SUCCESSFUL DEBUT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22616, 2 January 1937, Page 7 (Supplement)

SUCCESSFUL DEBUT

BARBIROLLI IN NEW YORK The debut of the English-born John Barbirolli as conductor of tho Now* York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra augurs well for his 10 weeks' season in that critical city, says a critic. In a programme tho climax of which was Brahm's Fourth Symphony he gave every indication of being equal to his task —an onerous one for a young and hitherto unknown conductor succeeding to the place of the idolised Toscanini. His warmth of feeling quickly communicated itself both to the orchestra and those who had come to sit in judgment. "Mr. Barbirolli," writes Lawrence Gilman, in the Herald Tribune, "disclosed himself as a musician of taste, fire, intensity —electric, vital, sensitive, dynamic, experienced—an artist . . . who has mastered not only his temperament but also his trade. He is already, at 3G, a conductor of impressive authority, delicacy and imagination." Oiin Downes, in the New York Times, praises Mr. Barbirolli's platform manner and his practice of conducting with a score before him. "A truly New Deal in music for the world's second oldest orchestra," comments the Daily News. "From the first note of Berlioz's 'Roman Carnival' overture it was obvious," declares the New York American, "that tho new conductor possesses fundamental gifts of leadership and temperament."