Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996)

[vandermolen]

This guy was a hidden talent and I'm glad that these days his works are available and known to the rest of the world.  Great chamber music and orchestral works.  Being a Jew in communist Russia was not an easy life.

That's true. He was, I think, of Polish origin and all the rest of his family were killed in the Holocaust.

[71 dB]

I definitely enjoy Weinberg's Piano Quintet, Op. 18 (Arc Ensemble). The highlight of this work for me is the solo piano section in Largo starting at 4 minutes. I love the calm, maternal and comforting feel of it. The feel is similar to what I get from some of John Williams' music for the movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

The rest of the RCA disc is less satisfying. The Sonata for Clarinet and Piano just isn't very strong and 'Jewish songs' just aren't my cup of tea. In fact Weinberg might not be as suitable for my taste I have presumed. I started exploring his symphonies on Spotify. Many of his symphonies use choir singing "Polish choir music", something not my cup of tea either. Well, Weinberg seemed too good to be true. So, I need to select my Weinberg carefully. The Naxos Cello Sonatas disc I bought for my first Weinberg seems to have been a good choice! I need my Weinberg without Polish choir singing and Jewish songs.

[Mirror Image]

I can only imagine what you're reaction will be to Schnittke or Takemitsu (whenever you get around to them).

Yeah, the strongest work on that RCA recording is the Piano Quintet. There's no doubt that this work was worth the price of admission.

[71 dB]

I can only imagine what you're reaction will be to Schnittke or Takemitsu (whenever you get around to them).

I have Schittke's Piano Quintet and it gives me headache.
I'm interested of Takemitsu, but as letter 'G' at the moment.

Yeah, the strongest work on that RCA recording is the Piano Quintet. There's no doubt that this work was worth the price of admission.

Yes, almost 45 minutes long work. 

[Jo498]

I have heard little Weinberg but the violin concerto on Naxos is pretty good. No choir or Yiddish either.
(I also was slightly disappointed by that RCA disc, especially by the "fillers" but those are obviously fairly slight and early works so it was more a matter of unrealistic expectations.)

[Scion7]

I ordered my first Weinberg disc two weeks ago. Still waiting for it. Royal Mail became slow as hell couple of years ago. My orders used to arrive within one week from UK to Finland. Now 10 days is ultra fast, 2 weeks typical and sometimes 3 weeks! How can it take 3 weeks to deliver a f'cking CD from UK to Finland? I don't understand. ... ...when they finally arrive I have forgotten I ever bought them. 

Fop at the GBA who handles overseas shipments looks at 71 dB's invoice for his Weinberg order.
"Weinberg?  Never heard of him - hmmmm ...."
Puts pkg in his briefcase, takes it home, carefully steams open the box, opens CD, listens to it for a couple of days . . .
Re-seals everything up using department's tools so that it looks like it's never been interfered with, completes processing of the package, off to the boat ...

Cargo ship navigates the Channel, drops anchor so crew can listen to pirate radio stations for a couple of days, steams off for the Baltic Sea, dodges Russian submarines in Finland's territorial waters, docks at Helsinki.

Bloke at the Finnish Royal Mail warehouse depot looks at invoice for 71 dB's package.
"Weinberg?  Never heard of him - hmmmm ...."
Puts pkg in his briefcase, takes it home, carefully steams open the box . . . .

[amw]

I have heard little Weinberg but the violin concerto on Naxos is pretty good. No choir or Yiddish either.
(I also was slightly disappointed by that RCA disc, especially by the "fillers" but those are obviously fairly slight and early works so it was more a matter of unrealistic expectations.)

The main reason for having the RCA disc is to have the best performance of the Piano Quintet on record. If you really don't like the fillers and aren't picky about performances I suppose you could instead get the nearly-best performance of the Piano Quintet which is on Hänssler featuring Matthias Kirschneahfethetetet6et4hngnaweihe and, I think, the Szymanowski Quartet? And comes coupled with the Shostakovich Piano Quintet which is an unimpeachable masterpiece although I've never liked it myself.

The other Weinberg discs 'to have' are the ones with Kondrashin conducting Symphonies 5 and 6, something with the Trumpet Concerto (I recommend not the one on NEOS) and something with the Cello Concerto (Rostropovich probably best, but the Chandos one is fine too). Violin Concerto also very fine (recommend the Naxos one over the Challenge Classics—there's undoubtedly an Oistrakh or something, but I haven't heard it yet)

[Jo498]

As almost everyone who gets interested in Weinberg will probably have at least one recording of the Shosty piano quintet already (I think I have five or so), the RCA disc seems better value in most cases. I do not regret buying it and I bought it mainly for the quintet but I would have to relisten to say anything about the music. As I recall I found even the quintet not quite as gripping as I had expected.

[Scion7]

The Olympia CD of the Piano Quintet has the advantage of the composer's own performance on the piano, though.  1963 is not ancient, exactly.                                                                                                           

[71 dB]

The other Weinberg discs 'to have' are the ones with Kondrashin conducting Symphonies 5 and 6,

You mean Symphonies 5 and 610 ?

[amw]

You mean Symphonies 5 and 610 ?

No. Two CDs. Symphonies 5 & 10 (5 is the one to hear) and 4 & 6 (6 is the one to hear).

No one knows how to pair Weinberg properly >.>

[Daverz]

I have heard little Weinberg but the violin concerto on Naxos is pretty good.

It's certainly not bad, but there are two better recordings, a classic one by Kogan in good stereo (the couplings are mono),

[asin]B00YCAU3HY[/asin]

and the recent one by Linus Roth

[asin]B00HSW6O4E[/asin]

[Wieland]

The latest addition to the Weinberg discography comes from the German cpo label. Unfortunately, it doubles some of the repertoire of last years Kremerata's double CD, which many Weinberg aficionados may already have i.e. the violin concertino as well as symphony No. 10. The Concertino is Weinbergs earliest concerto, it was composed in 1948 between the 1. Sinfonietta and the Celloconcert.  Even people not used to modern music will not have problems with this easy-going piece. Right from the beginning of 1. mov there is prominent theme that is repeated several times by the violin throughout. A wonderful adagio and a busy finale round up this nice little concerto. The orchestral part was obviously written with student or youth orchestras in mind, the solo part, however, requires a real soloist. Which the young polish violinist Ewelina Nowicka http://www.ewelinanowicka.com/DE/index.php obviously is. There is an amazing difference between this performance and the one by Gidon Kremer, the former one taking 21 min, the latter one only 16 min. Just in the 1. mov the difference is 2.5 min within an 8 min movement. Currently, I prefer the slower version on cpo which brings out better the melancholy of the piece.
The 37 min 10th symphony is a different world. Actually I listed to this piece 2-3 times and still have to make up my mind. It was composed in 1968 for Rudolf Barshai's Chamber Orchestra and is more reminiscent of the late music of Shostakovich such as his viola sonata. It actually contains a lot of cadenzas for solo instruments (violin, viola and cello). One or two more hearings necessary.

[asin]B012BV7PXU[/asin]

[vandermolen]

I have never enjoyed anything of his as much as Symphony 5 which I think is an out and out masterpiece. However I rate the Piano Quintet very highly and symphonies 1,3 and 6 of those that I have heard.

[vandermolen]

Have you listened to any of the string quartets?  Those are the works of his that I listen to almost exclusively.

No, so they will be my next port of call. Thank you.

[Wieland]

Have you listened to any of the string quartets?  Those are the works of his that I listen to almost exclusively.

No, so they will be my next port of call. Thank you.

A good idea, since these works are really remarkable. I am still only half-way through the cycle but it has been already a very stimulating journey.

[Scion7]

Well all of the chamber and orchestral pieces I've heard from this guy have been solid.
He was totally unknown to me until fairly recently.

[Artem]

Does anybody own the box set with the string quartets? How are the liner notes? Are they the same as on the individual CDs?

[Mirror Image]

Does anybody own the box set with the string quartets? How are the liner notes? Are they the same as on the individual CDs?

I would imagine that, in true CPO fashion, the box set is nothing more than the original releases boxed up in an outer box. This makes for some heavy lifting if you've got something like their Pettersson box set which housed all of those original releases.

[Artem]

Good to know. Thank you.