Mieczysław Weinberg - Clarinet Music (Robert Oberaigner)

Information

Composer: Mieczysław Weinberg

• (01) Clarinet Concerto, Op. 104
• (04) Clarinet Sonata, Op. 28
• (07) Chamber Symphony No. 4, Op. 153

Robert Oberaigner, clarinet

Michael Schöch, piano (4-6)

Dresden Chamber Soloists

Michail Jurowski, conductor

Date: 2020

Label: Naxos

https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.574192

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Review

Weinberg’s works for wind instruments have been less well served on disc than those for strings. His three works for solo clarinet have all been recorded before, more than once (though not all have remained long in the catalogue), but this is the first time they have been gathered on one disc – and, at 83 minutes, a very generously filled one.

The Clarinet Sonata (1945) is the earliest work here and has received several recordings since its publication about 15 years ago, arguably most appealingly hitherto by Elisaveta Blumina and Wenzel Fuchs in a programme of Weinberg chamber works for winds (CPO, 2012). David Gutman was mightily impressed with what I assume was its first recording (RCA, 1/07 – nla) and in this new, vibrantly played account it is not hard to hear why. There is a wealth of melody within its three movements, fast-faster-slow, the final Adagio the work’s impassioned dark heart. Oberaigner and Schöch audibly have its measure.

Weinberg was a natural writer for clarinet as averred in every bar of the Concerto (1970), which has string orchestral accompaniment. It is an enormously impressive work of at times spectral introspection offset by more ebullient, even hectic activity. The central Andante is built around a meltingly lovely, if elegiac theme, drawing forth playing of heartfelt expressivity from Oberaigner and the Dresden Chamber Soloists. They are on their mettle, too, in the Fourth Chamber Symphony (1992), Weinberg’s final completed work and the one with the most Shostakovian aspect (but not really character). It has appeared on disc most often of the three here, most recently from Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla. Jurowski’s is scarcely less impressive, the equal of Svedlund’s pioneering account. Oberaigner comes in and out of focus, necessarily – this is no concerto, after all – but the sense of ensemble is most acute. The players do not put a foot (finger) wrong. Naxos’s sound is first-rate.

-- Guy Rickards, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2020/Jun/Weinberg_clarinet_8574192.htm

https://www.wtju.net/career-spanning-clarinet-music-mieczyslaw-weinberg/

https://www.opusklassiek.nl/cd-recensies/cd-sr/srweinberg21.htm

https://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.574192&languageid=EN

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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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Robert Oberaigner, the principal clarinettist of the Staatskapelle Dresden, has established a reputation/career as one of the most distinguished performers of his generation. Born in Hall in Tirol, Austria, Oberaigner studied at the Tyrolean State Conservatory, the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and the University of Music Lübeck. From 2003 until 2014 he held the solo clarinet position of the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne. Oberaigner is regularly invited to renown international concert houses and festivals. His discography includes recordings for the German label MDG, as well as for Naxos Records.

https://www.robertoberaigner.com/

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