Weinberg at the Wigmore Hall

In the latest news relating to Weinberg's centenary year, I'm delighted to include details of the Weinberg season occurring at London's Wigmore Hall, beginning in October. The Wigmore Hall is one of the most famous venues for chamber music in the world, so it is wonderful that so much Weinberg will be performed there over the next few years. 

In what it is certainly the most ambitious overview of Weinberg's chamber music ever attempted, the Wigmore Hall have announced that the Quatuor Danel will be performing a double-cycle of Weinberg and Shostakovich over two season, finishing in 2021. The Danels are, of course, the pioneers of Weinberg's String Quartets through their CPO recordings, and also their performances and work as part of their residency at the University of Manchester. The first concert will be on Thursday 24 October, with more throughout the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons. 

Furthermore, Saturday 26 October brings an intensive day of events in the form of a Weinberg Focus Day. There will be three concerts of chamber music, featuring acclaimed violinist Linus Roth, including works for solo violin, violin and piano, piano trio, and song cycles. The day will also include a talk and launch event for my book Music behind the Iron Curtain. I will also be introducing each concert. 

Further details can be found on the Wigmore Hall's website here and here. These look set to be incredibly exciting concerts and certainly a measure of how the Weinberg revival has come. 

January 2019, Manchester Weinberg Conference

It may have been six months ago, but minds are still reeling from the amazing 'Weinberg: East and West' conference at the University of Manchester at the start of this year. Michelle Assay and David Fanning organised a fantastic four-day event, including concerts and a complete Quartet Cycle performed by the fantastic Quatuor Danel.

Egbert Baars, of the DSCH journal, attended and has uploaded an excellent gallery of photos from the conference. I've included a selection of photos below (reproduced here with permission):

From my workshop with the Quatuor Danel on the original version of Weinberg's First Quartet. 

Gidon Kremer, who paid us an extraordinary 'flying' visit, stopping by with enough time to perform and give a moving talk. 

The ensemble from one of the afternoon concerts (L-R): Marc Danel, Michelle Assay, Rosalind Dobson 

A video conference call with Victoria Bishops, Weinberg's first daughter. 

Conference delegates enjoying a meal before an evening concert. 

Truly exceptional, the Quatuor Danel: Marc Danel, Gilles Millet, Vlad Bogdanas, and Yovan Markovitch.

Performers and scholars. back row L-R: Larissa Zvereva, Vlad Bogdanas, Yovan Markovitch, and David Fanning; front row L-R: Inessa Dvuzhilnaya, Gilles Millet, Michelle Assay, Marc Danel, and Verena Mogl.

Conference sessions: Antonina Klokova and Verena Mogl.

Aleksander Laskowski.

Michelle Assay and David Fanning.

Group photo of performers, scholars, and general public.

For more of Egbert's photos, you can visit his website at: https://www.shostakovich.nl/manchester_2019/manchester_2019.html. 

Weinberg at the 2019 Proms

For me, I have always felt that a landmark in the Weinberg revival would be reached with the first performance of his music at the BBC Proms. As the largest festival of classical music in the world, they represent the 'establishment' of music in the UK. At long last, in time for his centenary year, this year's Proms features Weinberg's music for the first time ever in three concerts spread across the season. Here's a summary of the events:

1) Tuesday 6 August, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Dalia Stasevska (cond.), Sol Gabetta (cello)

Sibelius: Karelia Suite

Weinberg: Cello Concerto (in its London premiere)

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6

More details here.

2) Thursday 22 August, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla (cond.), Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello)

Dorothy Howell: Lamia

Elgar: Cello Concerto

Knussen: The way to Castle Yonder

Weinberg: Symphony No. 3

More details here

3) Monday 2 September, Silesian Quartet, Wojciech Świtała (at Cadogan Hall)

Weinberg: Quartet No. 7

Bacewicz: Piano Quintet No. 1

More details here

In addition to these three concerts, there's also a Proms Plus talk on Weinberg before the Thursday 22 August concert, which will feature myself and Erik Levi discussing Weinberg's life and music. More details here. 

All-in-all, an exciting representation of Weinberg's music. I should add, all concerts will be broadcast live on Radio 3, and will also be available to listen back online. 

Music behind the Iron Curtain: Weinberg and his Polish Contemporaries

I am delighted to share news about the publication of my upcoming book, Music behind the Iron Curtain: Weinberg and his Polish Contemporaries, with Cambridge University Press. Here's the blurb:

Mieczysław Weinberg left his family behind and fled his native Poland in September 1939. He reached the Soviet Union, where he become one of the most celebrated composers. He counted Shostakovich among his close friends and produced a prolific output of works. Yet he remained mindful of the nation that he had left. This book examines how Weinberg’s works written in Soviet-Russia compare with those of his Polish contemporaries; how one composer split from his national tradition and how he created a style that embraced the music of a new homeland, while those composers in his native land surged ahead in a more experimental vein. The points of contact between them are enlightening for both sides. This study provides an overview of Weinberg’s music through his string quartets, analysing them alongside Polish composers. Composers featured include Bacewicz; Meyer; Lutosławski; Panufnik; Penderecki; Górecki; and a younger generation, including Szymański and Knapik.

The book will be available from mid-Autumn; for anyone able to travel to London, there will also be a launch event at the Wigmore Hall on Saturday 26 October. More details (and tickets) available here.

I'm very excited to be able to share this research with you all, and I hope to have more posts about the book over the coming weeks and months.

D.E. 

Weinberg Piano Quintet, Op. 18, programme note

Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996)

Piano Quintet, Op. 18 (1944)

I – Moderato con moto

II – Andante

III  – Presto

IV – Largo

V – Allegro agitato

Weinberg wrote his Piano Quintet between August and October 1944, at the age of 24. Barely a year after settling in Moscow, following his double escape from Nazi invasion (Warsaw to Minsk in September 1939 and Minsk to Tashkent in June 1941), he already had a blossoming reputation in the musical community of the Soviet capital. His Quintet is part of a larger group of chamber pieces written at prolific speed during the war years. Despite his youth, it is a formidable work, cast in five movements, similar to Shostakovich’s celebrated Piano Quintet of 1940. But whereas Shostakovich’s work is often contemplative in character, Weinberg’s Quintet is more extrovert as a whole. It is tempting to link the work’s serious tone to the war itself - Weinberg had left his family behind when he fled his native Poland – but unlike some of his later pieces, there are no concrete clues to this effect, such as quotations or self-quotations from songs. The piano part is particularly demanding, with several extended solos. A remarkable recording exists of the composer performing the piece with the Borodin Quartet – testament to his pianistic proficiency.

            The work’s opening phrase is immediately striking, with an austere tone that sets the mood for the first movement and the whole piece. The piano is pitted against the strings, with the quartet providing punctuating gestures to the piano’s weightier thematic statements. The dotted rhythm of the second theme allows the strings to dominate, but only briefly before the opening theme returns in a thunderous restatement.

            The second movement alternates a sinuous theme in the muted strings with a hectic solo from the piano. The latter’s triplet figurations rapidly expand to the whole ensemble, before reducing to a skeletal macabre texture, with the strings playing several eerie passages with the back of the bow – col legno.

            The third movement is a Presto that opens with muted flurries in the strings, soon joined by octaves high in the piano that create a feeling of tense expectation. This mood is shattered by a series of strenuous scales and trills, before a central dance section in which elements reminiscent of Klezmer and even a brief Chopin-esque passage for solo piano combine to emphasise the ‘cabaret’ feel already latent in the previous movement.

            The long-drawn Largo rapidly darkens the mood, providing a sobering contrast to the previous manic jubilation; its character is stark, verging on melancholic. A line of implacable octaves sets the tone. The first violin delivers a mournful solo, before a strident burst of major tonality in the piano. Energy accumulates, before a heart-rending flurry of passion. The quasi-recitative theme once again moves to the solo piano, before a morendo close. A contemporary reviewer described this movement as ‘disturbingly lyrical and deeply meditative’.

            With such contrasts already encountered, the final movement has several questions to address, which is does with a succession of strongly characterised themes. It opens with strident, almost machine-like pulsations, with aggressive interjections from the piano. Syncopated rhythms abound. The second theme is unexpected: firmly in the major, it presents a folk-like dance, playful and mischievous, like an east-European take on an Irish jig. The piano contrasts with a jazz-like canon, before the first violin reintroduces the opening movement’s first theme, taking up a thread that serves to unite the whole work. This is soon combined with the folk-like melody in an unsettling blend. The juxtaposition builds to become more jarring before a fiery restatement of the first movement theme in full. Energy dissipates for the work’s close, softly concluding in a troublingly inconclusive F major.

Shostakovich and Weinberg

That Shostakovich and Weinberg were good friends is well-known. They compared their works-in-progress together, and met regularly, as well as socialising almost every day. What is less well-known, however, is the extent to which Shostakovich supported Weinberg during his most dire time of need. 

The following is from an article by Nataliya Vovsi-Mikhoels, Weinberg's first wife, on his relationship with Shostakovich, and the events of 1953: 

Although Weinberg was not a pupil of Shostakovich's, Dmitri Dmitriyevich always showed great interest in his work. From the very beginning of their acquaintance, they established a law whereby each played his compositions for the other. I remember one day Weinberg telling me of a dream he had had in which Shostakovich invited him to listen to a new work where he heard themes from many of his previous compositions. As he was telling me this story, the telephone rang; it was Shostakovich, who indeed was inviting him to come and listen to a work he had just completed. It turned out to be the Eighth Quartet, which Dmitri Dmitriyevich considered to be his musical autobiography. Weinberg returned home shaken to the very core by the music, and by his prophetic dream.  

In February 1953, Weinberg was arrested. Stalin was still alive. To be arrested in those times meant departure for ever. The families of those arrested were ostracized. I rushed between the Moscow prisons, the Lyubyanka and the Butyrka, and didn't know whom to approach.  

A few days after his arrest, a great friend of ours range me and suggested we meet. While we paced the dark and narrow Moscow lanes, he told me that Shostakovich was writing a letter to Beriya and needed me to come and help him edit it. It was sheer lunacy to go to Shostakovich in my situation! But I went and read the letter in which he, Shostakovich, vouched that Weinberg was an honest citizen and a most talented young composers, whose chief interest in life was music. I understood how dangerous it was for Shostakovich to vouch for an enemy of the people, a Jew, and furthermore, Mikhoels' son-in-law... I expressed these emotions as best as I could to Dmitri Dmitriyevich, but he, shy of being thanked, just continued to repeat, 'Don't worry, don't worry, they won't do anything to me'.  

Apart from this letter, his wife Nina Vasilyevna suggested that I should write a statement, giving her power of attorney, thereby allowing her to take our things and sell them to support my seven-year-old daughter Vitosha [Victoria], when they came to get me and my sister... In fact, as it transpired later, she had decided that they would look after Vitosha.  

But all this was not be. On 5 March Stalin died. A month later, my father was rehabilitated in the press. Soon after this Shostakovich and his wife went to the south on holiday, making me promise to send a telegram as soon as Weinberg was released.  

And shortly we were able to send them this telegram: 'Enjoy your holiday. We embrace you, Tala and Metek'. Two days later the Shostakoviches were back in Moscow. That evening we celebrated. At the table, festively decked out with candles in antique candlesticks, Nina Vasileyna read out the power of attorney that I had written. Then Dmitri Dmitriyevich got up and solemnly pronounced, 'Now I should burn it over the candles'. After the destruction of the 'document', we drank vodka and sat down to supper. I rarely saw Dmitri Dmitriyevich as clam, and even merry, as he was that evening. 

Quoted from Elizabeth Wilson (ed), Shostakovich: A Life Remembered (London: Faber and faber, 2006) 263-264. 

Shostakovich photograph from wikipedia commons. 

Weinberg's date of birth

On which day of the year should we be celebrating Weinberg's centenary in 2019?

That might seem like a straight-forward question, but the answer is complex. The date that Weinberg and his family celebrated his birthday was 8 December, and this is the date on most of the surviving documents relating to the composer.

His date of birth can be brought into question, however, since his original birth certificate was lost during the destruction of Warsaw in the Second World War. He went to great lengths to receive a replacement in the 1980s, which also officially corrected his name to 'Mieczysław' (it had been changed to 'Moisey' by a border guard in 1939, but that's a separate story). This later document also gives the date of birth as '8 December 1919'.

Recent research has thrown doubt on this, however. Prof. Danuta Gwizdalanka, respected Polish musicologist and biographer of Weinberg, went through the archives of the Warsaw Conservatoire, where Weinberg was a student in the years 1931-1939.

Located there, Gwizdalanka found two documents that bring Weinberg's date of birth into question: his conservatoire application, and a birth certificate, seemingly copied from the original. Both documents list his date of birth as '12 January 1919', a sizeable difference from the acknowledged date (both also use the original Polish spelling for his surname, 'Wajnberg').

Images taken from culture.pl website.

The birth certificate states: 'This birth certificate has been transcribed into the Jewish Faith Metrical Books at the 7th police station of Warsaw on the 17th of January 1919 under no. 28'. The duplicate document was issued in May 1936. 

The application for entry to the Conservatoire is dated November 1931. 

Weinberg's second daughter has confirmed several times that Weinberg celebrated his birthday on 8 December. He was given a Polish medal for services to culture on his 75th birthday, and a small ceremony took place on 8 December 1994. What's more, the later Moscow birth certificate, dated 1981, also gives the 8 December date.

So why the discrepancy?

Aside from these two documents, all other evidence points to the 8 December date. The 12 January version can perhaps be explained when we examine the date that the application was submitted to the conservatoire. In November 1931, Weinberg would have been eleven years old, according to his acknowledged date of birth. The minimum age of entrants to the Warsaw Conservatoire was, however, twelve. The 12 January date conveniently raises Weinberg's age to be sufficient for entry.

If this is the case, Weinberg would hardly be unique in this respect (there are several other composers who misled about their age to gain conservatoire entry). The 1936 duplicate of the birth certificate is more difficult to account for, though it may have been a consequence of new laws on work permits for Jews in Warsaw 1936, which may have extended to continuing study at the conservatoire.

With that said, there is an outside chance that these two documents could be proof that we ought to be celebrating Weinberg's birth much earlier in the year. Or perhaps the discrepancy lends weight to the idea of celebrating his birth all year long (or, at the very least, between 12 January and 8 December)?

Or, perhaps, today should be the date for 'Happy Birthday, Weinberg'?

Further information (and images taken) from Danuta Gwizdalanka, 'Unknown Facts from Mieczysław Wajnberg's biography' - https://culture.pl/en/article/unknown-facts-from-mieczyslaw-wajnbergs-biography

Weinberg 100: 1

2019 marks the centenary of Weinberg's birth, with numerous events, concerts, and recordings set to mark the event. On this blog, I will begin a series of posts to mark the centenary, with 100 throughout the year. Some of these will be short features, such as photos, key works, or re-posts of older articles on this blog. Others will be previously unpublished sources and photos, posted here to promote further research and scholarship on Weinberg and his music.

For now, watch this space. Here's a performance of Weinberg's first opus-numbered work, the Lullaby for piano:

Review: CBSO Weinberg Weekend

Thanks to the ongoing efforts of conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra are continuing their exploration of Weinberg’s music. It was a pleasure for me to stay in the city, as it is my ‘home turf’ from childhood (well, I’m from between Dudley and Wolverhampton, but the CBSO was the nearest orchestra in my formative years). Ahead of next year’s centenary, they hosted a series of concerts and talks last weekend, featuring sterling performances from all concerned. Here’s my brief review of the concerts:

Friday 23 November:

Gidon Kremer plays Weinberg’s 24 Preludes for Solo Cello (arr. Kremer)

Kremer has an outstanding reputation, closely associated with composers like Schnittke, Silvestrov, and Gubaidulina. He has been promoting Weinberg’s music for several years now, with several excellent recordings on the ECM label. Kremer himself has arranged Weinberg’s 24 Preludes for solo violin, resulting in an extremely demanding work. The Preludes themselves are tightly structured, ascending chromatically through the keys. Kremer maintains this structure, though this makes the act of arrangement more difficult (the easy route might have been to transpose the key to suit the violin better; as it stood, Kremer merely changes octave, preserving Weinberg’s original design). Kremer’s performance was accompanied by a slideshow of photos by Lithuanian photographer Antanas Sutkus, which alternate between humour and tragedy of Soviet life, with a significant focus on childhood. Kremer’s performance was virtuosic and often moving, and the combination with images was convincing (though I was left wondering whether it was absolutely necessary – the Preludes could arguably ‘stand’ on their own).

Saturday 24 November:

11am: Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica: Bach, Weinberg, Schubert, and Silvestrov

The Saturday morning concert was given by Kremerata Baltica, a youthful ensemble led by Kremer, though he describes it ‘a musical democracy’. They continue to be one of the most innovative and exciting ensembles performing today: you can expect surprise at every concert. They began with Bach’s Chaconne in D minor for violin, arranged for string orchestra by Kremer (itself an arrangement of Ferruccio Busoni’s famous piano transcription of the piece). The opening was immediately surprising: the orchestra took their seats, but a recorded solo violin began with those infamous double-stopped chords. The orchestra continued, but the ghostly recording interjected at key moments throughout. The connection with Weinberg is apparent, as the Chaconne figures at the dramatic climax of his opera The Passenger. They then moved into Weinberg’s Concertino for Violin and String Orchestra, with Kremer giving a fine performance as soloist, though their ECM recorded version offers far greater warmth (perhaps a reflection of Birmingham Town Hall’s dry acoustic). The concert then concluded with an intriguing arrangement: combining Schubert with Silvestrov. That is, alternating, movement-by-movement, between the movements of two pieces by two very different composers. It helped that the Schubert was for the full ensemble of Kremerata Baltica, and the Silvestrov was for violin and piano (his Five Pieces for Violin and Piano, dedicated to Kremer), so a clear contrast was provided, in addition to the massive contrast in character between the two pieces. The effect was mixed, though the Silvestrov arguably came out the better in my opinion, helped by Georgijs Osokins sensitive piano accompaniment. Overall, this provided a more contemplative start to the day.

Saturday 24 November:

7pm: CBSO with Kremerata Baltica, Gidon Kremer, Maria Makeeva, cond. Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla: Weinberg and Shostakovich

By far the most substantial event of the weekend was a colossal orchestral concert, with the CBSO and Kremerata Baltica joining forces. The programme was immediately striking, as the CBSO paired Weinberg’s Symphony No. 21 with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15, two symphonies that present extremely bleak and sombre themes. Weinberg’s 21^st, subtitled ‘Kaddish’, is dedicated to the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto, and various quotations support this, from use of Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn, through to a reworking of Weinberg’s Fourth String Quartet of 45 years earlier, and haunting solo piano quotes from Chopin’s First Ballade that permeate a brooding canvas of mourning. The Chopin reference and clear Klezmer sections strengthen the depiction of pre-war Warsaw, and the piece’s dedication to the victims of the Ghetto. Various other quotes from Weinberg’s oeuvre surface, and can surely be read as reflective of his life’s work, especially as it is explicitly a memorial piece. One of the key moments comes in the final section, as a wordless boy soprano intones a mournful sighing motif, answered by a wordless soprano (Maria Makeeva) (itself suggestive of loss between mother and child). The work was certainly positively received by the audience, with a huge number of ovations and curtain calls. The work was recorded for the option of future release, so watch this space.

            Usually, it would be alarming to think that Shostakovich’s Fifteenth Symphony could be the ‘light relief’ of any concert, but it proved to be such here. The opening movement, described as a ‘Toyshop’ by the composer, was performed with remarkable aplomb the by the gathered forces of the CBSO and Kremerata Baltica, while the quotations from Rossini'sWilliam Tell were handled with a subtlety that is unusual in most performances. The following movements switch to a far bleaker outlook, with star turns for solo cello and trombone in between Mahler-esque funeral dirges by the brass. The Scherzo was taken at something of a ‘safe’ tempo, though its sarcastic character was still easily conveyed. The finale of the Shostakovich is perhaps the most baffling movement of all, with Wagner and Glinka quotes contained within, presenting a culmination of his recognisably ‘Shostakovichian’ mode of despondency through major-key (or ‘happy’) music.

            The concert itself was a triumph, and Gražinytė-Tyla was captivating as leader of the orchestra. Every cue was flawless in execution, and the orchestra (and audience) are clearly held in awe with every movement.

The Weinberg weekend itself was a great success, and I look forward to future CBSO concerts with his music (next is 31 March 2019, with Kremer in Weinberg’s Violin Concerto, and the Fourth Suite from the Ballet The Golden Key - further info here). Long may Gražinytė-Tyla’s leadership of the CBSO continue, as well as their engagement with Weinberg’s music.

D.E.