December update

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.

Soviet-era Weinberg scores

Weinberg's music was widely performed during his lifetime, largely inside in the Soviet Union. Even more of it was published - below are some scans from three scores in my possession, all dating from the Soviet era. I'm particularly keen to hear from anyone who owns any other Soviet Weinberg scores.

First Symphony, Op. 10, (Moscow: Soviet Kompozitor, 1972)

Weinberg First Symphony, cover.

November Update

Here is a run-down of the latest news in Weinberg-related circles, including concerts, releases, and other paraphernalia.

Upcoming Concerts
First of all, there are two upcoming productions of Weinberg's Opera The Passenger in the United States.

The first is presented by the Lyric Opera of Chicago, taking place February 24 -March 15, 2015. This is a presentation of the David Pountney production, first seen at the Bregenz Festival in 2010. The same production received its US premiere in January of this year, by Houston Grand Opera, before appearing at the Park Avenue Armory as part of the Lincoln  Festival in July.

The Lyric Opera of Chicago will be featuring an exhibition on Weinberg's life and The Passenger, including photographs and written description, as well as documenting the development of Pountney's production. They have also uploaded the following video of a seminar and panel discussion on Weinberg's opera:


For further information and ticket details, follow this link to the Lyric Opera's page for The Passenger: link.

Weinberg Memorabilia

A good friend of mine, based in Moscow, found some old programmes of Weinberg concerts in the drawers of his mother's house. He very kindly agreed to send scans to me, and I was delighted with the results.

Here are two images, from a programme of the advance previews before the premiere of Weinberg's last opera The Idiot.

Upcoming Performance in London (programme notes)

In my previous post, I included the following details about an upcoming Weinberg performance in the UK:

7:30, 1st November, London

The London Repertoire Orchestra, led by David Cutts, give the UK premiere of Weinberg's second Flute Concerto, with Liz Cutts as soloist. The programme also includes Beethoven's Coriolan Overture and Eighth Symphony. An extremely rare opportunity to hear this treasure from Weinberg's later works. (I've been closely involved with preparations for this concert, including providing a programme note - which I shall post on this blog nearer to the concert- and also providing a piano-reduction of the concerto for rehearsal purposes).

More details here and here