Charles Barkel (violin) – Violingeni & Maskrosbarn
Recordings made between 1928 and 1953 with recordings made by his teachers
between 1913 and 1929
Full track-listing below
CAPRICE CAP21705 [4 CDs: 307:37]
The translation of the subtitle of this 4-CD box set is
‘violin genius and dandelion child’ and its subject is Charles
Andersson, known professionally as Charles Barkel (1898-1973). The Swedish
violinist was a student of Carl Flesch and an important soloist and quartet
leader. His commercial discography, however, is meagre and largely dominated
by his recording of Aulin’s Concerto No.3, the work with which I always
associate him, and which fortunately has been reissued on CD. Now Caprice
gives us the opportunity to enjoy a wide array of material – commercial,
private recordings and broadcasts, rehearsal snippets, quartet performances
and a brief appendix of pieces by his most prominent teachers. All this is
accompanied by a simply splendid 155-page booklet which includes many photographs,
reminiscences, interviews and a chronology of his concert appearances between
1914 and 1954. The text is in Swedish only, which may be frustrating, but
some of the information – such as the chronology – crosses linguistic
borders.
What follows is a whistle-stop tour of some of the highlights of this engrossing
set. The first disc restores some of his earliest 78rpm sides made in Stockholm
in 1928-29 including sensitively shaped Juon and atmospheric Kreisler. He
lends his obbligato to a swoopy soprano in the Gounod-Bach Ave Maria
and takes the lead in a 1936 film soundtrack of Provost’s Intermezzo
from Souvenir de Vienne. From the same year comes a preserved radio
broadcast in which he essays two brief pieces with organist Otto Olsson –
a nice piece of balancing ensures that he is not swamped by the large instrument
and Handel and Tartini-Kreisler emerge well. It was de rigueur for
a Swedish player to promote Aulin’s Aquarelles and Barkel,
with a frequent piano partner, Natanael Broman, does precisely that in May
1938. Interestingly two of the pieces were issued on Radiotjänst and the other
two on Telefunken – a curious state of affairs. They’re played
with idiomatic sensitivity. A radio broadcast from November 1939 preserves
a delightfully played Sinding Romance and the first disc closes with
a curio; a kind of Grieg sonata triptych; one movement from a different performance
with three different pianists spanning the years 1943-53. Only one movement
exists from the 1943 performance but the other two are both complete, so Caprice
has chosen a novel way to present the sonata. The composite has some sound
problems, in that the earliest example breaks up briefly and the 1951 central
movement sounds watery.
Franck’s Sonata with Tore Wiberg (January 1951) opens the second disc.
Occasional pitch destabilization occurs and the sound is rather poor and Barkel’s
tremulous vibrato – particularly in the third movement - and expressively
exaggerated playing is unconvincing. It’s especially intriguing to hear
the duo tackle Eugene Goossens’ First Sonata, a very much less obvious
piece of repertoire. Though the sound is rather constricted this is a well
measured and congruent interpretation. Tempi are flexible and the lyrical
quotient – especially in the beautiful slow movement – is generously
presented. Barkel’s tone production isn’t especially personalised
but he is noticeably cleaner in approach in this sonata than the Franck. Harald
Fryklöf’s Sonata alla leggenda is heard, valuably, in Barkel’s
own edition. In slightly better sound than the Goossens one can hear this
warm-hearted work to advantage, a richly communicative, occasionally bardic
piece with strong echoes of Svendsen and Grieg.
The third disc disinters major concerto repertoire. The Sibelius was given
in 1948 with Tor Mann directing the Stockholm Philharmonic and is preserved
by Swedish Radio. There’s a bit of overload in the sound, which has
a slightly hollow patina. Barkel plays with a lot of portamenti but relatively
well-controlled rubati. It’s not a high-octane performance or especially
virtuosic, as Barkel was not that kind of player. He is overly cautious in
the cruelly taxing finale but is rewarded with generous applause. John Fernström’s
1952 Concerto No.2 – with Sten Frykberg conducting in 1953 – is
a rich tapestry of pirouetting vocalized violin lines, austerely beautiful
Arioso and folkloric tints. It’s imaginatively played all round and
the orchestral tapestry is no less interesting than the solo violin line –
the chattering winds shadowing the violin, for instance. The live Andante
from Aulin’s Third Concerto – with Tor Mann – is here and
it’s beautifully done. A private recording introduces six minutes of
a rehearsal of Barkel’s string quartet.
Significantly more substantial quartet work comes in the final disc where
the quartet plays Beethoven’s Op.131 in concert in 1951. Composer Sven-Erik
Bäck is the violist and despite the rather recessed sound one can still enjoy
the eloquent performance. The whole of Mozart’s String Quartet K516
exists and from it we hear just the slow movement, whereas the Brahms Horn
Trio is heard in full – a good performance and the horn overload is
brief. Amongst Barkel’s teachers was Lars Zetterquist whose 1913 folkloric
discs with accordion are here and open up a vista into the late nineteenth
century – he was born in 1860. Flesch’s Electrola recording of
Issay Dobrowen’s Mélodie Hébraïque is followed by Peter Möller’s
1923 sprightly acoustic disc of Kreisler’s Praeludium and Allegro.
This is a real labour of love. Despite the specialized market Caprice has
cut no corners. The superb booklet and comprehensive documentation supports
the enterprise as it should, but so often doesn’t. Barkel’s name
may well be unknown to most but in Caprice he has posthumously found his home.
Jonathan Woolf
Full Track listing
CD 1 [74:47]
Fritz KREISLER Praeludium and Allegro in the style of Pugnani
[4:19]; Grave in the style of W. F. Bach [3:57]
Paul JUON Violin Sonata in A major, Op. 7: II. Romanza [3:27];
2 Kleine Stücke, Op. 52: No. 1. Arietta [3:34]
Natanael Broman (piano)
Charles GOUNOD-Johann Sebastian BACH
Ave Maria [3:18]
Brita Hertzberg (soprano); Natanael Broman (piano)
Heinz PROVOST Intermezzo, "Souvenir de Vienne"
[2:41]
Stina Sundell (piano)
Georg Frideric HANDEL Violin Sonata No. 7 in D major, Op.
1, No. 13, HWV 371: III. Larghetto [3:35]
Giuseppe TARTINI/Fritz KREISLER Fugue in A major (arr. for
violin and organ) [3:35]
Otto Olsson (organ)
Tor AULIN Aquarelles: No. 1. Idyll [3:34]; No. 2. Humoresque
[3:11]; No. 3. Vaggvisa (Lullaby) [3:27]; No. 4. Polska [2:59]
Christian SINDING 3 Pieces, Op. 89: No. 2. Alte Weise [2:58]
Natanael Broman (piano)
Romance in E minor, Op. 9 [5:30];
Edvard GRIEG
Violin Sonata No.3 in C, Op.45
I. Allegro molto ed appassionato [9:52]; Wiatcheslaw Witkowski (piano)
II. Allegretto espressivo alla romanza [6:59]
Tore Wiberg (piano)
III. Allegro animato [7:46];
Carin Gille-Rybrant (piano)
CD 2 [79:26]
Cesar FRANCK
Violin Sonata in A [28:18]
Eugene GOOSSENS
Violin Sonata No.1 in E minor, Op.21 [23:43] Tore Wiberg (piano)
Harald FRYKLÖF
Sonata alla leggenda [27:22]
Carin Gille-Rybrant (piano)
CD 3 [75:35]
Jean SIBELIUS
Violin Concerto in D, Op.47
[32:37]
Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra/Tor Mann
John FERNSTRÖM
Violin Concerto No.2, Op.95 [22:26]
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Sten Frykberg
Tor AULIN
Violin Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.45 – II Andante con moto [8:02];
Gothenburg Radio Orchestra/Tor Mann
Rehearsal sequences of the Barkel String Quartet: Antonín DVOŘÁK
String Quartet, Op.51 and Dag WIRÉN String Quartet No.2,
Op.9 [6:00];
CD 4 [77:49]
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN
String Quartet No.11 in F, Op.95 [21:51]
Barkel String Quartet
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART
String Quintet in G minor, KV516: III Adagio ma non troppo [8:58]
Barkel String Quartet with Gösta Finnström (viola II)
Johannes BRAHMS
Trio for horn, violin and piano, Op.40 [30:13];
Axel Malm (horn); Gunnar de Frumerie (piano)
Tor AULIN Aquarelles: No. 2. Humoresque [3:12]; No. 3. Vaggvisa
(Lullaby) [3:34]
Natanael Broman (piano)
Barkel’s Teachers
Lars Zetterquist (violin): Josef Fischer (accordion) play Frykdalspolska [1:23];
Djävulens polska [1:18];
Carl Flesch (violin); Ignaz Strasfogel (piano) play Issay DOBROWEN
Mélodie Hébraïque [4:12]
Peder Möller (violin); unknown pianist plays Fritz KREISLER
Praeludium and Allegro in the style of Pugnani [3:59]
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