The Art-Music, Literature and Linguistics Forum

First recordings:

Sonata for Two Violins
http://www.musiques-regenerees.fr/Vainberg/Disques/CPO777457.html

Suite for Orchestra (1950)
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.573565

Despite a general enthusiasm, Weinberg's output is so large, and my other interests so wide, I feel constrained to limit myself to only his most compelling creations.

Who knows, - these may well be among them.  But I'll wait for "reports" before committing, - a policy advancing age is rendering more and more inflexible.

Thanks for informing us once again, Robert. I already bought the CPO CD set (actually it's just on a pile of new CDs lying next to my computer as I am writing these lines) but I didn't know about the new Naxos disc so far. I had already wondered when the Naxos series would continue. Of course we already know his Symphony No. 17 (since Vladimir Lande's recording of No. 18 was pretty good in my view, it will be interesting to hear him conducting No. 17 as well), but the Suite is completely new and I am much looking forward to it.

As for Greg's comments on Weinberg's output, of course his catalogue of works is vast, especially since he almost exclusively focused on the "large" genres. However in my view he is a composer of truly great stature, and actually I want to hear anything by him I can get. In his early works (that is, in some of the piano and chamber music up to about Op. 20) you still hear him trying out things which may not always fully succeed. However, once he found his voice he produced music of high quality in an enormous pace and rate. Considering the list of his 22 symphonies plus four chamber symphonies plus two sinfoniettas (that is, besides the four symphonies I do not know yet since they have not been recorded so far) I wouldn't want to miss a single work among them. His very last works from the 1990s (Chamber Symphonies Nos. 3&4, Symphonies Nos. 21&22) certainly belong to the most fascinating music I know from these years.

Yes, I agree with Holger, Weinberg is like Shostakovich for me, I like his darker, deeper side and I like his lighter side and I like his more personal chamber music, in fact I just want to get to know him more in whatever vein!! So I will buy these regardless and I can't imagine I will be disappointed.

  Anyone know if the Suite has an Opus number? I can't obviously associate it with the lists of his works.

  Robert

No opus number.....as far as I know.

So not Op. 26?

Robert

I didn't immediately realize the CPO issue includes all Weinberg's remaining Sonatas for Violin & Piano (1,2,3,&6) not contained in Vol.1 of their traversal, which substantially alters the equation for me given how impressed I was with that predecessor.  Apparently not available from a US source yet, however.

Well......it could be, I suppose, but that is referred to as a "Suite for small orchestra" and the dates given are 1939-45 for that work's composition. However Naxos states that the work was written in 1950, published in 1951 but never performed, which might lead one to hypothesise that Weinberg did not allocate the work an opus number as a work which he was happy to acknowledge.

OK, I find it listed here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Mieczyslaw_Weinberg
but not in Onno's list:
http://home.online.nl/ovar/vainberg.htm

Robert