsp;... His kingdom approximates to a conductor's paradise."<ref>Reid (1957), p. 8</ref> Nevertheless, in 1958, after building the orchestra up and touring continually, conducting up to 75 concerts a year, he arranged a less onerous schedule, allowing him more time to appear as a guest conductor with other orchestras.<ref name=grove>Crichton, Ronald and José A. Bowen. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/02013?q=john+barbirolli&source=omo_epm&source=omo_t237&source=omo_gmo&source=omo_t114&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit "Barbirolli, Sir John (Giovanni Battista)"], ''Grove Music Online'', accessed 7 February 2010 {{subscription required}}</ref> He also appeared at the [[Vienna State Opera]],<ref>"Mr. John Barbirolli: Another Invitation to Vienna", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 27 August 1946, p. 3</ref> and [[Rome Opera House]], where he conducted ''Aida'' in 1969.<ref name=ocm>[http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t237/e832?q=john+barbirolli&source=omo_epm&source=omo_t237&source=omo_gmo&source=omo_t114&search=quick&pos=2&_start=1#firsthit "Barbirolli, John (Sir Giovanni Battista Barbirolli )"], ''Oxford Dictionary of Music'', online version, accessed 7 February 2010 {{subscription required}}</ref> In 1960 he accepted an invitation to succeed [[Leopold Stokowski]] as chief conductor of the [[Houston Symphony]] in Texas, a post he held until 1967, conducting an annual total of 12 weeks there in early spring and late autumn between Hallé engagements.<ref>"Sir J. Barbirolli for Texas", ''The Times'', 1 November 1960, p. 16, and ODNB</ref> In 1961 he began a regular association with the [[Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra]], which lasted for the rest of his life.<ref name=grove/>

[[File:Hallé-first-concert.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.3|alt=old newspaper classified advertisement with twenty lines of text in small type|The Hallé's first programme (1858) replicated by Barbirolli and the orchestra a hundred years later]]
From 1953 onwards, Barbirolli and the Hallé appeared regularly at the [[The Proms|Henry Wood Promenade Concerts]] at the [[Royal Albert Hall]] in London. As well as major works from the mainstream repertory they gave an annual concert of music by Viennese composers, including [[Franz Lehár]] and [[Johann Strauss]], which, like Sir Malcolm Sargent's annual [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] nights, rapidly became a firm favourite with the promenaders.<ref>Cox, p. 163</ref> At one 1958 promenade concert Barbirolli and the Hallé played a replica of [[Charles Hallé]]'s first concert with the orchestra in 1858.<ref>Cox, p. 178</ref>

Barbirolli's interest in new music waned in post-war years,<ref>Kennedy (1971), p. 201</ref> but he and the Hallé appeared regularly at the [[Cheltenham Music Festival|Cheltenham Festival]], where he premiered new works of a mostly traditional style by [[William Alwyn]], [[Richard Arnell]], [[Arthur Benjamin]], [[Peter Racine Fricker]], [[Gordon Jacob]], [[Alan Rawsthorne]], [[Kenneth Leighton]] and others.<ref>"Cheltenham Musical Festival", ''The Times'', 1 July 1948, p. 6; "Cheltenham Festival", ''The Times'', 2 July 1948, p. 6; "Cheltenham Festival", ''The Times'', 30 June 1949, p. 7; "Cheltenham Festival", ''The Times'', 2 July 1949, p. 7; "Cheltenham Festival", ''The Times'', 6 July 1950, p. 8; and "Cheltenham Festival", ''The Times'', 7 July 1950, p. 6</ref> For its hundredth anniversary in 1958 the Hallé commissioned several new works, and gave the British premiere of Walton's virtuosic divertimento ''[[Partita for Orchestra|Partita]]''.<ref>Kennedy (1989), pp. 208–209</ref> Increasingly, Barbirolli concentrated on his core repertory of the standard symphonic classics, the works of English composers, and late-romantic music, particularly that of Mahler.<ref name=emi/> In the 1960s he made a series of international tours with the [[Philharmonia Orchestra|Philharmonia]] (Latin America, 1963), BBC Symphony Orchestra (Czechoslovakia, Poland and the USSR, 1967) and the Hallé (Latin America and West Indies, 1968).<ref name=grove/> It was a lasting disappointment to him that it never proved possible to take the Hallé on a tour of the United States.<ref name=times/>

In 1968, after 25 years with the Hallé, Barbirolli retired from the principal conductorship; no successor was appointed in his lifetime.{{refn|His successor, [[James Loughran]], was not named until five months after Barbirolli's death.<ref>Morris, Michael. "Scot takes the Halle baton", ''The Guardian'', 17 December 1970, p. 22</ref>|group= n}} He was appointed the orchestra's Conductor Laureate.<ref name=dnb/> He reduced the number of his appearances with the Hallé, but nevertheless took it on another European tour in 1968, this time to Switzerland, Austria and Germany.<ref>Kennedy (1971), p. 308</ref> In his last years a propensity to concentrate on detail at the expense of the whole of a piece became marked. His loyal friend and admirer the critic [[Neville Cardus]] wrote privately in 1969, "he seems so much to love a single phrase that he lingers over it, caressing it; meanwhile the general momentum is lost."<ref>Brookes, p. 253</ref> His final year, 1970, was dogged by heart trouble; he suffered collapses in April, May, June and July. His last two concerts were with the Hallé at the 1970 [[King's Lynn]] Festival. He produced "inspired" renderings of Elgar's [[Symphony No. 1 (Elgar)|Symphony No. 1]] and ''[[Sea Pictures]]''.<ref>March, Ivan,  "Elgar", ''Gramophone'', May 2003, p. 42</ref> The last work he conducted in public was [[Beethoven]]'s [[Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven)|Symphony No. 7]] on the Saturday before his death.<ref>Kennedy (1982), p. 92</ref> On the day he died, 29 July 1970, he spent several hours rehearsing the New Philharmonia Orchestra for a forthcoming tour of Japan that he was scheduled to lead.<ref>Marshall, Rita, "World tributes to genius of Barbirolli", ''The Times'', 30 July 1970, p. 1</ref>

Barbirolli died at his London home of a heart attack, aged 70.<ref>Kennedy (1971), p. 326</ref><!---UNCITED He was cremated and his ashes interred in his parents' grave at [[Kensal Green Cemetery]], London, though subsequently transferred to the [[St Mary's Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green|St Mary's Catholic Cemetery]] next door.--> Among planned engagements forestalled by his death were a production of ''Otello'' at the Royal Opera House, which would have been his first appearance there for nearly 20 years,<ref>"Solti's last Garden season", ''The Times'', 26 June 1970, p. 7</ref> and opera recordings for EMI, including Puccini's ''[[Manon Lescaut (Puccini)|Manon Lescaut]]''<ref name=emi/> and Verdi's ''Falstaff''.<ref name=bicknell/>