This Is Your Life: John Barbirolli

Sir John BARBIROLLI (1899-1970)

The first edition of This Is Your Life to be broadcast outside of London

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - John Barbirolli, conductor and cellist, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC's Dickenson Road Studios in Manchester, having been led to believe he was there to record a tribute to violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler.

John, who was born in London and grew up in a family of professional musicians, studied at Trinity College of Music. After working as a freelance cellist for several years, he was offered the chance to conduct in 1926, firstly with the British National Opera Company and later with Covent Garden's touring company.

He was invited to conduct the New York Philharmonic in 1936 and spent a total of seven seasons with them before returning to the UK in 1943 to take up the position of permanent conductor with the Halle Orchestra in Manchester, which he helped save from dissolution to become one of the world's leading symphony orchestras.

"intense pleasure to me and particularly my dear mother... a memory I shall treasure for many years to come"

programme details...

Edition No: 25
Subject No: 25
Broadcast live: Mon 21 Jan 1957
Broadcast time: 7.15-7.45pm
Venue: BBC Studios, Manchester
Series: 2
Edition: 10

on the guest list...

Yvonne Arnaud
Walter Pepper
Winifred Small
Evelyn Rothwell, Lady Barbirolli - wife
Andre Mangeot
Rev E Cynolwyn Pugh
Abram Chasins
Mrs McNab
Kenneth Crickmore
Fred Roberts
message from Arthur Rubinstein
message from Ralph Vaughan Williams
Louise - mother - live link
Fritz Kreisler

production team...

Researchers: Peter Moore, Nigel Ward
Writer: Gale Pedrick
Director: unknown
Producer: T Leslie Jackson

with thanks to Paul Brooks of the Barbirolli Society for providing a photograph from Lady Barbirolli's collection

related pages...

Classical Life

a symphony of subjects

Stories behind This Is Your Life

a review of the second series

Timeline

the show's fifty year history

This Is Your Life by Eamonn Andrews

Weekend Magazine reports from behind-the-scenes

John Barbirolli recalls his experience of This Is Your Life in the end of series review programme, Stories behind This Is Your Life, broadcast in June 1957

Photographs of John Barbirolli This Is Your Life

The Manchester Guardian article: John Barbirolli This Is Your Life

The Manchester Guardian 22 January 1957

Television Notes

SURPRISE FOR SIR JOHN BARBIROLLI

"This is Your Life"

By our Television Critic

In This Is Your Life the BBC chooses a man or woman, and the friends and relatives of the unsuspecting subject all join in the conspiracy until the moment when he finds himself before the television cameras, an ordeal which some face with more composure than others. Last night, for the first time, This Is Your Life came to Manchester because the subject could not be lured to London without the game being given away.

The "Life" was that of Sir John Barbirolli, taken completely by surprise in the Manchester television studios, where he had gone, as he thought, to pay a tribute to the violinist Fritz Kreisler. The tables were turned and the conclusion of the programme was an affecting tribute in the recorded voice of Kreisler (in New York) to Sir John.

One of the sensations enjoyed by connoisseurs of this programme is watching the surprise and bewilderment on the face of the chosen subject. Sir John was certainly surprised, but never lacked composure. His reception of the tributes and the greetings from old friends was quiet and full of feeling: the close-up in which he was often held showed a thoughtful indeed sometimes almost a sad expression.

The first friend to greet him was Yvonne Arnaud, who had first heard him as a cellist, then there were recollections of his school days of the trio in which he first played, of the Music Society Quartet (the founder, Andre Mangeot, came to Manchester for the broadcast) and of days with the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.

Lady Barbirolli came in and sat beside Sir John as the programme continued: a famous American musician, who had flown from New York, brought a cigar and a greeting from Arthur Rubenstein, and there was also 85-year-old Mrs McNab, in whose house Sir John and Lady Barbirolli stay when they are in Edinburgh. Finally a glimpse of Sir John's mother watching the programme on the screen in London.

Nobody who has been made the central figure in This Is Your Life has come through it with such charm and ease as Sir John.

Edinburgh Evening News article: John Barbirolli This Is Your Life

Edinburgh Evening News 22 January 1957

From Our Turret Window

ALTHOUGH so much honour has come his way in the world of music, Sir John Barbirolli, in his private life, has never changed in actual character from the days of his youth in a comparatively humble London household. Even when he went from Edinburgh to America to take over conductorship of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra he preferred to live in rooms and fend for himself rather than be like other celebrities and enjoy the ready-made comforts of a first-class hotel. This love of simple home life is partly a tribute to the kindnesses received during his sojourn in Edinburgh as conductor of the Scottish Orchestra. On all his visits to Edinburgh, Sir John has found a home from home with 85-year-old Mrs Macnab, of 4 Brougham Place, Edinburgh. His deep affection for his Edinburgh landlady was illustrated last night when Sir John was the guest whose career was portrayed in the TV programme, "This is Your Life".

One Of The Finest

The broadcast was from the studios in Manchester. It showed that to friendly Mrs Macnab Sir John has always been "one of the kindest and finest of gentlemen."

Another of Sir John's friends recalled the occasion when a letter was received from No 10. Downing Street asking whether the famous conductor would accept a Knighthood.

Sir John's first reaction had been. "I wonder what Mrs Macnab will think about this?"

Halifax Daily Courier and Guardian article: John Barbirolli This Is Your Life

Halifax Daily Courier and Guardian 22 January 1957

Tele News and Views: by Irene Roper

Sir John Barbirolli, conductor of the Hallé Orchestra which is the pride of Manchester and has the respect of the world, uprooted the "This Is Your Life" programme, last night. Usually transmitted from London, this programme transferred itself to Manchester in order not to arouse the suspicion of the always "surprised" victim.

This most charming man - known as the musical "corpse reviver" - has had too many big moments in his life to be shattered by a television thrust at him without warning.

Obviously he enjoyed the whole thing and greeted his Edinburgh landlady, Mrs McNab, with the same warmth and affection as he greeted Yvonne Arnaud. A lovable man, with a roguish smile but a great musical personality. He, above all, deserved this programme.

The Birmingham Post and Gazette article: John Barbirolli This Is Your Life

The Birmingham Post and Gazette 22 January 1957

LAST NIGHT

Since the broadcast of This Is Your Life on BBC Television a fortnight ago when the Rev Brian Hession was the subject, there has been much comment about the method of confronting people with personalities from their past. Just before last night's edition the Rev Brian Hession was brought before the cameras to give his point of view. He confessed that he was "a bit put off his stroke."

He had been preparing a talk for sound radio on cancer welfare methods in America and Canada, and the television programme did not allow him to give the message.

In last night's programme the planners were on surer ground, as the subject was a public personality, Sir John Barbirolli, who had been invited to the Manchester studio ostensibly to pay a tribute to Toscanini. He took the transformation to a television biography of himself very well.

Tributes were paid by many well-known people, including Yvonne Arnaud, and a message was read from Vaughan Williams. Kreisler's voice had been recorded in New York, recalling a performance of a Brahms concerto. When he described it as one of the happiest moments of his life, Sir John was visibly moved and covered his eyes with his hand.

The Manchester Guardian 25 January 1957

Television Notes

VICTIMS HELD BY GOOD MANNERS?

"This is Your Life"

By our Television Critic

Our London Correspondence note yesterday about Abram Chasins, who was brought over from New York by the BBC to greet Sir John Barbirolli in This Is Your Life on Monday, asked whether some day the victim of one of these programmes may walk out on the viewers and leave Eamonn Andrews with a problem. This is what some television critics have been wondering for a long time; they have also been wondering just what it is that makes people suffer surprise, bewilderment, and occasionally annoyance without protest.

First, it is obviously that they do not like to upset a whole programme and refuse to play, because the thing has started before they realise. So except for some few who really do not mind, the programme is mainly carried through on the good manners of the victim, however much he dislikes it. One can feel very well, sometimes, the amount of nervous strain that is in the air, while Mr Andrews is exerting the kind of soothing control that a good nannie applies to a nervous or awkward child. Then again, it must be remembered that the close relations and friends of the victim are in the plot and that if they did not co-operate, the subject could never be brought to the cameras.

That the BBC is finding it increasingly difficult to trap people into This is Your Life is shown by the devices they use; obviously no one will now go into the theatre or studio where the programme is done, lest they should be picked out of the audience. Whatever the entertainment value, the deceptions involved are unpleasant and questionable.

One would not go so far as Lord Lucas of Chilworth, who said in the House of Lords on Wednesday that "almost all" television programmes were deplorable. The BBC does some good things, especially in drama and in "documentaries." But it is in programmes like This is Your Life and "Is this your problem?" that it tries to compete with independent television, and in doing so drops its usual standards. Of the two "Is this your Problem?" is the more discreditable, for here, under the excuse of helping people is an unashamed exploitation of private lives and emotions for mass entertainment.

Series 2 subjects