Weinberg's "Kaddish"

On the New Yorker website, a strong recommendation for the City of Birmingham Symphony's new recording of Mieczysław Weinberg's Symphonies No. 2 and 21. The latter, dedicated to victims of the Warsaw Ghetto, stands revealed as one of Weinberg's greatest works — fully the equal of the later symphonies of his longtime friend and mentor Shostakovich.

The Weinberg discography has expanded greatly since I wrote about The Passenger in 2011. Of the twenty-two symphonies — the last was unfinished at his death — only three have yet to make it to disc: the Ninth, the Eleventh, and the Fifteenth. David Fanning, whose full-length Weinberg biography, co-written with Michelle Assay, is eagerly awaited, tells me that the Ninth looks particularly promising based on his study of the score, although the expense of presenting it would be considerable, since no performance materials exist.  Having been through the others — recordings can be found on Neos, Naxos, Chandos, Toccata Classics, and Melodiya — I especially recommend Nos. 6, 12, 13, and 20, though every one of these works is worth hearing. Another essential disc is Melodiya's compendium of the concertos for violin, cello, and flute (No. 1), with Leonid Kogan, Mstislav Rostropovich, Alexander Korneyev, and the USSR State Symphony Orchestra led by Gennady Rozhdestvensky. For Chandos, Urban Claesson gives a gorgeous performance of the 1970 Clarinet Concerto, with Thord Svedlund conducting the Gothenburg Symphony.

Dozens of other Weinberg releases have arrived in recent years. Forces from the Nationaltheater Mannheim have delivered an urgent account of Weinberg's final opera, The Idiot, for SWR. Unofficial recordings of The Portrait and Lady Magnesia are in circulation, though I have not heard them. The Quatuor Danel's traversal of the complete quartets for cpo remains an exceptional feat; the Silesian Quartet is challenging it with a new series on the Accord label. I recommend starting with the Quartets Nos. 4-6. Gidon Kremer has made several superb Weinberg recordings for ECM, as I noted in a 2017 column. Linus Roth and José Gallardo essayed the complete violin-and-piano works for Challenge Classics; Allison Brewster Franzetti has four discs of the piano music on Grand Piano; and Josef Feigelson has surveyed the cello music for Naxos.