MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


 REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: AmazonUK AmazonUS


Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
Sinfonia concertante in E flat major K364 (1779) [31:44]
Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major, K218 (1775) [26:02]
Walter Barylli (violin); Paul Doktor (viola)
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Clemens Krauss (K364)
Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera/Felix Prohaska (K218)
rec. 1944, Grossen Musikvereins-Saal, Vienna (K364) and 1951, Vienna (K218)
PREISER 90760 [57:54]
Experience Classicsonline


This is a fascinating retrieval. The broadcast recording of K218 turned up in 2006, secreted in the archives of Wiesbaden and Potsdam Babelsberg and it was pinpointed as a performance given by the young concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic with Clemens Krauss in April 1944. Walter Barylli was born in Vienna in 1921 and is still alive at the time of writing. He is best known for his eponymous quartet, originally founded during the War but re-established in 1945, and which left behind so many estimable recordings. But he was also an occasional soloist of repute and this 1944 performance gives one an opportunity to assess him, allied as it is here to a commercial 1951 recording of the Sinfonia Concertante.

The sound for 1944 is good, as is typical for German and Austrian sources of this period. Krauss brings out the antiphonal string writing very cogently, and he marshals the forces throughout with familiar authority. Barylli’s tone, as captured by the microphone at least, is very bright and forward. He employs a fair amount of portamento - some it has to be said fairly lavish, a device he’d largely begun to eschew by the time he came to record K364. There’s plenty of personalised phrasing as well as tempo fluctuations, and all this ensures that whilst it’s certainly not the most rectitudinous of performances it’s never dull. This is especially true in the hotly vibrated slow movement - slow and rapt - and in the unhurried ease of the finale. Criticisms? A touch laissez faire in the finale, perhaps, and some vapid turns of phrase in the central movement. A touch of wow once or twice on the tape, as well.

Barylli was teamed with Paul Doktor and conductor Felix Prohaska for the 1951 Sinfonia concertante. This is a fine traversal which the old Record Guide wrote off peremptorily. That book preferred the heavenly length of the Stern-Primrose-Casals performance, which I find turgid. Barylli and Doktor are tonally well matched. Their playing is thoughtful and temperate, not too ‘operatic’ in flourishes, the violist proving a touch more overtly expressive than his violin colleague. Thing are phrasally pliant throughout, though the ultimate depths of the slow movement are not fully plumbed. It’s altogether a pleasing reading, with a relaxed approach to the finale, and a good sense of definition and characterisation. It’s good to have it back in this attractive transfer and makes a splendid disc-mate for that rare K218.

Jonathan Woolf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.