Mieczysław Weinberg - Piano Trio; Violin Sonatina; Double Bass Sonata ((Elisaveta Blumina; etc.)

Information

Composer: Mieczysław Weinberg

• Trio for Violin, Violoncello & Piano, Op. 24
• Sonatina for Violin & Piano, Op. 46
• Sonata for Double Bass solo, Op. 108

Elisaveta Blumina, piano

Kolja Blacher, violin

Johannes Moser, cello

Erez Ofer, violin

Nabil Shehata, double bass

Date: 2014

Label: CPO

-----------------------------------------------------------

Review

Alongside the terrific symphonic cycles being issued by Naxos and Chandos, Weinberg's chamber music discography has been growing apace, thanks primarily to the sterling efforts of Toccata Classics, NEOS and especially CPO. If nothing else, all of these recordings have succeeded in underlining the sheer irrationality of this highly original composer's previous neglect.

 

Weinberg's superb Piano Quintet arguably takes pride of place in his chamber corpus, a state of affairs reflected in the current availability on CD of six different recordings. The three works on this latest release from CPO do not perhaps quite reach the same heights of imagination, but each is valuable in its own right. Here Weinberg is notably less redolent of Shostakovich – the latter's close friendship tending "unconsciously [to] inspire [my] compositional activity" – and more uniquely himself, so to speak.

 

The three-movement work Weinberg modestly labelled 'sonatina' is more substantial than this title suggests, although it is fairly light in character, bubbling with gentle nostalgia in a rather un-Polish way. The second movement is not at all "very tragic", as the notes state. The score is sensitively interpreted by Erez Ofer and Elisaveta Blumina.

 

Blumina returns for the Piano Trio, Ofer now replaced by Kolja Blacher, the pair joined by German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser, who recorded Weinberg's Cello Sonata no.2 for Hänssler back in 2006. The Trio is a deeper, more ambiguous work, and no wonder - to say that it was written at a 'difficult time' for the composer would be crass: his parents and sister had been murdered in a concentration camp, but he did not yet know. The tragic hope of the final movement is palpable, beautifully expressed for posterity by the three soloists.

 

Finally, Nabil Shehata performs with distinction the twenty-minute Sonata for double bass. An important work for soloists without doubt, it also works well for audiences, its six short movements offering an easy-going array of colourful, melodic evocations. Though basically reflective, the work undeniably shares some of the optimism of the Cello Sonata, written in the wake of the 'Khrushchev Thaw' that had taken place after Stalin's death and which led to Weinberg's release from prison and a looming death sentence.

 

Sound quality is pretty good, though up close enough to roughen the edges a little in places, especially in the Piano Trio. The accompanying booklet is standard CPO issue – voluminous notes, generally well written and informative, with a non-native translation into English that is reasonable, if not always idiomatic.

 

— Byzantion

-----------------------------------------------------------

Mieczysław Weinberg (8 December 1919 – 26 February 1996) was a Polish-born Soviet and Russian composer and pianist. Born in Warsaw to a family connected with Yiddish theatre, he fled Poland in 1939 following the German invasion and settled in the Soviet Union, where he gained the support of Dmitri Shostakovich. Weinberg became a prolific and respected composer, particularly during the 1960s, when his concert and film music achieved considerable recognition. His later years were marked by declining health and reduced official support. International appreciation of his music grew significantly in the 1990s.

***

Elisaveta Blumina (born 13 July 1976 in Leningrad, Soviet Union) is a German pianist and conductor. Raised in a musical family, she studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory before continuing her piano education in Hamburg with Evgeni Koroliov and other distinguished musicians. Blumina has performed with leading orchestras and at prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall and the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie. With approximately 30 albums to her credit, she is recognized for championing the music of Mieczysław Weinberg and Nikolai Kapustin. She is also a dedicated educator, chamber musician and visual artist.

-----------------------------------------------------------