Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996)

Started by Maciek, November 13, 2008, 01:32:49 AM

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Symphonic Addict

Has anyone heard this new release?

Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

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#501
Quote from: Symphonic Addict on July 05, 2020, 01:07:55 PM
Has anyone heard this new release?



No, I haven't, but I just bought it. ;) Thanks for the reminder. 8) I haven't been following that whole series on Jewish cello music, but Wallfisch is an excellent cellist and usually one I'm interested in hearing. I LOVE that recording he did of Ben-Haim's and Korngold's Cello Concertos.

Symphonic Addict

Quote from: Mirror Image on July 05, 2020, 01:20:18 PM
No, I haven't, but I just bought it. ;) Thanks for the reminder. 8) I haven't been following that whole series on Jewish cello music, but Wallfisch is an excellent cellist and usually one I'm interested in hearing. I LOVE that recording he did of Ben-Haim's and Korngold's Cello Concertos.

Let us know what you think of it when you have it, John. And yes, that CD of Korngold/Ben-Haim/Bloch is stupendous. Even the cover arts are nice (including that devoted to Weinberg).
Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

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Quote from: Symphonic Addict on July 05, 2020, 01:34:55 PM
Let us know what you think of it when you have it, John. And yes, that CD of Korngold/Ben-Haim/Bloch is stupendous. Even the cover arts are nice (including that devoted to Weinberg).

Will do, Cesar. Maybe I'll post my thoughts here.

Maestro267

On a bit of a Weinberg kick this afternoon. 12th Symphony followed now by the 8th. Both Naxos.

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Quote from: Maestro267 on July 06, 2020, 09:14:05 AM
On a bit of a Weinberg kick this afternoon. 12th Symphony followed now by the 8th. Both Naxos.

The 12th is quite good. I particularly like the last movement, which is powerful.

Maestro267

Quote from: Mirror Image on July 06, 2020, 09:34:56 AM
The 12th is quite good. I particularly like the last movement, which is powerful.

Yes, I enjoyed that. Unusual to start with a marimba solo. And the Shostakovichian ending of fragmentary ideas over a long-held string chord.

kyjo

Quote from: Symphonic Addict on July 05, 2020, 01:07:55 PM
Has anyone heard this new release?



I haven't, but I love the Cello Concerto and the Fantasy. Two very soulful and lyrical works. This is my reference recording of the concerto:

[asin]B01C6G7CIS[/asin]
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

kyjo

Quote from: Maestro267 on July 06, 2020, 09:47:02 AM
Yes, I enjoyed that. Unusual to start with a marimba solo. And the Shostakovichian ending of fragmentary ideas over a long-held string chord.

Indeed, it's quite a disconcerting and even disturbing movement. That ending crescendo (IIRC) is like a scream of terror in a void of darkness!
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

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Quote from: kyjo on July 06, 2020, 09:55:11 AM
I haven't, but I love the Cello Concerto and the Fantasy. Two very soulful and lyrical works. This is my reference recording of the concerto:

[asin]B01C6G7CIS[/asin]

That's a great performance, too, but I haven't really heard a bad performance of the Weinberg Cello Concerto yet. ;)

Maestro267

Listening to Symphony No. 18. The nearly-unaccompanied choral final movement is so haunting!

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Quote from: Symphonic Addict on July 05, 2020, 01:07:55 PM
Has anyone heard this new release?



Follow-up to this post of yours, Cesar. The new Wallfisch recording is excellent, but was this not to be expected? ;) Wallfisch really gives this concerto his all and I think he touches on some of the darker, brooding moments that I haven't quite heard in any other performance. It sounds as if he has lived with this concerto a long-time. The accompaniment from Łukasz Borowicz and the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra is fantastic, but, again, I didn't expect any less with these forces. Another winner for this series and for the Weinberg discography. We're really becoming spoilt with choice in the Cello Concerto and that could never be seen as a bad thing.

Symphonic Addict

Quote from: Mirror Image on July 11, 2020, 05:21:58 PM
Follow-up to this post of yours, Cesar. The new Wallfisch recording is excellent, but was this not to be expected? ;) Wallfisch really gives this concerto his all and I think he touches on some of the darker, brooding moments that I haven't quite heard in any other performance. It sounds as if he has lived with this concerto a long-time. The accompaniment from Łukasz Borowicz and the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra is fantastic, but, again, I didn't expect any less with these forces. Another winner for this series and for the Weinberg discography. We're really becoming spoilt with choice in the Cello Concerto and that could never be seen as a bad thing.

I was expecting a positive reaction, John, and I did get it by reading your impressions. I hope I'll be as enthralled as you with these renditions.
Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

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Quote from: Symphonic Addict on July 11, 2020, 05:35:57 PM
I was expecting a positive reaction, John, and I did get it by reading your impressions. I hope I'll be as enthralled as you with these renditions.

Yes, indeed. I'm not expecting a negative response on your end, but I have been wrong many times in the past. :)

Mirror Image

Our Brian has alerted us of a new recording coming out:



I'm not familiar with any of Weinberg's operas, but, to be honest, I don't really have much interest in them. I remember our Bruce mentioning that he enjoyed The Passenger. Perhaps someone here who does enjoy operatic music, will enjoy this new recording coming out.

vandermolen

A strong recommendation for Fedoseyev's very moving and beautifully recorded 6th Symphony by Weinberg. It is contemporary with and deals with the same tragic themes as Shostakovich's Symphony 13 'Babi Yar', although Weinberg focuses on the suffering of children caught up in the Holocaust, in which Weinberg's entire family was wiped out:
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Volny

Quote from: vandermolen on August 10, 2020, 12:33:36 AM
A strong recommendation for Fedoseyev's very moving and beautifully recorded 6th Symphony by Weinberg. It is contemporary with and deals with the same tragic themes as Shostakovich's Symphony 13 'Babi Yar', although Weinberg focuses on the suffering of children caught up in the Holocaust, in which Weinberg's entire family was wiped out:


I own the Lande/St Petersburg one on Naxos. If you've heard both, how would you compare them? (also, though I don't mean to derail the thread, that CD interests me doubly because as well as loving Weinberg, Szymanowski's 3rd is one of my favourites - what did you think of Fedoseyev's version?)

Scion7

in short, the Naxos is fine and there is nothing wrong with it, and it has a more modern recording fidelity behind it,
but a Fedoseyev "they don't got" - as they say in the Bronx
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

Volny

Oh, I notice that Fedoseyev conducts the same symphony with a different orchestra on this release - I wonder how that compares:


Scion7

I have that and quite like it.  Unless the conductor is some sort of buffoon, one would have to work hard to spoil Weinberg - a most satisfying (comparatively) recent discovery for me over the last few years.  ;)
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."