Mieczysław Weinberg - Violin Concerto; Sonata for 2 Violins (Gidon Kremer)

Information

Composer: Mieczysław Weinberg

• (01) Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 67
• (05) Sonata for 2 Violins, Op. 69

Gidon Kremer, violin

Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (1-4)

Daniele Gatti, conductor

Madara Pētersone, violin (5-7)

Date: 2021

Label: Accentus

https://accentus.com/discs/518/

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Review

Given his unstinting advocacy of Mieczysław Weinberg in recent years, it was inevitable that Gidon Kremer would eventually tackle the Violin Concerto – a pivotal work in its composer’s output and one that, through the pioneering account by dedicatee Leonid Kogan, was almost his only piece known in the West until the Weinberg renaissance began a quarter of a century ago.

Daniele Gatti may have conducted little Weinberg but the rapport between him, the Leipzig Gerwandhaus and Kremer is evident at the outset of a charged and incisive opening Allegro. The main difference with earlier recordings is the sheer intensity invested into the Allegretto, notably the spectral coda, which segues more potently into an Andante of unforced eloquence. In his booklet interview, Kremer confesses some doubts as to the contrived optimism of the final Allegro, yet its martial undertow never descends into glibness or caricature – with the sudden and unexpected recall of the initial theme closing the work in soulful contemplation.

Kremer is joined by Madara Pētersone for the Sonata for two violins, written soon after the concerto and a portent of things to come in the wiry angularity of its Allegro then ominous unease of a nocturnal Adagio. Such intensity is tempered if hardly diluted in the Allegretto, its lyricism and equability increasingly rare in Weinberg’s chamber music. Kremer rates it alongside the Prokofiev as the high point of an inevitably limited repertoire, and this reading probes deeper than the emotionally detached first recording by Stefan and Gundula Kirpal.

In the absence of Kogan (Melodiya, 1/98) or Ilya Gringolts (Warner, 5/15), Kremer is preferable in the concerto to the technically immaculate if less personal readings by Linus Roth or Benjamin Schmid, any passing technical fallibilities more than outweighed by the magnetism of his playing. Vivid and immediate though slightly airless sound, and a strong recommendation.

-- Richard Whitehouse, Gramophone

More reviews:

https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/concerto/weinberg-violin-concerto-op-67-etc/

https://www.thestrad.com/reviews/gidon-kremer-madara-ptersone-weinberg/11891.article

https://theclassicreview.com/album-reviews/review-weinberg-violin-concerto-sonata-for-two-violins-gidon-kremer/

https://www.allmusic.com/album/mieczyslaw-weinberg-violin-concerto-sonata-for-two-violins-mw0003459743

https://www.amazon.com/Violin-Concerto-Gidon-Kremer/dp/B08P1KLVV1

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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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Gidon Kremer (born 27 February 1947 in Riga) is a Latvian classical violinist, artistic director, and founder of Kremerata Baltica. He studied with Voldemar Sturestep at the Riga School of Music, and from 1965 with David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory. Kremer won first prize at the Paganini Competition and International Tchaikovsky Competition, among others. Composers such as Gubaidulina, Nono and Schnittke have dedicated works to him. He has a large discography on the Deutsche Grammophon label, for which he has recorded since 1978. He has also recorded for Philips, EMI, Decca, ECM and Nonesuch.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gidon_Kremer
http://www.gidonkremer.net

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