'Audiences are prepared to damn a new work before hearing it... If a person hears such a work and doesn't like it he is entitled to his opinion. But just to stay away when one is programmed certainly does not help the promoter or the conductor in their efforts to give new music a proper chance.'

The problem may sound familiar, and the city is New York. But the year is not 2005, it is 1938, and the spirited defender of new music was John Barbirolli.

The English conductor was the surprise choice to take over the famed New York Philharmonic from the legendary Arturo Toscanini. The begining of his seven year span as Music Director was a honeymoon period. Barbirolli's reputation was built on the romantic repertoire, but he was also unstinting in his advocacy of new music. The US based composers that he programmed included Daniel Gregory Mason, Joseph Deems Taylor (excerpts from his comic opera Peter Ibbetson), Abram Chasins, Samuel Barber, Ernst Toch, Arkady Dubensky, Charles Wakefield Cadman, Quinto Maganini, Gardner Read, Charles Griffes and Quincy Porter. From further afield came first New York performances of compositions from Ibert, Gossens, and Britten.

But ultimately Barbirolli's programming and performances fell foul of both the New York critics and audiences. His last concert as Music Director was in March 1943, then he departed for wartime England and Manchester's Hall� Orchestra. He excelled there and continued working with the Hall� to the end of his life in 1970. He also held the position of conductor-in-chief of the Houston Symphony for seven years. In 1959 he returned to guest conduct the New York Philharmonic, and it is appropriate that the first concert he played included Vaughan William's Eighth Symphony which he had premiered in Manchester just three years earlier.

For the full story of Barbirolli's years in New York, and the new music he played, including links to many 20th century composers, take An Overgrown Path to 'Glorious John' in New York.