Mieczysław Weinberg - Symphony No. 21; Polish Tunes (Dmitry Vasiliev)

Information

Composer: Mieczysław Weinberg

• (01) Polish Tunes, Op. 47, No. 2
• (05) Symphony No. 21, Op. 152, 'Kaddish'

Veronika Bartenyeva, soprano
Siberian State Symphony Orchestra
Dmitry Vasiliev, conductor

Date: 2014
Label: Toccata Classics
https://toccataclassics.com/product/weinberg-music-for-orchestra/

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Review

If Mieczysaw Weinberg (or Moysey Vaynberg, as the Russians knew him) suffered neglect and humiliation during his lifetime, he could take posthumous satisfaction from the fact that some of his vast musical output is at last securing a place in the repertoire, at least on disc. Chandos has a series of symphonies on the go but Toccata Classics has got in first with this premiere recording of Symphony No 21, coupled with Weinberg’s Polish Tunes, Op 47 No 2 (misprinted as No 21 on the back cover).

The two works could scarcely be more diverse. The Polish Tunes date to that dark period after the 1948 condemnation of Soviet composers for ‘clear manifestations of formalistic, anti-democratic tendencies in music, alien to the Soviet people and its artistic tastes’. Weinberg’s wise response was to write the bright, folk-inflected Polish Tunes, skilfully orchestrated and sunny of disposition. Symphony No 21 is another matter. Composed in 1991, its subtitle is Kaddish and it is dedicated ‘to the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto’ during the Second World War. It is a striking, viscerally anguished, emotionally powerful piece, as this fine performance by the Siberian Symphony Orchestra under Dmitry Vasilyev underlines. Lament, rage, defiance, horror and numbness are all drawn into the music’s expressive spectrum, with achingly poignant references to Chopin’s G minor Ballade and a final section deploying a soprano voice (Veronika Bartenyeva) in a wordless Requiem. Weinberg’s is a forceful voice in this symphony; its impact is overwhelming.

-- Geoffrey Norris, Gramophone

More reviews:
MusicWeb International  RECORDING OF THE MONTH
http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/t/toc00193a.php

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Mieczysław Weinberg (8 December 1919 in Warsaw – 26 February 1996 in Moscow) was a Soviet composer of Polish-Jewish origin. From 1939 he lived in the Soviet Union and Russia and lost most of his family in the Holocaust. He left a large body of work that included twenty-two symphonies and seventeen string quartets. Weinberg's works frequently have a strong programmatic element. Throughout his life, he continually referred back to his formative years in Warsaw and to the war. Although he never formally studied with Shostakovich, the older composer had an obvious influence on Weinberg's music.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mieczys%C5%82aw_Weinberg

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Born in 1972 in Bolshoi Kamen on the shore of Japan Sea, Dmitry Vasiliev graduated from Rostov State Conservatory, then pursued post-graduate study under the guidance of Prof. Alexander Skulsky in Nizhny Novgorod State Conservatory. Vasiliev’s career started blossoming in 1997 when he became a founding artistic director of the Tambov Symphony Orchestra. Since 2005, he has been working as artistic director and chief conductor of the Siberian Symphony Orchestra. Vasiliev has guest conducted with many leading Russian orchestras, as well as in Italy, France, Korea, China and Poland.
https://www.conductorvasiliev.com/

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