Weinberg - what is all the fuss about ?

[Barbirollians]

Everywhere there seem to be reviews of recordings of works by the late Mieczyslaw Weinberg and he is flavour of the month having apparently been rather neglected for the twenty years before that .

Is the fuss worth it ? I am quite taken by his Concertino for violin and strings which was apparently only published in 2007 , recorded on a Naxos CD coupled with the Arensky and Conus Concertos . I digress to say that the Arensky is a complete delight and the Conus a terrible bore to my ears .

Lots of Weinberg symphonies seem to be about - anyone recommend anywhere to start ?

[Roehre]

Lots of Weinberg symphonies seem to be about - anyone recommend anywhere to start ?

Just start with one of the Naxos recordings, the CD with his cello- and violin concertos is a good starter IMO.

[Pabmusic]

I had come across him as the very Jewish Moishei Vainberg. He seems to be Mieczysław Weinberg now. Anyone know more?

[richardfinegold]

I had come across him as the very Jewish Moishei Vainberg. He seems to be Mieczysław Weinberg now. Anyone know more?

Both spellings have been accepted, which leads to immense confusion in the recording catalogs. I have recordings of his music filed under both Vainberg and Weinberg and recently merged them into one. It isn't clear if the change reflects his shifting of nationalities from his native Poland to the U.S.S.R., or if he wanted to demphasize his Jewishness to stay clear of the Gulag during stalin's Anti-Semetic purges. Shostakovich had to use his influence to get him freed from the Gulag on at least one occassion.

[Barbirollians]

Thanks Roehre - anyone with a view on where to start from in relation to his symphonies ? The Naxos sleevenote suggests he chose to change his name in the 1980s

[richardfinegold]

Thanks Roehre - anyone with a view on where to start from in relation to his symphonies ? The Naxos sleevenote suggests he chose to change his name in the 1980s

I don't know if I can recommend where to start with the Symphonies, but his cello Concerto might be a good portal into his music.

[Byas'd Opinion]

As far as his name goes, Wikipedia says:

In the Polish language (i.e. prior to his move to the USSR), his name was spelled as 'Mieczysław Wajnberg'... In the world of Yiddish theater of antebellum Warsaw he was known as Moishe Weinberg... Among close friends he would also go by his Polish diminutive 'Mietek'. Re-transliteration of his surname from Cyrillic (Вайнберг) back into the Latin alphabet produced a variety of spellings, including 'Weinberg', 'Vainberg', and 'Vaynberg'.

As far as his music goes, the only piece by him I'm familiar with is the Violin Concerto, which is very good. There's a recording of it on Naxos by Ilya Grubert and the Russian Philharmonic, coupled with the pleasant but slightly long-winded concerto by Myaskovsky (another composer whose name get spelled in different ways).

[Barbirollians]

I found myself ordering that 10CD Brilliant classics Rostropovich set which includes Weinberg's cello concerto .

The Naxos Lande disc has had good reviews .

[Frances_iom]

can't say any thing re symphonies but quite a few of his string quartets are on CD + are quite enjoyable (the highest number in my collection is #18 but not sure how many he actually wrote)

[Suffolkcoastal]

http://home.wanadoo.nl/ovar/vainberg.htm

The above website seems to his list all his works by opus numbers and current recordings and seems a good place to start searching for recordings. I've got a couple of the symphonies in non-commercial recordings to. With the symphonies, the 4 & 5th are good places to start and quite impressive.

[Alf-Prufrock]

http://home.wanadoo.nl/ovar/vainberg.htm

The above website seems to his list all his works by opus numbers and current recordings and seems a good place to start searching for recordings. I've got a couple of the symphonies in non-commercial recordings to. With the symphonies, the 4 & 5th are good places to start and quite impressive.

I have looked at this website and seen the large number of recordings on the Olympia label. On checking the recommendations, I find only used discs for sale, often at inflated prices (£20, £40 or even more). Is this label entirely defunct? Or can one find the performances they issued available elsewhere now? Thanks for any input. I feel I might start on a Weinberg spree!

[PJPJ]

http://home.wanadoo.nl/ovar/vainberg.htm

The above website seems to his list all his works by opus numbers and current recordings and seems a good place to start searching for recordings. I've got a couple of the symphonies in non-commercial recordings to. With the symphonies, the 4 & 5th are good places to start and quite impressive.

I found No 6's intensity very rewarding. Weinberg was commemorated at the Bregenz Festival recently and I managed to catch some of the broadcasts. Those live performances have been released on the NEOS label some as SACD. I got more from the opera "The Passenger" than The Independent's reviewer:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/reviews/weinberg-the-passenger-english-national-opera-2357903.html

In addition to NEOS, there's a steady stream from Naxos (I have that 6th symphony as well) and Chandos whose recordings of the concertos are really rather splendid.

[richardfinegold]

I have looked at this website and seen the large number of recordings on the Olympia label. On checking the recommendations, I find only used discs for sale, often at inflated prices (£20, £40 or even more). Is this label entirely defunct? Or can one find the performances they issued available elsewhere now? Thanks for any input. I feel I might start on a Weinberg spree!

I've been listening to several of my Olympia Weinberg discs that have been gathering dust on my shelves for years over the past few days. I must say it is tough sledding. Although there are some works by this composer that fall easier on the ears, many of them sound like Shostakovich at his worst, without the redeeming irony and sarcasm. I really want to try to understand this composer and have ordered one of the Danel Quartet recordings and one of the the new Naxos Symphony releases, hoping that perhaps there will be more sympathetic interpretations than in years past.