Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Violin Sonata No.9 in A major, Op.47 Kreutzer (1803) [33:48]
Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921)
Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso in A minor, Op.28 (1863) [9:03]
Carnival of the Animals: The Swan (1886) [2:17] ¹
Ottokar NOVÁCEK (1866-1890)
Perpetuum mobile [2:59]
Fritz KREISLER (1875-1962)
Schön Rosmarin [2:17] ¹
Renato de Barbieri (violin)
Tulio Macoggi (piano)
Giuseppe Guastalla (piano) ¹
rec. 1956 and 1947 (The Swan, Schön Rosmarin)
IDIS 6657 [50:13]
This is the second release from IDIS devoted to the art of Italian fiddler
Renato de Barbieri. (1920-1991). The first disc can be found on IDIS 6622.
The majority of the things in this latest issue come from 1956 though
there are two ‘bonuses’, which are 78s from 1947. Bonus means ‘shellac’,
not largesse, I assume, given that even with their addition the total
timing only just creeps to the 50 minute mark.
De Barbieri was an excellent violinist. As a young man in 1945 he made
a famous international broadcast from Genova, the city of his birth, playing
Paganini’s own ‘Cannon’ Guarneri del Gesù in an all-Paganini recital.
One of his teachers was the Czech player Vaša Príhoda, whom the Italian
succeeded at Salzburg’s Mozarteum. He taught in Salzburg for twenty years
and in Genova for three decades.
His Kreutzer Sonata is technically adroit, buoyant, dramatic,
with a facile pathos, and also a little superficial in places. The partnership
with his long time colleague, pianist Tulio Macoggi is a very able one.
Despite certain limitations, as a performance I would place it higher
than near-contemporaneous performances by much better known duos such
as Fuchs- Balsam and Menuhin-Kentner. The Saint-Saëns Introduction
and Rondo Capriccioso is not very Gallic in orientation. There’s
no sensuality or suggestiveness but there is one ‘Heifetz slide’ and a
certain amount of rather cosmopolitan savoir faire. Less erotic than Thibaud,
lacking the colour and variety of shadings evoked by Francescatti, this
is nevertheless a perfectly decent performance, though not an excessively
personalised one. Novácek’s Perpetuum mobile allows room for
technical muscle flexing, though as Alberto Cantù rightly observes in
his notes, there’s no showing off here.
The two 78s are Kreisler’s Schön Rosmarin and Saint-Saëns’s The
Swan, both with pianist Giuseppe Guastalla in 1947. It’s unusual
to hear The Swan on the violin these days, but it’s valuable
to hear some fine singing legato.
The transfers are serviceable, no more. They’re clearly taken direct from
an LP, as there is some audible rumble and some pops and clicks too. The
78 Kreisler transfer is fine, The Swan a bit noisy, doubtless
because it was the more often played side.
Jonathan Woolf
The second IDIS disc devoted to the art of Italian fiddler Renato de Barbieri.
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