MYASKOVSKY • VAINBERG : Violin Concertos (Ilya Grubert · Russian Philharmonic Orchestra · Dmitry Yablonsky) (2003) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Without fail, these are two works that should jump to the top of any list of alternatives to the warhorse violin concertos. Here are two powerful works that possess every quality that defines `classic' except perhaps the passage of sufficient time. Bold, lyrical, rhythmic, charming, dramatic and thought-provoking are just a few of dozens of adjectives that could describe this music. Add to that a superb performance at a fantastic price and you have your newest must-own compact disc.

Myaskovsky's fame lies predominantly in his work as a symphonist. With twenty-seven such works to his credit, he is considered by many to have been one of the leading exponents of the genre in the twentieth century. His violin concerto was his first attempt at such a work, and he spent considerable time studying the similar works of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, his friend and schoolmate. The late 1930s were a fertile time for violin music in Russia, due mostly to the rise of the so-called "Russian violin school," with David Oistrakh and Leonid Kogan at its helm, winning competitions all over Europe.

Myaskovsky wrote his concerto for and dedicated it to Oistrakh. A large sweeping work in three movements, the first of which is longer than the latter two combined, the concerto owes far more to the composer's nineteenth century predecessors Rimsky-Korsakov and Balakirev, than to any sort of modernist ideal. The opening movement is both dramatic and lyrical and as its title implies, passionate. The adagio is tuneful and circumspect, while the rollicking third movement is very dance-like.

Although Mieczylaw Vainberg was a disciple and pupil of Myaskovsky, his style, although still conservative, leans more toward his friend and colleague Shostakovich than to any nineteenth century composer. Born in Poland in 1919, Vainberg's early promise was as a pianist, but his hopes for a major career were dashed by the Nazi invasion of Poland during the Second World War. He fled to, and was accepted warmly in Russia, although on more than one occasion he ran afoul of the authorities. At one time he was arrested for being an "enemy of the state" only to be rescued by Shostakovich’s intervention and ultimately, the death of Stalin.

His concerto is of much tighter construct than the Myaskovsky, consisting of four movements nearly equal in technical challenge, musical expression and length. Of particular note is the passionate, melancholy Adagio. Although not particularly melodic, (you are not likely to leave the room whistling the tunes) there is a formal and thematic unity about the work that makes the listener eager to find out what comes next.

And what of Ilya Grubert’s playing? In short, it is utterly refreshing. Here is a soloist that takes command of the stage, is not afraid of a risk or two, and plays in a manner that reflects his feelings for the music. When called for, his playing can be as lyrical as the finest soprano, yet he never shies away from putting forth a bit of gypsy abandon, allowing his tone to even at times be a bit gritty. This is by no means a criticism. Grubert digs into the strings, coaxing every last ounce of sound and spirit out of them. This is indeed a player worth watching, and if this recording is harbinger at all, there are great things yet to come.

Dmitry Yablonsky leads a finely honed instrument in the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra. Gone is the customary Russian blatting and out of tune wailing in the brass section. His strings are warm and lush, and there is a rhythmic tautness to the playing. He paces both concerti perfectly, never hurrying the fast passages and never belaboring the slow ones.

Recorded sound is excellent. Program notes by Per Skans hold the reader’s interest, and provide the correct balance of analysis, historical background and anecdote.

These are two composers who deserve further attention. Hopefully, a few more successful recordings such as this one will propel this music off the silver disc and into the concert hall. Go buy this one and enjoy some unusual yet highly accessible delights. (Kevin Sutton, naxos)
NIKOLAI MYASKOVSKY  (1881-1950)
1-3.  Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 44
MIECZYSLAW WEINBERG (1919-1996)
4-7.   Violin Concerto in G Minor, Op. 67
Credits:
Orchestra – Russian Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor – Dmitry Yablonsky
Violin – Ilya Grubert

MIECZYSLAW WEINBERG : 24 Preludes for Violoncello Solo, Op. 100 (Gidon Kremer) (2019) Two Version | FLAC (image+.tracks+.cue), lossless

The Polish Jewish-born Mieczyslaw Weinberg made his way to Moscow during World War II and was lucky enough to have his music championed by Shostakovich during one of the latter's government-approved periods. His music sounds a bit like that of Shostakovich (sample, perhaps, the beginning of the 21st prelude here), but he generally has his own voice. Weinberg wrote these preludes for cello (for Mstislav Rostropovich, who never performed them), and they have occasionally been recorded in that form; the violin transcription here by Latvian star Gidon Kremer squeezes the original work's broad range but also adds a level of virtuosity on the high notes that wasn't there originally. The 24 preludes do not form a set in all the major and minor keys as do those of Bach or Chopin, and they're perhaps more etudes than preludes, each of them exploring a little technique or motif. Combined with Kremer's brilliance, this creates a slightly mysterious effect, as if you are hearing an impassioned speech in an unfamiliar language. They are entirely unlike the Shostakovich preludes for piano, and there is nothing of the neo-classic about them although they are tonally organized. Although the pieces are quite short, they have a personal quality. The Accentus label, going full ECM with its black-and-white-photo-on-gray graphics, does a wonderful job sonically at the Paliesiaus Dvaras, apparently a small hotel, in Lithuania; the violin has an almost tactile quality. A nice find for those who know Weinberg only through his symphonies, or not at all. James Manheim

Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996)
1-24. 24 Preludes for Violoncello Solo, Op. 100
Arranged for Violin By – Gidon Kremer

WEINBERG : Symphony No. 5 · Sinfonietta No. 1 (Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra · Gabriel Chmura) (2003) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

 Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996)

1-4    Symphony No. 5, Op. 76    (45:32)
5-8    Sinfonietta No. 1, Op. 41    (22:08)

Conductor – Gabriel Chmura
Orchestra – National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Katowice

WEINBERG : Symphony No. 4 • Sinfonietta No. 2 • Rhapsody On Moldovian Themes (National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Katowice · Gabriel Chmura) (2004) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Ah, Mieczyslaw Weinberg, not Moishey Vainberg. One can understand the mistake. Mieczyslaw Weinberg was the Polish composer who emigrated to the Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics at the start of World War II. Moishey Vainberg was the Russian composer who was the close friend and artistic confidant of Dmitry Shostakovich. But Weinberg or Vainberg, the man who wrote the works recorded on this disc by Gabriel Chmura and the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra is a strong-willed and hard-edged mensch, a mensch who is surely one of the great composers of the second half of the twentieth century. Although one can hear echoes of Shostakovich in the sparseness of the scoring, the robust themes, and muscular rhythms are pure Weinberg/Vainberg. As Chmura and the NPRSO's powerful, passionate, and precise performances prove, the thing that Weinberg/Vainberg had most closely in common with Shostakovich was his ironic sense of tragedy. More than the leanness of the textures, Weinberg/Vainberg's music shares with Shostakovich the thinness and sharpness of life on the edge of the abyss. Chandos' sound is simple, honest, and true. James Leonard
 
Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996)

1-4    Symphony No. 4, Op. 61 (1957, Revisited 1961)    (30:12)
5    Rhapsody On Moldovian Themes, Op. 47 No.1 (1949)
6-9    Sinfonietta No. 2, Op. 74 (1960)    (17:32)

Conductor – Gabriel Chmura
Orchestra – National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Katowice

WEINBERG : Symphony No. 14 • Symphony No. 16 (National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Katowice · Gabriel Chmura) (2006) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

While Sergey Prokofiev and Dmitry Shostakovich are the two most prominent figures in music of the Soviet era, a growing consensus of opinion would put Polish-born Mieczyslaw Weinberg with them, even at the forefront of all modernist composers. Weinberg (known also as Moisey Vainberg, and sometimes given erroneous transliterations of his name, even though he preferred the Polish spelling) composed 25 symphonies of highly original character and readily apparent technical mastery. These impressive works are gradually being received with favor in the West, largely through the efforts of Gabriel Chmura and the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Their exciting recordings on Chandos are a great place to start investigating Weinberg's music, especially since the series is projected to cover all the symphonies and other significant orchestral works. The six-movement Symphony No. 16, Op. 131 (1981), which receives its world-premiere recording here, and the more traditionally structured four-movement Symphony No. 14, Op. 117, are sturdy, rugged symphonies, filled with pathos, irony, lyricism, and pugnacity, and they will instantly appeal to admirers of Shostakovich's cycle; they may also attract listeners who like the symphonies of Mahler, Prokofiev, Nielsen, or Sibelius because there are numerous points of similarity in these works that invite comparisons. The performances are accomplished and compelling, and the orchestra sounds remarkably rich in tone, even in exposed string or woodwind passages with only one or two melodic lines. But there are also powerful climaxes, where the brass and timpani project with great force and resonance. Chandos provides exceptional sound with phenomenally clear details, which makes listening to these pieces for the first time a pleasure. Highly recommended. Blair Sanderson

Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996)

1-6    Symphony No. 16, Op. 131 (1981)    (33:19)
7-10    Symphony No. 14, Op. 117 (1977)    (30:15)

Conductor – Gabriel Chmura
Orchestra – National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Katowice

WEINBERG , PROKOFIEV : Clarinet Sonatas (Van Wauwe-Blondeel) (2015) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

MIECZYSLAW WEINBERG : String Quartets, Vol. 1 (Quatuor Danel) (2007) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Even though the dominant figures of Soviet music were Dmitry Shostakovich and Sergey Prokofiev, it has become clear that the work of a third composer, Polish-born Mieczyslaw Weinberg, should be ranked as equally significant. His reputation has rapidly increased in the west due to a growing number of major recordings that confirm his standing, and his impressive compositions are valued by some critics as every bit the equal of any of the better-known modernist masterpieces. In light of the renascence of Weinberg's music, CPO has begun a project with the Quatuor Danel to record the 17 string quartets, and this first volume shows promising signs that the whole series will be required listening. The String Quartet No. 4, Op. 20 (1945), was a product of World War II and it reflects the turmoil of the time, while the String Quartet No. 16, Op. 130 (1981), is a brooding, introspective work of Weinberg's late period, comparable in its fatalistic mood to some of Shostakovich's dark explorations. The Quatuor Danel plays with taut muscularity, and the tension of Weinberg's fiercely dissonant counterpoint is sustained in each quartet through the group's controlled energy and penetrating tone. The close miking may make listening a little disagreeable -- especially when the players' breathing is audible -- but the musical value of these performances is high and listeners should be prepared to concentrate on this album without distractions and to face it without concern for comfort: this is bracing music, indeed, but well worth the effort. by Blair Sanderson  

MIECZYSLAW WEINBERG : String Quartets, Vol. 2 (Quatuor Danel) (2008) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

MIECZYSLAW WEINBERG : String Quartets, Vol. 3 (Quatuor Danel) (2009) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

MIECZYSLAW WEINBERG : String Quartets, Vol. 4 (Quatuor Danel) (2010) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

This release is the fourth in a series devoted to the complete string quartets of Mieczyslaw Weinberg, a Polish-born Jew who fled the Nazis in 1939. He landed in Minsk, then in Tashkent, then finally in Moscow, where he found himself in danger once again from the aging Stalin's anti-Jewish purges. His life was probably saved by an appeal from Shostakovich, who had become his mentor. Weinberg is usually classed as a follower of Shostakovich, and his music was until recently little heard in the West; it has now been championed by the Quatuor Danel, a Russian group resident in Britain. Annotator David Fanning (the notes are given in German, English, and French) makes a good case that the influence, in the realm of the string quartet at least, went from Weinberg to Shostakovich rather than the other way around, and Shostakovich's attitude toward Weinberg seems to have been one of genuine admiration. At any rate, as the music of Eastern Europe and Russia is recognized for its engagement with the currents of world history rather than suffering devaluation from self-serving modernism, Weinberg deserves another look. These quartets do inhabit the same stylistic universe as those of Shostakovich, but Weinberg was no clone. The most immediately attractive work is the String Quartet No. 5 in B flat major, Op. 27, composed in 1945. By that time Shostakovich had already begun to back off from his edgily humorous early idiom, but Weinberg apparently absorbed it during his first years in the Soviet Union; at the center of the work lies a blistering scherzo that could have come out of one of Shostakovich's stage works of the 1920s. The outer movements are melodic and a bit less dissonant than those of Shostakovich. The String Quartet No. 9 in F sharp minor, Op. 80, is from 1963, with structures that resemble the tight sonata forms of Shostakovich's works of the period. The final String Quartet No. 14, Op. 122, was written after Shostakovich's death. It lacks a key designation and has only metronome markings for tempo indications. It's a gloomy work, tightly constructed, with the dark tone of late Shostakovich much in evidence; one might do better with the range of emotions and literary reference in the works of the master himself here, but there's a lot to chew on in this late quartet. With enthusiastic and plainly lovingly rehearsed performances from the Quatuor Danel and fine sound from Cologne's Studio Stolbergerstraßse, this can be recommended to anyone who likes Shostakovich's quartets or is interested in the general Russian scene. by James 

MIECZYSLAW WEINBERG : String Quartets, Vol. 5 (Quatuor Danel) (2011) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

MIECZYSLAW WEINBERG : String Quartets, Vol. 6 (Quatuor Danel) (2012) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

The music of Mieczyslaw Weinberg, who fled the Nazis and endured persecution from Stalin (although, as annotator David Fanning points out here, he regarded the Red Army as his savior), has increased sharply in popularity. Weinberg is part of Shostakovich's stylistic universe and, although the relationship was never a formal one, said that he regarded himself as Shostakovich's pupil. Yet he was no clone. Jewish motifs play a role in some of his music, and in the string quartets here, especially the String Quartet No. 12, Op. 103, Bartók is as important a model as Shostakovich. Hear the Presto movement of that symphony (track 7), with its motivic cells closely packed around a central note, interspersed with hammered repetitions of a single tone. It's an extraordinary piece, and the multinational Quatuor Danel brings the requisite taut intensity. The other two works are lighter in tone, with the String Quartet No. 17, Op. 146 (composed in 1986), diverging quite a bit from the hopeless jocularity of many of Shostakovich's late pieces. It matches up quite well to the String Quartet No. 2, Op. 3, written in the early months of World War II but seemingly oblivious to the chaos that had erupted all around the composer (by the time he wrote it, he had fled his native Warsaw for Minsk). Weinberg himself seems to have recognized the connection, for he revised the quartet heavily near the end of his life. It begins in an almost neo-classic manner before becoming submerged in contrapuntal complications. Different as they are in mood, all three works are immediately recognizable as the work of the same creative figure, making this a reasonable first pick for those interested in Weinberg's music. Another major plus is the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (West German Radio) engineering for the CPO label, accomplished at the Stolbergstrasse Studio in Cologne, and capturing the physicality of the string quartet without overdoing the non-musical sounds in the least. An excellent conclusion to the Quatuor Danel's Weinberg cycle. by James Manheim 

MIECZYSLAW WEINBERG : Complete Piano Works • 1 (2012) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Polish-Russian composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg, also known as Moises Vainberg, has received a flurry of attention in the new century for works that showed the influence of both Shostakovich and Prokofiev but aped neither one, developing a distinctive style rooted in the increasingly important music of the Soviet Union in the middle 20th century. Weinberg fled the Nazi invasion in Poland, only to find mistrust from both the Soviet government and dissidents who considered him insufficiently confrontational. Like Shostakovich he was a pianist. His piano music dates mostly from the first phases of his output (a bout with tuberculosis sidelined his concert career), and four of the five works here were composed while he was still in Poland or in Minsk, where he resumed his studies after fleeing and saw his relatives die in concentration camps. They are not the best samples of Weinberg's mature style, but all are worthwhile. The Two Mazurkas, Op. 10, and Lullaby, Op. 1, were Weinberg's earliest works, written during his teenage years, with all kinds of unexpected youthful complications arising from simple tonal material. The Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 8, is a pure essay in Prokofiev's style; it was premiered by Emil Gilels. A bit more interesting is the slightly earlier Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 5, with tough dissonances kept in check by contrapuntal passages. The mood, although not the specific language, recalls early Shostakovich. The final Piano Sonata, Op. 49bis, will also be of interest to Soviet music buffs. It had its origins in a work written during the repression of Stalin's culture czar Andrei Zhdanov, when composers retreated to a safe simplicity. But Weinberg returned to the work in the 1970s and expanded it, with intriguing results: it has the flavor of a reflection on those difficult days. American pianist Allison Brewster Franzetti has a basic feel for Russian music and a muscular style that projects these explosive youthful works well. This is the first in a projected series of Weinberg works from this performer, and it bodes well for the set. by James Manheim 

MIECZYSLAW WEINBERG : Complete Piano Works • 2 (2012) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

The music of Mieczyslaw Weinberg, who managed to survive persecution from both the Nazis and the Stalinists, has gained new attention with the continuing expansion of popularity of his mentor and sometime protector, Shostakovich. The structure of the ongoing series of his complete piano works by American pianist Allison Brewster Franzetti remains to be seen, but she does well with this grouping of works from around 1950: this was the period in which both Weinberg and Shostakovich suffered from Stalinist cultural repression and adjusted their styles in a conservative direction accordingly. (Weinberg was actually jailed and, despite Shostakovich's help, not released until after Stalin's death.) The three works here are clearly related to Shostakovich's piano works of his mid-career, but are entirely different in effect. The characteristic mordant quality in Shostakovich is missing, replaced by a sense of the Romantic legacy (explicit in a piece like the Etude, track 9, from the Partita, Op. 54) combined with an uncertain, dark quest into the future. Annotator David Fanning makes much of the contrast between "subdued and intimate" and "dramatic and virtuosic" in that Partita, but in fact all three works on the album are similarly structured. Weinberg begins almost diffidently, with conventional tonal material that seems to slip periodically into a dark, intense reverie. It's a powerful response to the situation Weinberg faced during this period, and Franzetti gives the music its deserved overall intensity. The slow movements of the Piano Sonatina, Op. 49, with its shifting bass ostinato, and the Piano Sonata No. 4 in B minor, Op. 56, with its genuinely tragic mood, are especially noteworthy, and the Partita would make an ideal program companion to Shostakovich's preludes and fugues. Recommended for collections of Russian music in the 20th century. by James Manheim  

MIECZYSLAW WEINBERG : Complete Piano Works • 3 (2012) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

MIECZYSLAW WEINBERG : Complete Piano Works • 4 (2013) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless