This is an unexpected
pleasure. Barinova, now little remembered,
was one of the Soviet Union’s star fiddlers.
Born in 1910 in St Petersburg she studied
with Paul Kochanski amongst others,
though later gravitated to Thibaud in
Paris, Carl Flesch - in the notes spelt
‘Flesh’ - having left for America and
being thus unavailable. At the age of
twenty-seven she took third place in
the All-Soviet Union violin competition
but it was in the post-War years that
her career took off. Henry Roth has
some sour things to say about her in
his book on violinists, barely bothering
to hide his feeling that it was some
kind of political pressure and not her
innate talent that led to her ascent
of what was the toughest violin ladder
in the world. He seems only to have
had access to one of her recordings
and to have made his prognosis on limited
audition, though I have to add that
having listened to seventy minutes of
her playing, captured over a twenty-year
period, I have to agree with most of
his comments.
Her
most important recordings are not here.
She recorded the Karłowicz Concerto
with Kondrashin which gained some
renown when re-released in the West
on Westminster. Her Sibelius was with
Orlov in 1947, the Glazunov with Anosov
in 1952, and there were two Bach violin
sonata recordings – No.2 with Richter
and No.3 with organist Roizman. Let’s
hope that Melodiya has its reissue programme
ready to dispense these tasty items.
A quick look at the
programme, then. Her Massenet shows
up a rather slow vibrato and one or
two gauche slides. Despite comments
in the notes to the contrary, her intonation
tended toward the "creative" as it does
here. Her Brahms is rather earthbound
and she seems to have projection problems
in the Scherzo from the F.A.E. sonata,
especially with regard to her two lower
strings. Her accompanist Grigori Singer
sounds the better Brahmsian. Her Smetana
lacks imagination. Singer plays vibrantly
if loudly but Barinova’s rubato could
be better, her tone wider, and there
should be far more colour in her playing.
It’s all too low wattage a performance,
heading toward the perfunctory.
The de Monasterio is
a saucy genre piece. Menuhin once recorded
it but no-one else seems to have essayed
it; as for the music it’s Sarasate meets
Granados, and she can’t meet its demands
for big toned vibrancy. The two pieces
of ersatz Americana sound to be 1940s
recordings from the boxy acoustic. This
is the only recording known to me of
the Manen though Kreisler and Spalding
both recorded the White Spiritual arrangement.
Barinova mistakes slow tempo for expressive
effect and she lacks tonal depth. The
little Tor Aulin charmers go rather
better. Note that only Elman, other
than Barinova, has recorded the Humoresque
– and that on an acoustic Pathé.
There is also the unlikely inclusion
of the Delius Legend where she sounds
rhythmically all at sea. The biggest
work here is the anonymous arrangement
of the Arpeggione Sonata, a very odd
thing to ask her to record. She exudes
some upper string crystalline purity
in the Adagio though there are one or
two unhappy moments in the finale. As
to why she didn’t record one of the
Sonatas/Sonatinas I can’t say.
Despite the list of
negatives regarding her playing there
are valuable things here. She
remains a significant figure in the
history of twentieth century violin
playing in Russia and I am happy that
these discs have been made available.
They should really have been better
documented; dating them 1940-60 is a
bit of a blow to the discographer though
the transfers are reasonable enough
without being at all outstanding. Certainly
it’s a specialist acquisition but let’s
hope it heralds those big concertos.
One final thing – nice sepia tinted
artwork.
Jonathan Woolf
Galina Barinova (violin) with 
for
details 
