Galina Barinova was
for a time one of the Soviet Union’s
star violinists. I wrote a little about
her in my review of a Melodiya disc
devoted to resurrecting some of her
recordings (see review).
To recap briefly she was born in 1910
in St Petersburg and studied with Paul
Kochanski amongst others, though later
gravitated to Thibaud in Paris, Carl
Flesch 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. As I also noted in that previous
review her big recordings, the most
valuable and important things in her
discography are not here - the
Karłowicz Concerto with Kondrashin,
which gained some renown when re-released
in the West on Westminster; her Sibelius
with Orlov in 1947, and the Glazunov
with Anosov in 1952.
What we do have however
are two Bach sonatas with Richter and
one with organist Leonid Roizman and
as an imposing finale Tartini’s ‘Didone
abbandonata’ sonata, once more with
Roizman. These have rarity value and
it’s good to welcome them into the fold.
I see that when referring to her intonation
I referred to it as tending toward the
‘creative’. Barinova shared with many
Russian violinists the tendency to tune
off-centre; but most of them tuned sharp
to cut through orchestral accompaniment.
For the most part her intonation is
flatter. Given her slow vibrato this
becomes an issue impossible to avoid.
In the Sonata in G
major BWV 1021 her intonation as at
its most dubious in the opening movement
whilst that endemically slow vibrato
robs the Andante of the Sonata in A
BWV 1015 of colour. Variations of tonal
contrast are here but not of sufficient
quantity and quality. Her trill is also
quite slow – almost the opposite of
an electric trill. It won’t be a surprise
to learn that she is at her most effective
in fast movements where the articulation
is pretty clean and the ensemble with
Richter effective. I find Richter’s
pecking staccati in the third movement
of BWV 1015 ineffective however and
for all its inwardness Barinova’s playing
lacks depth.
The organ accompanied
BWV 1016 was taped in a rather sepulchral
acoustic in 1962. There’s rather a Gormenghast
element to this combination and to this
recording. Barinova’s sound is essentially
unchanged and her trill hasn’t speeded
up in the interim. Phrasing is warm,
rather generalised and a touch marmoreal.
The Tartini, again with Roizman, is
cut from staple Russian Baroque-Romantic
tradition. It’s heavy, outsize and actually
– if you have a taste for it – rather
engaging.
This is part of RCD’s
‘Russian Violin School’ series, itself
part of the ‘Talents of Russia’ flag
under which this series sails. I commend
it to the inevitable specialist market
– which I hope includes Barinova admirers
amongst the throng of Richter collectors.
I don’t make a fetish
of commenting on the booklet notes -
because I tend to get on with listening
- but this one reads better than most
in the series.
Jonathan Woolf
Galina Barinova (violin) 
