Monthly Archive: May 2019

WEINBERG: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 21 – Kremerata Baltica / Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla – DGG

by Audiophile Audition | May 29, 2019 | Classical CD Reviews

WEINBERG: Symphony No. 2 for String Orchestra, Op. 30; Symphony No. 21, Op. 152 “Kaddish” – Kremerata Baltica/ Gidon Kremer, violin/ City of Birmingham Orchestra/ Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, soprano and conductor – DGG 483 6566 (2 CDs), 34:21; 54:38 (5/3/19) [Distr. by Universal] ****: In the New Grove Dictionary of Music, Boris Schwarz calls Polish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919-1996) a “conservative modernist.” Others would argue the opposite; but, moreover, many wrongly see in Weinberg an artful imitator of Shostakovich when, in fact, Weinberg more often than not influenced Shostakovich to assume the mantle of opposition to anti-Semitic oppression that marked Stalinist Russia after the horrors of Nazism. Yet the “romantic” Weinberg claimed in conversation that he could always see “the bright light in dark circumstances,” courting a potent optimism in his relentless faith in God. Though the clamor of war permeates his musical oeuvre, Weinberg manages a fluent, classical melodic gift, colorful, diversely instrumental, and rife with both folk energies and contrapuntal craftsmanship. A sweet transparency infiltrates the Symphony No. 2, Op. 30 (1946). Its most immediate predecessor seems to be Josef Suk’s E Major Serenade, Op. 6, although the writing in Weinberg has a more strident, angular beauty. Gidon Kremer’s […]