Weinberg Archive

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

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

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 […]

Best Classical of 2017 – I

Best Classical of 2017 – I

Best of the Year Classical List for 2017 Recommendations by Steven Ritter Mahler: Symphony No. 8 – Mormon Tabernacle Choir/ Utah Symphony/ Thierry Fischer – Reference Recordings Spectacular, moving, and, well, what else do you need? Link to Review       GORDON GETTY: The Canterville Ghost – Oper Leipzig/ Gewandhausorchester/ Matthias Foremny – Pentatone A splendid addition to the Getty catalog, one of his best works. Link to Review     SHOSTAKOVICH:  Symph. No. 5; BARBER: Adagio for Strings – Pittsburgh Symph. Orch./Manfred Hobeck – Reference Recordings A breathtaking release of crushing power. Link to Review   Recommendations by Gary Lemco Reiner conducts Wagner  Pristine Audio PASC 517 Fritz Reiner’s legacy of Wagner from shellac sources proves memorably striking, given a fine restoration by Pristine Audio. Link To Review       Beethoven: Symphonies 4 & 7 – Koussevitzky/BSO – Pristine Audio PASC 515 Previously unreleased Beethoven performances by Koussevitzky and BSO add significant documents to that conductor’s recorded legacy.   Link To Review       Kathleen Ferrier Remembered   Somm CD 264 The restoration of long-buried Kathleen Ferrier archives warrants our unconditional praise and support. Link To Review        Dvorak: String Quartet, Op. 105; String […]

Leonid Kogan plays Russian Music = Violin Concertos by KHACHATURIAN, KHRENNIKOV, PROKOFIEV, WEINBERG, DENISOV – Leonid Kogan, violin/ Pierre Monte / Krill Kondrashin / Pavel Kogan / Yevgeny Svetlana /Boston Symph. Orch. – Praga Digitals

Leonid Kogan plays Russian Music = Violin Concertos by KHACHATURIAN, KHRENNIKOV, PROKOFIEV, WEINBERG, DENISOV – Leonid Kogan, violin/ Pierre Monte / Krill Kondrashin / Pavel Kogan / Yevgeny Svetlana /Boston Symph. Orch. – Praga Digitals

Leonid Kogan plays Russian Music = KHACHATURIAN: Violin Concerto in d minor; Rhapsody-Concerto for Violin and Orchestra; KHRENNIKOV: Violin Concerto No. 2 in C Major, Op. 23; PROKOFIEV: Violin Concerto No. 2 in g minor, Op. 63; WEINBERG: Violin Concerto in g minor, Op. 67; DENISOV: Partita for Violin and Chamber Orchestra after J.S. Bach – Leonid Kogan, violin/ Boston Symphony Orchestra/ Pierre Monteux (Khachaturian)/ USSR State Symphony Orchestra/ Kyrill Kondrashin (Rhapsody, Prokofiev)/ State Academic Symphony/ Yevgeny Svetlano (Khrennikov)/ Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra/ Kyrill Kondrashin (Weinberg)/ Instrumental Ensmble/ Pavel Kogan (Denisov) – Praga Digitals PRD 250 373 (2 CDs) 73:40; 79:56 (7/14/17) [Distr. by Harmonia mundi/PIAS] *****: Leonid Kogan displays his incisive, often blazing talent in Russian concertos that embrace a spectrum of musical styles. Leonid Kogan (1924-1982) embodied the Russian counterpart to his self-proclaimed idol, Jascha Heifetz. Aristocratic in mien and temperament, Kogan studied not with Leopold Auer but with his most esteemed pupil, Abram Yampolsky, with whom he perfected a classical technique that tolerated no imprecision or false rhetoric. Several composers created works for Kogan’s especial talent, of which two—the Khachaturan Concerto-Rhapsody and the Khrennikov Concerto in C – find their way into this assemblage of performances, 1958-1981. Even […]

WEINBERG: Chamber Symphonies 1, 2, 3 & 4; Piano Quintet – Gidon Kremer, v./ Yulianna Avdeeva, p./ Mate Bekavac, clarinet / Kremerata Baltica/Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla – ECM New Series

WEINBERG: Chamber Symphonies 1, 2, 3 & 4; Piano Quintet – Gidon Kremer, v./ Yulianna Avdeeva, p./ Mate Bekavac, clarinet / Kremerata Baltica/Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla – ECM New Series

A major Russian composer emerges in these scintillating chamber works.  WEINBERG: Chamber Symphonies 1, 2, 3 & 4; Piano Quintet – Gidon Kremer, v./ Yulianna Avdeeva, p./ Mate Bekavac, clarinet / Kremerata Baltica/Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla – ECM New Series 2538/39, 79:45, 79:40, *****: It’s hard to imagine how difficult it was to be a Polish Jew in the mid-twentieth century. Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919-1996) was an accomplished pianist and had written one string quartet by the age of 20 when Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939 forced him to flee to Minsk, Russia. Two years later he learned that the Nazis had burned his mother and sister. In 1943, the German invasion of Russia forced him to flee to Tashkent, in present day Uzbekistan. He had the confidence to send his First Symphony to Dmitri Shostakovich, who arranged for him to move to Moscow. They became close friends and Weinberg lived there for the rest of his life as a freelance composer and pianist. While he never formally studied with Shostakovich, Weinberg said of his colleague, “I count myself as his pupil, his flesh and blood.” Although Weinberg’s music was known and performed in Russia (Kogan, Oistrakh, Gilels, Rostropovich and the Borodin […]

WEINBERG: In search of freedom = Piano Quintet & 2 Quartets – Nikita Mndoyants, p./ Zemlinsky Q. – Praga Digitals

WEINBERG: In search of freedom = Piano Quintet & 2 Quartets – Nikita Mndoyants, p./ Zemlinsky Q. – Praga Digitals

Expert readings of the more elusive of Weinberg’s chamber music come to us in keenly-wrought sound. WEINBERG: In search of freedom = Piano Quintet, Op. 18; String Quartet No. 10, Op. 85; String Quartet No. 13, Op. 118 – Nikita Mndoyants, p./ Zemlinsky Quartet – Praga Digitals mutichannel SACD PRD 250 296, 78:47 (10/9/15) [Distr. by Harmonia mundi] ****:   Common musical consensus claims that the style of Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919- 1996) derives from several influences: Bartok, Miaskovsky, Mahler, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich. Most of the 150 works of this Polish composer from the Warsaw Ghetto remains painfully autobiographical in nature, a kind of musical documentation of a beleaguered humanity. The Piano Quintet in f minor (1945) received its world premier in Moscow from Emil Gilels and members of the Bolshoi Theatre strings. In five movements, it parallels aspects of the Shostakovich Piano Quintet, though perhaps more bitter in affect. The two scherzos propel the work with a grueling angst. The first movement, Moderato, weaves a melancholy odyssey through the circle of fifths. In the first scherzo: Allegretto, the color effects call for trills and harmonics, as well as selective col legno. The viola part (Petr Holman) proves gripping. Hints of […]

Martha Argerich & Friends: Live from Lugano 2014 = MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 20; BEETHOVEN: Variations in E-flat Major; MILHAUD: La Creation du Monde; MENDELSSOHN (arr. Busoni): Symphony No. 1 in c minor; BORODIN: Piano Quintet in c minor; BRIDGE: Cello Sonata in d minor; POULENC: Piano Sonata; Cello Sonata; SCRIABIN: Fantasy in a minor; WEINBERG: Violin Sonata No. 5 –  Martha Argerich, piano/Gidon Kremer, v./ Mischa Maisky, cello/ assisting artists/ Orch. della Svizzera Italiana/ Jacek Kaspszyk – Warner Classics (3 CDs)

Martha Argerich & Friends: Live from Lugano 2014 = MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 20; BEETHOVEN: Variations in E-flat Major; MILHAUD: La Creation du Monde; MENDELSSOHN (arr. Busoni): Symphony No. 1 in c minor; BORODIN: Piano Quintet in c minor; BRIDGE: Cello Sonata in d minor; POULENC: Piano Sonata; Cello Sonata; SCRIABIN: Fantasy in a minor; WEINBERG: Violin Sonata No. 5 – Martha Argerich, piano/Gidon Kremer, v./ Mischa Maisky, cello/ assisting artists/ Orch. della Svizzera Italiana/ Jacek Kaspszyk – Warner Classics (3 CDs)

Some ten days of music-making at Lugano 2014 have their founder Martha Argerich and her musical friends in top form.