Here's an update of Weinbergian news and events for the summer months of 2016 - with a new publication, and a Weinberg conference!
In the single biggest piece of news in my own work, my thesis was submitted in June, and I passed my PhD viva a few days ago (with minor corrections). Expect a link of some sort to read the full finished thesis in a few weeks.
Weinberg Studies
Several events have occurred in the relatively-quiet field of 'Weinberg Studies'. Firstly, the German-language journal 'Die Tonkunst' featured in their April issue a series of papers from a 2012 Hamburg conference on 'Weinberg in the Brezhnev era'.
This excellent volume features six articles (with one in English), discussing Weinberg's place in Soviet music, Socialist Realism in the stagnation era, and further focuses on Weinberg's cello sonatas and Polish-language works. The contents runs as follows:
Hello folks - apologies for any lack of updates on this page, my thesis work has become extremely busy (see below). Here's some Weinberg-related news for the last few weeks.
Upcoming releases
Toccata Classics - Mieczysław Weinberg, Orchestral Music, Volume Two (Dmitry Vasilyev, Siberian Symphony Orchestra). Available from 4 December.
I'm tremendously looking forward to this release - featuring two premiere recordings, with Weinberg's last symphony, and an earlier symphonic work (recorded here in its premiere performance). The 22nd Symphony itself is fascinating - finished in the final few months of Weinberg's life, when he was bed-ridden with illness. It is dedicated to his wife, Olga Rakhalskaya, who approached the composer Kirill Umansky to orchestrate the work (Weinberg only managed to complete a piano short score, with a few instructions about orchestration). The Six Ballet Scenes paired on this disc is a fascinating work, containing some of the only surviving versions of several whole works that are now considered lost. Considering the success of the previous Toccata release of orchestral works, this CD is keenly anticipated.
Performances
The Detroit premiere of The Passenger has met with rave reviews - for a taste, see this interview with the conductor:
Conductor Steven Mercurio has tackled plenty of tough projects in his career, but Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s opera “The Passenger” posed a uniquely emotional challenge.
An opera about the Holocaust can do that.
Mercurio found that he couldn’t spend more than three hours at a time learning the score.
“Concentrating on life at Auschwitz was very fatiguing,” he says. “It was so disturbing that it weighed heavily on me, so I never worked on it at night because it would keep me up.”
While preparing it, Mercurio also was working on Verdi’s fire-and-brimstone laced “Requiem.”
“It was the only time I considered the ‘Requiem’ light,” Mercurio says. “It was like a sorbet after a heavy meal.”
The above video contains a concert and an excellent talk by Yuval Waldman, on Shostakovich and Weinberg's friendship. The event was organised by the YIVO foundation.
My own work
I am pleased to announce that my latest publication has been released - an article entitled 'Mieczysław Weinberg: Lines that have escaped destruction'.
The article is part of a volume released by the Council of Europe, based in Strasbourg, following an event in November 2013 titled 'Music in Concentration Camps'. The full title is:
Colloque 'Musique et camps de concentration', Amaury du Closel (ed.) (Strasbourg: Conseil de l'Europe, 2015).
It is initially released on a PDF-CD, in a handsome release:
As soon as I receive further information about how to acquire a copy, I'll be sure to post them on this page.
Other than that, my thesis goes well. One more chapter left to tackle - then it'll be on a home-stretch of editing and revising, heading towards the final submission! In an effort to promote more scholarly work on Weinberg, I've uploaded a select bibliography of sources on his life and music - see here. It is my hope that scholars and researchers can share vital texts, and so start a dialogue.
Here's a list of upcoming recordings, events, and other Weinberg-related news for December 2014.
Recordings
Chandos - Weinberg Chamber Symphonies No. 3 & 4
Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Thord Svedlund
Continuing their long association with Weinberg's music, the Chandos label are bringing out a new disc in collaboration with conductor Thord Svedlund. Like the last few discs in the series, this one will be released on a SACD high-quality disc (which will also play in standard CD players). This is a eagerly-anticipated album, if the previous discs are anything to go by. Coming January 2015 - see this link for further details.
Grand Piano - Weinberg, complete piano works
Allison Brewster Franzetti
Franzetti's four volume series of Weinberg's complete works for solo piano is to be brought together into this attractively packaged set, scheduled to be released in January 2015. The series represents premiere recordings of many of these works, and also provides refreshingly new interpretations on several pieces that have become over-familiar. More details here. (Perhaps a perfect partnering with the Quatuor Danel's boxset of Weinberg's complete String Quartets? A perfect present this festive season! - details here).
Events
Following on from my November post, which included details for the upcoming Chicago Lyric Opera production of Weinberg's The Passenger (see here) - the company has announced details for a festival themed around the opera and Weinberg's music. The series is called 'Memory and Reckoning' and full details can be found here.
Highlights of the series include various talks and discussions on The Passenger and Weinberg's life and music, as well as the premiere of a newly-commissioned opera The Property, by Wlad Marhulets, libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann. Described as a 'klezmer opera', The Property is based on a graphic novel by Rutu Modan, and explores similar themes to those opened by Weinberg in The Passenger. Further details of The Property can be found here.
The series also includes several concerts, of both orchestral and chamber music by Weinberg. Highlights include:
29 January 2015 - Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes, Trumpet Concerto
31 January 2015 - Symphony No. 18
12 February 2015 - Quartet No. 4
15 February 2015 - Piano Quintet
1 March 2015 - String Trio, Trio for flute, viola, and harp
Each of these concerts is listed at generously cheap ticket prices ($4 for a student ticket!?), so any Chicago-based Weinbergians are in for a real treat. And then, of course, there is The Passenger itself, alongside an exhibition at the Lyric Opera on Weinberg and the opera. Plenty to see!
Videos
Symphony No. 18 - Vladimir Lande and the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra.
Piano Sonata No. 5, Murray McLachlan
My own work
I have an article due out in the Winter issue of the Musical Times - 'Weinberg, Shostakovich, and the Influence of Anxiety'. This will be the first ever English-language article in a non-specialist publication dedicated to Weinberg's music. I'll be sure to post links and details on here as soon as it is available.
I am also grateful to have been invited to speak at the Royal Musical Association Student Research Conference in Bristol, January 2015, with a paper on psychoanalysis and socialist-realism. The same paper will be previewed in Manchester, on Thursday 11 December, Martin Harris centre, room G16, 16:15. Further details to follow.
