Upcoming release, featuring Weinberg's sonata for Double Bass

An exciting new release will be available in a few weeks. Karol Kowal and Katarzyna Brochochka feature on a new disc, featuring Brochochka's own compositions - and Weinberg's sonata for double-bass solo, op. 108.

Here's an email that I received from Kowal:

Dear Mr. Elphick,

I am writing to you to let you know about upcoming release of new CD with music by Mieczyslaw Weinberg. I am double bass player from Poland and my debut album featuring Weinberg's Double Bass Sonata op. 108 will be available soon. I hope you will find it interesting. As far as I know, there are only three recordings of this composition until now. I hope you will enjoy my interpretation of this piece, as well as other works included on the CD, which are world premiere recordings of bass music
by Katarzyna Brochocka.
The international distributor of this CD is Naxos, and the dates of the release are as follows:
Germany, June 26, 2015
http://naxosdirekt.de/items/werke-f%C3%BCr-kontrabass-316619
UK, June 29, 2015
http://www.mdt.co.uk/brochocka-weinberg-double-bass-works-kowal-katarzyna-brochocka-cd-accord.html
USA, Japan etc. July 10, 2015
http://www.amazon.com/Brochocka-Weinberg-Double-Bass-Works/dp/B00XUJM5FG
Booklet of this album contains the liner notes written by Peter Askim. Texts are in Polish and English.

Best regards,
Karol Kowal

Needless to say, I look forward to hearing this new recording of Weinberg's work.

Biographies of Weinberg's parents

The following biographies are taken from the six-volume book 'Leksikon fun Yidishn Teater', edited by Zalmen Zylbercweig, published between 1931 and 1969. There is an online project to translate the whole work into English, which can be found at the following website. 

The biographies make for fascinating reading, though they should be read with the following warning. Zylbercweig's book is well-known for its inaccuracies, reflecting the difficult circumstances with which it was written. The Yivo Encyclopedia page on Zylbercweig has the following caveat about the book: 

Zylbercweig’s encyclopedia, a monument to his extraordinary dedication, reflects both his scholarly limitations and the difficult conditions of his work. The volumes have been insufficiently edited and contain errors and imprecise data. Even more problematic is the matter of sources. Although he provides bibliographies of varying degrees of accuracy at the end of each article, much of Zylbercweig’s information is based on his subjects’ personal communications, often about their own careers. The longer articles typically consist of lengthy citations from insufficiently identified sources that can be traced, if at all, only with great effort. However, the Leksikon is also a vast source of social and cultural documentation.

Michael C. Steinlauf, writting for the Yivo Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe - link. 

Bearing that in mind, I here reproduce both biographies in their English translation, with a few of my own notes afterwards.

International Mieczysław Weinberg Society founded

An exciting new organisation has been created, with Irina Shostakovich as honorary president: the International Mieczysław Weinberg Society. The violinist Linus Roth, well-known to Weinberg enthusiasts for his excellent recordings, has played a large role in founding the group. Their website can be found here. They list the following mission statement:

The International Weinberg Society was founded to promote the music of Mieczysław Weinberg, to bring attention to his works, to encourage musicians to perform his music and make him known to a wider audience.

Its mission is to organise concerts, lectures, exhibitions and multidisciplinary events which are focused on Weinberg´s music and life, his close connection to Dimitri Shostakovich and his importance to classical music in the 20th century.

One of the Society´s objectifs is to contribute to the financing of recordings of his music, as well as the publication and translation of articles and books about his life.

This new organisation appears to be one to watch - it has the approval of numerous Weinberg supporters, including Tommy Persson, Thomas Sanderling, David Pountney, PeerMusic, Sikorski, The International Shostakovich Society, and many more. Any organisation dedicated to furthering recordings and publications on Weinberg's life and works has my full support and approval. 

Shmuel Weinberg's recordings

Shmuel Weinberg (1882-1943) was born in Chișinău, Moldova. He taught himself to play violin from the age of 7, and joined a touring theatre group in 1899, serving as violinist, conductor, and chorus master. The group toured round Eastern Europe, including an extended residency in Vilna. In 1914, Shmuel took up an invitation to join a troupe in Lodz, and two years later joined the Warsaw Jewish Theater. With this company, Shmuel conducted the orchestra for plays, evenings of music hall songs, and comedy revues. Shmuel wrote the music for several of the theatre's productions.

The Orchestra was of a good standard and focused mainly on incidental music, song accompaniments, and settings of Yiddish folk songs. 

Weinberg String Quartet No. 16, Op. 130 - Programme Note

Here's the programme note that I provided for the Quatuor Danel's concert at the Manchester Grammar School, 27/02/15:

Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996)

Quartet No. 16, Op. 130

I. Allegro

II. Allegro

III. Lento

IV. Moderato

The last time Weinberg saw his younger sister, Ester, she was limping into the distance, heading back to their parents’ house. In September 1939, the two siblings had fled from the Nazi invasion of Warsaw, heading east towards the USSR. Ester soon turned back because her shoes hurt her feet. Weinberg continued alone, and went on to reach the safety of the USSR. His parents and sister were later murdered in the holocaust.

            When Weinberg came to write his Sixteenth Quartet in 1981, he dedicated it to the memory of his sister, who would have turned sixty that year. It features a marked return to his Jewish heritage, as well as a new renewed interest in Bartók. The first movement opens with a striking passage for first violin and the lower voices give a chorale-like accompaniment that recurs throughout. The viola gives the second theme, with emphasised minor inflections. A process of thematic ‘darkening’ threatens to disintegrate the development section, an agitated feeling that lingers into the recapitulation. Even towards the movement’s close, ‘darkened’ versions of both themes provide a fractured sense of unease.

            A contorted scherzo and trio is presented in the second movement, with a character reminiscent of Bartók’s late quartets. The scherzo consists almost entirely of Weinberg’s signature musical motif, alternating fourths, with staggered entries evoking a clockwork mechanism. Towards the scherzo’s close, a contrasting lyrical theme with Lombard rhythms is given in the first violin. The trio section that follows is comparatively restrained and nostalgic. A ghost-like quality is sustained by an unusually wispy articulation - sul tasto, senza vibrato. The scherzo repeat interrupts this moment of tranquility, reintroducing the clock-like ticking from the movement’s opening.

            Weinberg’s mastery for solo string writing is deployed to full effect in the third movement. The first violin opens with a mournful singing line. The cello enters in a fugato-like texture, before the remaining two parts join also. A brief climax is reached before the procedure is repeated, with the first violin and cello starting once more. The viola and second violin enter in a similar manner, though with no climactic trajectory the second time round. A sombre sense of moral outrage is suggested during the movement, only to ebb away towards its close.

            The finale provides an uneven conclusion and brings Jewish thematic elements to the centre of attention. It opens with a sprightly waltz, together with an ‘Oom-pah-pah’ accompaniment. The waltz theme reaches a screaming climax, before the cello harks back to the second movement’s Lombard rhythm. The waltz and Lombard themes are juxtaposed together, before the music subsides to leave just the first violin – harking back to the beginning of the piece. A series of slow alternating chords brings the work to a gentle yet uneasy close.  

             

Daniel Elphick

The performance was a great success - the programme included Mendelssohn's Sixth Quartet (also dedicated to the memory of his sister) - and Schubert's Death and the Maiden - a rather nifty bit of programming!