Evelyn, Lady Barbirolli OBE (24 January 191125 January 2008) was an English

oboist An oboist (formerly hautboist) is a musician who plays the oboe or any oboe family instrument, including the oboe d'amore, cor anglais or English horn, bass oboe and piccolo oboe or oboe musette. The following is a list of notable past and pres ...

, and the wife of the eminent conductor Sir

John Barbirolli Sir John Barbirolli ( Giovanni Battista Barbirolli; 2 December 189929 July 1970) was a British conductor and cellist. He is remembered above all as conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, which he helped save from dissolution in 194 ...

. She was born Evelyn Rothwell, and was known professionally by that name until after she was widowed, when she became known as Evelyn Barbirolli. She rose to fame at a time when there were very few women in orchestras except for

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...

ists.

Early years

Evelyn Rothwell was born 24 January 1911 in Wallingford-on-Thames, Berkshire, the daughter of a tea dealer in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

. Her mother was related to

Charles Reade Charles Reade (8 June 1814 – 11 April 1884) was a British novelist and dramatist, best known for '' The Cloister and the Hearth''. Life Charles Reade was born at Ipsden, Oxfordshire, to John Reade and Anne Marie Scott-Waring, and had at leas ...

, a novelist of the Victorian era. She did not take up the oboe until she was 17, when she started to learn at her school, Downe House, near Newbury, under the headship of

Olive Willis Olive Margaret Willis (26 October 1877 – 11 March 1964) was an English educationist and headmistress. She founded Downe House School and was its head for nearly forty years, from 1907 to 1946. Early life Willis was born in 1877 at 65 Thistl ...

. Her father was not supportive of her studying music, but her mother encouraged her to enter the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

. She studied the oboe there with

Léon Goossens Léon Jean Goossens, CBE, FRCM (12 June 1897 – 13 February 1988) was an English oboist. Career Goossens was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, and studied at Liverpool College of Music and the Royal College of Music. His father was violinist and ...

. She also learned the piano as a second instrument, and played the cello and the

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

, nearly three years younger, was also a student there and he got her to play through some of his compositions for oboe. She started her professional career by deputising for Léon Goossens in the Drury Lane Orchestra. She was soon appointed second oboe with the

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

touring company, which was conducted by

. Barbirolli was married, although the marriage was not to last. Barbirolli was then made conductor of the Scottish Orchestra (now the

Royal Scottish National Orchestra The Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) ( gd, Orcastra Nàiseanta Rìoghail na h-Alba) is a British orchestra, based in Glasgow, Scotland. It is one of the five National performing arts companies of Scotland, national performing arts compa ...

). He appointed Evelyn as first oboe in the orchestra. He arranged several works for oboe and orchestra for her, including a concerto by

Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training i ...

. Several of these are on recordings they made.

Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

was particularly pleased with their recording of his Oboe Concerto. Several composers dedicated works to her, including

Arnold Cooke Arnold Atkinson Cooke (4 November 1906 – 13 August 2005) was a British composer.Biography by Eric Wetherell, British Music Society/ref> Education Cooke was born at Gomersal, West Yorkshire, into a family of carpet manufacturers. As a child, ...

Stephen Dodgson Stephen Cuthbert Vivian Dodgson (17 March 192413 April 2013) was a British composer and broadcaster. Dodgson's prolific musical output covered most genres, ranging from opera and large-scale orchestral music to chamber and instrumental music, as ...

Arthur Benjamin Arthur Leslie Benjamin (18 September 1893, in Sydney – 10 April 1960, in London) was an Australian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He is best known as the composer of '' Jamaican Rumba'' (1938) and of the ''Storm Clouds Cantata'', f ...

Gordon Jacob Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob CBE (5 July 18958 June 1984) was an English composer and teacher. He was a professor at the Royal College of Music in London from 1924 until his retirement in 1966, and published four books and many articles about m ...

Edmund Rubbra Edmund Rubbra (; 23 May 190114 February 1986) was a British composer. He composed both instrumental and vocal works for soloists, chamber groups and full choruses and orchestras. He was greatly esteemed by fellow musicians and was at the peak o ...

and

Elizabeth Maconchy Dame Elizabeth Violet Maconchy LeFanu (; 19 March 1907 – 11 November 1994) was an Irish-English composer. She is considered to be one of the finest composers Great Britain and Ireland have produced. Biography Elizabeth Violet Maconchy was b ...

. The nature of her work with the Scottish Orchestra allowed her also to play from 1934 to 1938 in the

Glyndebourne Festival Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an annual opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England. History Under the supervision of the Christie family, the festival has been held annually since 1934, ...

, and from 1935 to 1939 with the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

, where she and her friend Natalie Caine were the first women woodwind players.

Henry Wood Sir Henry Joseph Wood (3 March 186919 August 1944) was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introducing hund ...

made her first oboist in the

New Queen's Hall Orchestra The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect Thomas Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it ...

Years of marriage

Rothwell married

in 1939, after his divorce from his first wife. By this time Barbirolli was conductor of the

New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...

, where he had succeeded

Arturo Toscanini Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orch ...

in 1936. Barbirolli and Rothwell lived in New York until 1943, when they returned to England so Barbirolli could take over the conductorship of the Hallé Orchestra, based in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. Rothwell occasionally played in the orchestra, although she kept her appearances there to a minimum to avoid charges of

nepotism Nepotism is an advantage, privilege, or position that is granted to relatives and friends in an occupation or field. These fields may include but are not limited to, business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, fitness, religion, an ...

. When the Hallé Orchestra performed in

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...

in 1948, she was the soloist in the first performance of

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

's Oboe Concerto, K. 314 since its rediscovery and republication. She also appeared in duet with the pianist Iris Loveridge. Rothwell played the British premiere of

Bohuslav Martinů Bohuslav Jan Martinů (; December 8, 1890 – August 28, 1959) was a Czech composer of modern classical music. He wrote 6 symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. He bec ...

's Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra, at the Proms on 24 August 1959, after the concerto's creator and dedicatee

Jiří Tancibudek Jiří Tancibudek AM (5 March 19211 May 2004) was a Czech-born Australian oboist, conductor and teacher of great renown in his adopted country and elsewhere. His obituary in the ''Adelaide Review'', titled "Prince of the oboe", said of his play ...

was unable to appear. In Manchester, Rothwell devoted herself to helping Barbirolli. She was his secretary and chauffeured him everywhere. She was always present at rehearsals, and he relied on her advice on matters of balance as she listened in the auditorium. As Barbirolli's health deteriorated she hardly played her oboe, devoting her time to him. She travelled with him to the United States when he became conductor of the

Houston Symphony Orchestra The Houston Symphony is an American orchestra based in Houston, Texas. The orchestra is resident at the Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts. History The first concert of what was to become the Houston Symphony took place on June 21, 1 ...

. However she was one of the wind players who showed up for Charles MacKerras's much celebrated midnight 1959 recording of the Royal Fireworks Music for Pye using Handel's original orchestration including a serpent. He gathered just about every principal wind player in London for the event, a recording that has seldom been out of print. During his last years, Barbirolli's former manager caused them severe financial problems.

After John Barbirolli's death

After her husband's death in 1970, Rothwell, now using her late husband's last name, started to play her oboe again. She taught at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

, where she was affectionately known as "Lady B". She frequently appeared as adjudicator at music festivals. She wrote the books ''Oboe Technique'' and the three-volume ''Oboist's Companion'', and her autobiography ''Living with Glorious John''. She was awarded an honorary MA by Leeds University in 1972 and was appointed an Officer of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

in 1984. She died in 2008, the day after her 97th birthday.

References

External links

Obituary in the Daily Telegraph, 26 January 2008.

Obituary in The Times, January 29, 2008.

Biography.com entry

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barbirolli, Evelyn 1911 births 2008 deaths English classical oboists Women oboists Alumni of the Royal College of Music Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Wallingford, Oxfordshire People from the City of London Academics of the Royal Academy of Music Honorary Members of the Royal Philharmonic Society Women in classical music Musicians from Oxfordshire Musicians from London 20th-century classical musicians 20th-century English musicians 20th-century English women musicians Women music educators