Although the discography of Sir John Barbirolli is (today, thankfully) both remarkably large and wide-ranging, his extensive work in opera at various periods in his life is less than fully represented. So when a rare surviving recording of Barbirolli conducting a live performance of Act II from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde comes to light, and is found to be sonically good enough to be released, we must be grateful, first for the recording’s survival and secondly for the technical skill which has made aesthetic appreciation of the performance possible today.

However, the committed listener cannot but be disappointed that the tape of this performance at the 1954 Henry Wood Promenade season of Act II from Tristan und Isolde, and taken from the BBC transmission, is not complete, but rather than let the surviving tapes languish in silence in a vault, with Scene 3 incomplete, we have decided to release the performance. Although the off-air recording quality of the original tape is not of the best quality, it is still more than good enough to appreciate the undoubted musical qualities of the performance. With Mödl and Windgassen truly at the height of their considerable powers, and with Barbirolli on the podium, the result is a piece of treasureable music-making from singers brought up in the correct Germanic tradition in this music, in the hands of a great conductor performing before arguably the most appreciative audience in the world.

Constance Shacklock was a very well-known English contralto and sings the part of Brangäne in this performance. She joined the Covent Garden company just after World War II. Her qualities were soon recognised, and in 1948 she sang the role of Brangäne opposite Kirsten Flagstad at the Royal Opera House. In January 1953, she also sang the role in six performances at Covent Garden conducted by Sir John Barbirolli. George Hancock, who sings the roles of Melot and Kurwenal in this concert performance, was another contemporaneous British male singer who was much in demand for a wide range of music, from solo appearance in oratorio and concert music to opera, in which his interpretative qualities were fully employed.

The previous year, 1953, Sir John Barbirolli had conducted six performances of Tristan und Isolde at Covent Garden with Shacklock and Dalberg in the roles they sang for this 1954 broadcast – a reminder of the high standards that distinguished the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts in those days and of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

As a bonus, the CD also includes Barbirolli conducting the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, a recording from Carnegie Hall, New York in 1938