Abeliovich on Warsaw and Weinberg

Weinberg 100: 3

Lev Abeliovich (1912-1985) was born in Vilnius, and studied at the Warsaw Conservatoire from 1935, specialising in composition under Kazimierz Sikorski. As a result, he was one of Weinberg's classmates, and the two were close friends. Like Weinberg, Abeliovich enrolled at the Minsk Conservatoire during the war, though he remained there for the rest of his life (while Weinberg went on to Tashkent and then Moscow; the rest is history). Abeliovich was one of very few regular contacts with Weinberg's Polish childhood and education later in his later life, as his family have confirmed.

            Abeliovich recalled the following about their shared experiences in Warsaw:

Warsaw in the 1930s was a major music centre in Poland. The famous performers worked and performed there: the pianists (the Polish J. Hofmann, the German A. Schnabel), the famous Polish conductor G. Fitelberg, through whose interpretation I got acquainted with the works of Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Szymanowski, Prokofiev. The centre of musical culture was the Warsaw Conservatoire. There were outstanding performers and composers teaching there - A. Żuravlev, K. Sikorski, Z. Dżevetski, K. Szymanowski. Among the like-minded people who in many respects shared my destiny, were fellow students in the Warsaw and later Belorussian Conservatoires H. Vagner and E. Tyrmand. But the best, and perhaps the only close friend was Mieczysław Weinberg.

From: Svetlana Kovshik and Inessa Dvuzhil’naya, ‘Interv’yu, kotorogo ne bïlo’ [‘The interview that didn’t take place’], Mishpokha, 29; available online at: http://mishpoha.org/n29/29a24.php 

Żelazna 66 - Weinberg's childhood home in Warsaw

In my report from my trip to Warsaw, I included a photograph of Weinberg's childhood home, 66 Żelazna street (on the corner of Krochmalna). Since then, I have researched more of the history of the building, how it came to be still standing, and I also found several more photographs from various sources.

History
The tenement house was built in 1911, designed by one Henryk Spigelmann. Elements of an original 'art-nouveau' style can be seen in some of the tilework detail in the entranceway (shown in photos below). Before the war, the street was full of similar buildings. The street itself is in the 'Wola' district, the heart of the old Jewish district of the city. Szmuel Weinberg and his wife, Sarra, moved here some time before the First World War (some accounts claim 1914).

During the Second World War, the building became part of the Warsaw Ghetto. It was only a few metres away from the infamous 'bridge crossing' of the ghetto, which linked the large and small sections of the ghetto with a walkway over the busy Chłodna street. The buildings in this district were filled with the city's Jewish population from late 1939-1943. The Ghetto uprising ended with the burning of almost the entire district, block-by-block. Considering the violence that occurred in the larger Warsaw Uprising and the following destruction of almost the entirety of Warsaw by retreating Nazi forces, it is near-miraculous that the building survives at all.

Author Leopold Tyrmand described the building in his 1955 novel Zly:

He stopped at the corner of Żelazna and Krochamalna, he looked around, then looked up. The shabby wall of the house was strewn with iron balconies; it was wide and high here (...) In the door, behind the glass, hung a glass plaque, in blue letters: "Warsaw e Gastronomic Establishments - 'Słodycz' Bar - IV.

During his 1966 return trip to Poland as a foreign visitor to the Warsaw Autumn Festival (one of only two visits outside the USSR), Weinberg returned to his childhood home, shown in this photo:

Writing in 2002, Weinberg's friend composer Grigori Frid describes this picture:

In front of me is a black and white amateur photo. An old stone house with peeling paint in some places. The door is closed. In the dark aperture, stair steps are visible. It is visibly autumn: in the foreground - a stunted tree with sparse leaves. Before the entrance there is Metek in an unbuttoned raincoat, without a tie, looking slightly to the side. Next to him is an unknown man in a dark suit. On the back of the photo with is handwritten the inscription in Polish: 'Warszawa, Zelazna ul. 66', and in parentheses in Russian: 'the house where I was born'. 

Weinberg's experience during his 1966 visit was an upsetting one, in that it brought the realisation that extremely little of the city that he grew up in had actually survived the war.

In the present day, the building lies dilapidated, though listed in the city's list of monuments. It is marked 'unsafe', though there were apparently plans to modernise and convert the flats, with an intial proposed deadline of 2013.

The fate of this building remains unclear. Were it to be converted, however, I would suggest that it would be appropriate to install some kind of plaque to Weinberg's memory.

Here's several more photos from the building, inside and outside.

Żelazna in 1942.

Links for photographs: 

http://warszawskieunikaty.blox.pl/t/621496/Henryk-Spigelman.html

http://warszawawobiektywie.waw.pl/2008/10/zelazna-66/

https://chlodna20.wordpress.com/2007/01/30/zelazna-66/

http://warszawa.fotopolska.eu/1178367,foto.html

http://fotoblog.marchewka.waw.pl/?p=374

https://www.facebook.com/pg/fotografiawarszawy/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1218540218272568

Warsaw photos

I've just got back from another research trip, this time to Warsaw.

Of course, this is a city with strong links for Weinberg research, in that Weinberg lived the first nineteen years of his life here, before fleeing the Nazi invasion in 1939. See below for a few photos from my trip.

This is 66 Żelazna Street in Warsaw, the building where Weinberg lived 1919-1939. It's near the Wola district, an area that became part of the Warsaw Ghetto during the war. It's remarkable that it's still standing today, seeing as how much of Warsaw was flattened by the end of the war. It's looking in a sorry state, and is marked as an 'unsafe building'. I anticipate that it will be knocked down soon.

The flat where Grażyna Bacewicz lived, 35 Koszykowa Street.

The flat where Karol Szymanowski lived, 47 Nowy Świat (Joseph Conrad actually lived in the same building, several decades earlier).

During my research trip, I was lucky to meet with two composers, Paweł Szymański, and Paweł Mykietyn. Both were extremely kind in agreeing to meet, and generous with their time. Combine this with several library visits, and I have plenty of material to be getting on with for the 'Parallel Worlds' Weinberg book.

Perhaps the most exciting part of my trip was a rare opportunity to visit Lutosławski's home at 39 Śmiała Street. I was very honoured to meet with Marcin Bogusławski (Lutosławski's stepson) and his wife Gabriela Bogusławska. We had a long discussion, with Marcin reminiscing about his stepfather and his working methods. Here are a few photos from the house:

The plaque outside Lutosławski's house. 

Lutosławski's desk (and some of his books). 

The other end of Lutosławski's study. 

All-in-all, an extremely exciting trip. Watch this space for further photos/news.