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Mieczyslaw Weinberg - Complete Songs, Vol. 1 / Kalugina, Nikolayeva, Korostelyov
Toccata

Mieczyslaw Weinberg - Complete Songs, Vol. 1 / Kalugina, Nikolayeva, Korostelyov

$20.99

Details

Composer
WEINBERG, MIECZYS?AW
Artist
Dmitry, Svetlana: Mezzo Soprano, Korostelyov, Olga, Nikolaeva, Kalugina
Format
CD
Label
Toccata
Released
Oct 14, 2008
Catalog #
TOCC0078
UPC
5060113440785

About



WEINBERG Children’s Songs. Beyond the Border of Past Days. Rocking the Child • Olga Kalugina (sop); Svetlana Nikolayeve (mez); Dmitri Korostelyov (pn) • TOCCATA 0078 (60:12 Text and Translation)


Mieczyslaw Weinberg (to use what has become the preferred spelling of a composer whose music is hard to find because of the various ways he is listed—Vainberg, Vaynberg, Weinberg) was born in Poland in 1919. He spent most of his life in the Soviet Union, and was a close friend and colleague of Shostakovich, whose influence on Weinberg was very strong.Weinberg had fled the Nazis in 1939, escaping from a horror that saw his parents and sister murdered, settling first in Minsk then hiding again from Nazis in Uzbekistan. In 1943, Shostakovich invited him to move to Moscow, where he lived until his death in 1996. Weinberg wrote 26 symphonies (one fewer than Miaskovsky!), 17 string quartets, other chamber works, a few hundred songs, sonatas and concertos for various instruments, seven operas, much incidental music for film and the theater, and much else. His music is finally being discovered by an enterprising record industry that has run out of room for more Beethoven or Mahler! If it is unlikely that Weinberg will enter the central canon in a way that Shostakovich has, it does seem as if he might occupy an important place on the periphery, perhaps similar to that now occupied by Nielsen.


It is easy to point to the Shostakovich influences on his music; one hears it in many of the songs that make up these three cycles (particularly Rocking the Child ). But he is not a carbon copy of Shostakovich, and certainly not a “poor man’s Shostakovich.” Weinberg has his own musical face, and the more of his music one hears, the more familiar it becomes. The Shostakovich relationship is handy as a tool for placing Weinberg, stylistically, to someone unfamiliar with his music. If you respond to the music of Shostakovich, you are very likely to find Weinberg attractive.


But there is a touch more restraint and straight-forward lyricism in Weinberg; he doesn’t always show the anguish, the pain that one hears in Shostakovich’s scores, nor does he demonstrate quite the same degree of sarcastic wit. Not that those qualities are not there (and there are some works, such as the Requiem, that sear with their pain), but they are perhaps just a bit less extreme in Weinberg. The Jewish influence on Weinberg’s music is strong—and although Shostakovich was influenced by klezmer and other Jewish musical traditions (just listen to the Piano Trio), it is a more integral and consistent part of Weinberg’s art, perhaps stemming in part from his roots as a pianist and conductor at a Warsaw Jewish theater. It is particularly present in the Children’s Songs and Rocking the Child , more subtle in Beyond the Border of Past Days.


The Children’s Songs, op. 13, are set to poems by Itzhol Lejb Perez; Beyond the Border of Past Days sets poems by Alexander Blok (Shostakovich’s Blok songs are among his finest); and Rocking the Child to poems of Gabriela Mistral. The Perez and Mistral poems are translated into Russian and set in that language. Thanks to Toccata Classics for providing Cyrillic and English texts (no transliteration, but that seems only a minor problem). Excellent notes by David Fanning round out the high production values.


The two singers are satisfying. Children’s Songs and Rocking the Child are for soprano, Beyond the Border of Past Days for mezzo. Both singers have a bit of what we like to call that Slavic edge, but it is not too severe. Both are masterful at shaping the music, and they and pianist Dmitri Korostelyov do not seem to be sight-reading the material at all. One feels that they are deeply into the music. Natural and well-balanced sound completes the picture. This disc is a major addition to the catalogue, introducing us to some deeply moving music.


FANFARE: Henry Fogel

Tracklist 27 tracks

  1. 1 I. Introduction 01:13
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Introduction
    Duration
    01:13
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  2. 2 II. The Bread Roll 00:49
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. The Bread Roll
    Duration
    00:49
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  3. 3 III. Cradle Song 02:40
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Cradle Song
    Duration
    02:40
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  4. 4 IV. The Hunter 01:37
    Track
    4
    Title
    IV. The Hunter
    Duration
    01:37
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  5. 5 V. On the Green Mountainside 01:20
    Track
    5
    Title
    V. On the Green Mountainside
    Duration
    01:20
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  6. 6 VI. Grief, "The Orphan's Letter" 05:56
    Track
    6
    Title
    VI. Grief, "The Orphan's Letter"
    Duration
    05:56
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  7. 7 No. 1. Dedication 02:29
    Track
    7
    Title
    No. 1. Dedication
    Duration
    02:29
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  8. 8 No. 2. War burns indomitably 01:29
    Track
    8
    Title
    No. 2. War burns indomitably
    Duration
    01:29
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  9. 9 No. 3. What for? 02:29
    Track
    9
    Title
    No. 3. What for?
    Duration
    02:29
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  10. 10 No. 4. Much has fallen silent 01:42
    Track
    10
    Title
    No. 4. Much has fallen silent
    Duration
    01:42
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  11. 11 No. 5. The poor ignoramuses laughed 02:21
    Track
    11
    Title
    No. 5. The poor ignoramuses laughed
    Duration
    02:21
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  12. 12 No. 6. A Spring Evening 02:06
    Track
    12
    Title
    No. 6. A Spring Evening
    Duration
    02:06
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  13. 13 No. 7. In the Twilight 01:11
    Track
    13
    Title
    No. 7. In the Twilight
    Duration
    01:11
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  14. 14 No. 8. Someone was sighing at the grave 03:21
    Track
    14
    Title
    No. 8. Someone was sighing at the grave
    Duration
    03:21
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  15. 15 No. 9. A Voice 01:45
    Track
    15
    Title
    No. 9. A Voice
    Duration
    01:45
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  16. 16 No. 10. Memory 03:10
    Track
    16
    Title
    No. 10. Memory
    Duration
    03:10
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  17. 17 No. 1. The child was left alone 02:36
    Track
    17
    Title
    No. 1. The child was left alone
    Duration
    02:36
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  18. 18 No. 2. And I am not alone 01:50
    Track
    18
    Title
    No. 2. And I am not alone
    Duration
    01:50
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  19. 19 No. 3. Little feet, little hands 02:50
    Track
    19
    Title
    No. 3. Little feet, little hands
    Duration
    02:50
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  20. 20 No. 4. Rocking the cradle 01:54
    Track
    20
    Title
    No. 4. Rocking the cradle
    Duration
    01:54
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  21. 21 No. 5. Night 01:46
    Track
    21
    Title
    No. 5. Night
    Duration
    01:46
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  22. 22 No. 6. A sorrowful mother 01:20
    Track
    22
    Title
    No. 6. A sorrowful mother
    Duration
    01:20
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  23. 23 No. 7. The dew 02:09
    Track
    23
    Title
    No. 7. The dew
    Duration
    02:09
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  24. 24 No. 8. Meekness 01:06
    Track
    24
    Title
    No. 8. Meekness
    Duration
    01:06
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  25. 25 No. 9. Fear 04:00
    Track
    25
    Title
    No. 9. Fear
    Duration
    04:00
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  26. 26 No. 10. A discovery 02:02
    Track
    26
    Title
    No. 10. A discovery
    Duration
    02:02
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg
  27. 27 No. 11. My song 02:59
    Track
    27
    Title
    No. 11. My song
    Duration
    02:59
    Composer
    Mieczysław Weinberg