Barbirolli's Death

[teamsaint]

Only one of the Beatles (Ringo) went into tax exile, afia. John Lennon's reasons for making his fateful move to New York were not related (I understand) to a desire to escape British taxes.

The Rolling Stones, though, did indeed blaze the trail for pop performers to scarper for tax havens: the first one they chose,oddly enough, was France.

I was in Moscow when Putin made the announcement about Depardieu. With its flat 13% tax rate, the Russian Federation is indeed an attractive prospect for people with money - and Putin, being an astute politician as well as an iron-handed dictator, seized the opportunity to publicise his country's tax rate as well as parading Depardieu like a prize pot-bellied pig he had just acquired at an upmarket farmer's market.

He is also keen to keep Lenin on display, so that Russians can contemplate their communist (actually state capitalist) past and wonder at how they arrived at where they are.

At the risk of going off topic, where exactly are they?



Anyway, good to know that the OU was a waste of money. At least that is cleared up !

[Karafan]

I am afraid a combination of his fags, age, work schedule, erratic hours of work, idiosyncratic diet (one meal a day at midnight) and probably salt intake (did you see how much he added to his meal in the 'Monitor' BBC documentary?!) did for the old boy.

While on the subject, does anyone know exactly where he died? I know it was his London mews flat as he was due to fly to Japan for Expo 70 shortly, but I have never been able to find out where his flat was....?

K.

[french frank]

What do you mean by " the equivalent of"?

Yes, very rough and ready and almost certainly including their house so you are right to query it (but I paid £3,000 for my house in 1972). I used the DNB article to get the actual value of 'wealth at death' (it was, if I remember, just over £36,000) and the Bank of England inflation calculator, so it is only a rough indication. If memory serves, my starting salary as a university teacher in 1972 with additional increment for having two degrees was £1,355.

Michael Kennedy's article concludes: "His capacity for work was prodigious and he demanded most from himself."

[cloughie]

Yes, very rough and ready and almost certainly including their house so you are right to query it (but I paid £3,000 for my house in 1972). I used the DNB article to get the actual value of 'wealth at death' (it was, if I remember, just over £36,000) and the Bank of England inflation calculator, so it is only a rough indication. If memory serves, my starting salary as a university teacher in 1972 with additional increment for having two degrees was £1,355.

Michael Kennedy's article concludes: "His capacity for work was prodigious and he demanded most from himself."

I seem to remember when he had the odd 'warning' in rehearsal that he joked about people being afraid he would die on the podium.

[Barbirollians]

I seem to remember when he had the odd 'warning' in rehearsal that he joked about people being afraid he would die on the podium.

Yes and he once ticked off the Halle with " I am the one supposed to be half dead not you lot !"

Karafan - his flat was at 45 Huntsworth Mews just off Gloucester Place.

If the Dutton sale is still ongoing there is a stupendous bargain - the Barbirolli Viennese Album 2 CDs at £1.99 . Including a 1966 EMI album of Strauss, Lehar and the Rosenkavalier waltzes and some Suppe overtures from Pye in 1957 and the marvellous EMI Schubert 9 from 1964 with the Halle .

[french frank]

While on the subject, does anyone know exactly where he died? I know it was his London mews flat as he was due to fly to Japan for Expo 70 shortly, but I have never been able to find out where his flat was....? K.

Evelyn Rothwell's home was in Belsize Park - which proves nothing [as Barbirollians has shown in the previous post]. She left an estate of over a million (but that was 2008) and her article says:

"Life with Barbirolli (who was knighted in 1949) was not always easy for Rothwell. He was a workaholic who suffered increasingly from health problems during the 1960s."

[amateur51]

Poor Mandy - so bitter ... and so wrong

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes and he once ticked off the Halle with " I am the one supposed to be half dead not you lot !"

- even if there were none of his humblingly wonderful recordings (Hellish consideration) that comment would be enough to endear him to me.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Poor Mandy - so bitter ... and so wrong

One can sympathize with his embitteredness: he did tell us he had left Pembrokeshire.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

You know how people say they remember where they were when they received the knowledge of Kennedy's assassination, Thatcher's resignation and 9/11. For me, Barbirolli's death had the same impact. I'd been attending his Manchester and Sheffield concerts regularly for 10 years when the lunchtime news came through on our kitchen radio. It felt as though nothing would ever be the same again.

[Richard Tarleton]

One can sympathize with his embitteredness: he did tell us he had left Pembrokeshire.

More than some of us managed to do yesterday (see Stormy Weather thread)

[remdataram]

I never saw Barbirolli conduct, nor did I have any of his recordings - until recently.

They started with Mahler, and spread through English music to Sibelius and now Beethoven. For me it seems he could do no wrong.

Isn't Sir John worthy of a great recordings thread?

[Dave2002]

Yes, very rough and ready and almost certainly including their house so you are right to query it (but I paid £3,000 for my house in 1972). I used the DNB article to get the actual value of 'wealth at death' (it was, if I remember, just over £36,000) and the Bank of England inflation calculator, so it is only a rough indication. If memory serves, my starting salary as a university teacher in 1972 with additional increment for having two degrees was £1,355.

Michael Kennedy's article concludes: "His capacity for work was prodigious and he demanded most from himself."

Jobs I had in the 1970s paid between £1k and £4k (towards the 1980s end of the decade) I seem to recall. We had a flat in Chiswick bought for £11k and sold a year later in 1978 for £18k. The capital gain was greater than the combined salaries of my wife and myself at the time. Our first house (3 beds) in Bucks was £21k - 1978. By those standards JB was somewhat better off. £36k at the start of the decade was worth significantly more than at the end. I was tempted to exaggerate slightly (!!) and suggest that the same money (JB's estate) would barely buy a garden shed in some parts of London today - or a dog kennel.

[cloughie]

Poor Mandy - so bitter ... and so wrong

..and I'm pleased that this thread has evolved into a celebration of his life and not a moan against Harold Wilson who was, of his time, a great leader for this country.

[JFLL]

I remember my better half, a German, when she first saw Barbirolli in the late sixties, commented on how pale and haggard he looked (‘armer Mensch!’), and said that he was obviously missing his Italian sunshine. I had to point out that he regarded himself as a cockney!