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Weinberg

Weinberg

Les Métamorphoses

Cat No:

EPRC 0045

Release date:

3/3/22

Barcode:

0608917723229

Few composers can be said to be ‘citizens of nowhere’ and yet, exactly this moniker is appropriate for Mieczysław Weinberg. Research on Weinberg’s music is very much ongoing, and several previously unknown works have been discovered in recent years. Perhaps most surprising of these is the Cello Concertino opus 43bis, performed by soloist Pieter Wispelwey. The Fantasy for cello and orchestra op. 53 was written a few years later, during one of the darkest periods of Weinberg’s life. The Chamber Symphony no.4 is Weinberg’s final completed work. He wrote it in April-May of 1992, by which time he was housebound with the illness that would ultimately claim his life. The work is scored for string orchestra with an obligato clarinet, performed here by Jean-Michel Charlier.


Weinberg was born and raised in Poland to a Jewish family, but for complex reasons spent the majority of his life in Soviet Russia. He had a prolific output (over 150 opus-numbered works, and more besides), but never reached international fame during his lifetime. Since his death in 1996, that has all changed. His powerful music speaks to generations, made all the more powerful by his emotive biography. Weinberg was born in December 1919; his father was a violinist and conductor for several Jewish theatres in Warsaw, and his mother was an actor and singer. After beginning piano, Weinberg showed great talent and began joining his father in the orchestra pit from the age of 11. He studied at the Warsaw conservatoire, and was even offered a scholarship to study in America.

Fate intervened, in the form of the Second World War. Weinberg fled Warsaw and headed east, leaving his parents and sister behind (he would never see them again; they were murdered in the Holocaust). He was granted entry to the Soviet Union, and briefly studied in Minsk, before fleeing the Nazi advance again in 1941. At this point, he fled to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, from where he eventually settled in Moscow, at Shostakovich’s personal invitation. The two composers quickly became firm colleagues and friends, and they regularly began to show each other their works in progress. He had still not escaped the spectre of anti-Semitism, however, and he was imprisoned for several months in 1953 on trumped-up charges. During the 1960s, Weinberg reached the height of his fame, as his music was performed by the likes of David Oistrakh, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Kirill Kondrashin. Despite such success, his music was always marked by the trauma of the loss and tragedy that he had endured. Since his death in obscurity, a generation of performers has brought Weinberg’s music to contemporary audiences: his blend of tuneful modernism speaks to millions around the world.

Conductor | Raphaël Feye
Cello | Pieter Wispelwey
Clarinet | Jean-Michel Charlier
Artistic Director | Camille Feye

The album will also be available as immersive music on Apple Music, Tidal and Amazon!

The beautiful artwork was made in collaboration with photographer Peter De Bruyne and fits the atmosphere of Weinberg's music perfectly.

Tracklist

1. Cello Concertino, Op. 43bis: I. Adagio (04:21)
2. Cello Concertino, Op. 43bis: II. Moderato espressivo (03:03)
3. Cello Concertino, Op. 43bis: III. Allegro vivace (03:16)
4. Cello Concertino, Op. 43bis: IV. Adagio (05:54)
5. Fantasy for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 52: Adagio - Andantino leggiero - Allegro con fuoco - Andantino leggiero - Adagio (17:40)
6. Chamber Symphony No. 4 Op. 153: I. Lento (08:18)
7. Chamber Symphony No. 4 Op. 153: II. Allegro molto-Moderato (07:06)
8. Chamber Symphony No. 4 Op. 153: III. Adagio (10:02)
9. Chamber Symphony No. 4 Op. 153: IV. Andantino (08:41)

Mieczysław Weinberg
Reviews

FONO Forum

„Weinberg lets them tell, complain, remember, invoke, report, affirm. The music ́s „speaking“ gesture is, in a way, hugged by Peter Wispelwey as a fabulous solo cellist who also adds a touching emotionality which in no moment slips away into sentimentality or agitation.“

BBC Music Magazine

"Pieter Wispelwey inflects the solo cello part with tremendous artistry, sculpting Weinberg's melodic lines with a wonderful sence of colour and imagination yet without succumbing to indulgent emotion even int he most heart-rending passages. The Belgian ensemble Les Métamorphoses under the direction of Raphaël Feye are admirably responsive partners [...] A word of praise too for the recording which captures these fine performances in stunningly vivid sound."

HighresAudio

„Inspired by the works of Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Sir Roger Norrington, the Belgian orchestra Les Métamorphoses has set itself the task of creating a new richness of sound by combining modern and old instruments.“

The Guardian

"Wispelwey plays with supple energy, keeping emotion in check in the lament at start and finish, the double-stopped chords clean and precise, the pizzicato warm and fluid."

Klassik heute

„Compared to Wallfsh (cpo), Wispelwes ́s solo parts are much more eloquent and colorful, partly with the inclusion of certain freedoms (occasional rubato, tasteful portamenti, smaller decorations and nuances on the articulation). The orchestra also contributes to these lively, spirited interpretations.“

Planet Hugill

"This is a terrific disc, providing a tantalising picture of a composer about whom we still know so little. How this music and his life fits together, how he thought of the music. But the performances are vividly present and full of warmth and intensity. There is a vein of melancholy underlying even the most beautiful moments and all three works warrant repeated listening."

Kultur Extra

„An album that is conspicuous is every way. [...] A chamber orchestra association brilliantly familiar with historical performance practice.“

Slipped Disc

"Possibly the best Weinberg ever heard on record."

Scherzo

"En la ya abundante discografía de Weinberg, esta edición merece un lugar destacado."

Pizzicato

„With the ensemble Les Metamorphoses, Pieter Wispelwey and Raphael Feye, also a cellist but here active as a conductor, give these works by Weinberg a primarily restrained elegiac character, in which only sporadically cheerful dance-like sections blossom. This fits in with Weinberg’s life situation and the resulting compositions. The performers savor these muted colors of the music and also the more lively passages without exaggerating into melancholy or, on the other hand, excessive exaltation ...the participants create a musically successful picture of these works from Weinberg’s pen.“

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