Recently I’ve had the absolute pleasure of discovering not only a piece of music that is new to me, but also a composer I never knew before. After sight reading Weinberg’s String Trio, op. 48 (1950), relishing the forte repeated downbows and teetering on melodies with 5 or 6 leger lines, I was blown away. “Who was this guy?,” I asked. The cellist said to me with a smile, “aren’t you a musicologist?” JZ, this post is for you :)
Mieczyslaw Weinberg or Moishei Vainberg (1919-1996) was born in Poland but lived most of his life in Moscow. We noted the affinity with Shostakovich and so has everyone else, it seems: he is widely recognized as a member of a Russian triumvirate of composers along with Prokofiev and Shostakovich. In fact, Shostakovich (13 years his senior) believed in Weinberg’s great musical talent and supported him as a mentor and close friend. Weinberg was a pianist and violinist; he composed 22 symphonies, 7 operas, and numerous works of chamber music, championed by the likes of Kogan, Gilels, and Rostropovich.
Gideon Klein, Weinberg’s exact contemporary and fellow Jew, also composed a String Trio (1944) just weeks before he perished at a concentration camp. Weinberg lost most of his family in the Holocaust. What a privilege it is for us to discover and to play this piece—in Berlin, of all places.
No comments:
Post a Comment