This Preiser release of a long-ago historical recording is remarkable in several ways; first, that the principal artist represented was still living at the time of its release. Second, it is the first release ever of this April 23, 1944, recording of violinist Walter Barylli performing Mozart's Fourth Violin Concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic under Clemens Krauss. Preiser does not specify if this recording comes from disc or a tape, but the sound is absolutely spectacular for 1944; it must be an early magnetophon tape. ...
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This Preiser release of a long-ago historical recording is remarkable in several ways; first, that the principal artist represented was still living at the time of its release. Second, it is the first release ever of this April 23, 1944, recording of violinist Walter Barylli performing Mozart's Fourth Violin Concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic under Clemens Krauss. Preiser does not specify if this recording comes from disc or a tape, but the sound is absolutely spectacular for 1944; it must be an early magnetophon tape. In any event, the recording was discovered in the archives of the Stiftung Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv in 2006, and the 1951 Westminster recording used as companion piece -- with Barylli, legendary violist Paul Doktor, and the Vienna Opera Orchestra in Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante, dating from the heyday of "runaway" recording sessions in Vienna -- pales in comparison in terms of sound to the older radio tape, although it is an inspired performance. The solo concerto is big-boned, old...
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