Although a well-loved character in Britain, Sir John Barbirolli was a maddeningly inconsistent conductor who was very much at the mercy of his musicians. Though older British critics still rhapsodize about his "musical miracle" in reviving the moribund Hallé Orchestra of Manchester, the fact is that he barely raised them from the fourth rank to the third rank. Virtually all of his best recordings were made in London or Berlin, principally with the Philharmonia or the Berlin Philharmonic. This preface is necessary because in addition to a certain amount of interpretive waywardness (such as an excruciatingly slow finale), this performance of the Mahler Fourth is simply too sloppily played by a clearly struggling BBC Symphony Orchestra to be of more than local interest. From the ill-coordinated strings to the numerous gaffs in the horns and winds, there is no point at which this version has not been bettered elsewhere both technically and artistically, and the sluggish "Corsaire" Overture is no bonus at all.

--David Hurwitz