* WEINBERG: Symphony No. 3; Suite No. 4 from “The Golden Key” – Gothenburg Symphony Orch./ Thord Svedlunc – Chandos

* MIECZYSLAW WEINBERG: Symphony No. 3 in B minor, Op. 45; Suite No. 4 from “The Golden Key”, Op. 55d – Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra/ Thord Svedlunc – Chandos multichannel SACD CHSA 5089, 49:53 [Distr. by Naxos] *****:
Weinberg, who lived until 1996, was a Polish Jew born in Warsaw, where his father was a conductor and his mother an actress in Yiddish theater. He moved to the Soviet Union in 1939 and lost most of his family in the Holocaust. His 22 symphonies, 17 string quartets and other works are only recently becoming available on recordings. One reviewer once referred to him as “the third great Soviet composer after Prokofiev and Shostakovich.”
Weinberg was very close to Shostakovich and that composer’s work was an influence on him. His music often has a programmatic element and often emphasizes the neo-classical. When he fell under the scourge of Stalin’s accusations of “formalism,” along with other leading composers, he strove to turn it into an advantage. He was already interested in not only Jewish music, but also Moldavian, Polish, Uzbeck and Armenian.  So he began involving folk music elements in his Third Symphony.  A Belorussian folksong is a contrasting theme in the first movement, and a Polish mazurka tune appears in the second movement. The Scherzo, which struggles to integrate the folk material with symphonic treatment, was switched by Weinberg from its place as the third movement to the second in the revision he made in 1959. The Adagio slow movement doesn’t quote actual folk tunes but is folk-like in many aspects. The Allegro vivace finale has a generally unsettled character, mixing positive-sounding heroic elements with darker symphonic treatment. Unfortunately, Weinberg still had many struggles to get his music performed, in spite of trying to please the Soviet authorities. He was even arrested in 1953 on charges of “Jewish bourgeois nationalism,” but then Stalin fortunately died, and he was rehabilitated afterwards.
Weinberg wrote several operas and ballets; the companion suite on this disc was originally titled The Adventures of Burattino, and was a sort of children’s story that borrows from Pinocchio. It was premiered in 1962, and a number of changes made from the original. A dance originally for a cat character became a dance for a poodle, and a dance for a Fox became the “Dance of the Cricket.” The characters are all puppets, and that might recall Stravinsky’s Petrushka, but Weinberg’s ballet retains a simple child-like flavor without the heaviness of Petrushka. The suite is now titled The Golden Key, and consists of eight quite short movements. The final one, “The Pursuit” is the longest at only four minutes, and ends with a bang.
The Gothenburg Symphony is one of the top Swedish orchestras, and once had Wilhelm Stenhammar as its conductor. Its present conductor is Gustavo Dudamel, but Thord Svedlund does an excellent job in this repertory. The orchestra has previously recorded Weinberg’s first two symphonies and concertos for Chandos, as well as the orchestral music of Alban Berg.  Both the 2.0 and 5.0-channel sonics are good, making one disappointed that Chandos has cut back on their SACD releases.
—John Sunier