Mieczysław Weinberg
Encyclopedia : M : MI : MIE : Mieczysław Weinberg
Mieczysław Weinberg (also Moisey Samuilovich Vainberg) (December 8 1919 in Warsaw, Poland – February 26 1996 in Moscow, Russia) was a Polish Jewish composer who lived in the Soviet Union and Russia since before the World War II (1939) and lost most of his family to the Nazis. His large body of work included twenty-two symphonies and seventeen string quartets; according to one reviewer he ranked as, "the third great Soviet composer, along with Prokofiev and Shostakovich".Steve Schwarz, [review of The Golden Key] on Classical Net Review, 2004.
Names
Much confusion has been caused by Weinberg's different names. He was born 'Mieczysław Weinberg', the surname being of German origin. He took the Russian name 'Moisey Samuilovich', on his arrival in the Soviet Union, where he was also sometimes known by his nickname, 'Metek'. He also continued to use the name 'Moishe' in Soviet Yiddish language publications. In Russia his name was naturally transliterated into the Cyrillic alphabet, from which re-transliteration back into the Latin alphabet produced a variety of spellings, including 'Vainberg' and 'Vaynberg'. The original spelling is used in the latest edition of Grove and by Weinberg's biographer, Per Skans.Skans, Per. Quoted on [Black Arrow].Life
Weinberg was born in 1919 to a Jewish family in Warsaw. His father, Shmil (or Shmuel) Weinberg, was a violinist and conductor for a Yiddish theatre in Warsaw. His family, originally from Bessarabia, had already been the victim of anti-semitic violence — his great-grandfather and grandfather were killed in a pogrom in Chişinău in 1903. Weinberg entered the Warsaw Conservatory, studying piano, at the age of twelve, and graduated in 1939. He fled to the Soviet Union on the outbreak of war (his parents and sister remained behind and perished in the Trawniki concentration camp). He spent time in Minsk, where he studied composition for the first time, and then in Tashkent, where he wrote works for the opera and met Solomon Mikhoels, whose daughter he married.In 1943 he moved to Moscow at the urging of Dmitri Shostakovich, who was impressed by his talent and was to become his close friend. Meeting Shostakovich had a profound effect on the younger man, who said later that, "It was as if I had been born anew".Quoted in Grove, p. 236.
Mikhoels was murdered in 1948 as part of Stalin's post-war anti-semitic campaign. Some of Weinberg's works were among those banned during the Zhdanovshchina of 1948, and for a time he could make a livign only by composing for the theatre and circus. He was himself arrested in February 1953: Shostakovich wrote to Lavrenti Beria to intercede on Weinberg's behalf, as well as agreeing to look after Weinberg's daughter if his wife was also arrested. In the event, he was saved by Stalin's death the following month, and he was officially rehabilitated shortly afterwards.Wilson pp. 227-231.
Thereafter Weinberg continued to live in Moscow, composing and performing as a pianist. He and Shostakovich lived nearby, sharing ideas on a daily basis. Besides the admiration which Shostakovich frequently expressed for Weinberg's works, they were taken up by some of Russia's foremost performers, including Emil Gilels, Leonid Kogan, Mstislav Rostropovich and Kurt Sanderling.
Towards the end of his life, Weinberg was bedridden with Crohn's disease, although he continued to compose. He converted to Orthodox Christianity shortly before his death.Reilly, Robert R. (February 2000). [Light in the Dark: The Music of Mieczyslaw Vainberg] in Catholic Information Center on Internet, Crisis.
Works
Weinberg's output includes twenty-two symphonies, other works for orchestra (including chamber symphonies and sinfoniettas), seventeen string quartets, eight violin sonatas (three solo and five with piano), twenty-four preludes for cello and six cello sonatas (two with piano and four solo), six piano sonatas, numerous other instrumental works, and also a substantial number of film scores. He wrote seven operas, and considered one of them, Passazhirka (written in 1967-68), to be his most important work.Grove, p. 236. His piano quintet, piano trio and cello works have received performances in concert series and festivals across Europe and the USA in recent years, and the British record label Olympia released over fifteen compact disc recordings of his music, consisting of both original recordings and remasterings of earlier Melodiya LPs.
Weinberg's works frequently have a strong programmatic element: throughout his life he continually referred back to his formative years in Warsaw and to the war which ended that earlier life. Typically, however, this darkness serves as a background to the finding of peace through catharsis. This desire for harmony is also evident in his musical style; Lyudmilla Nikitina emphasises the "neo-classical, rationalist clarity and proportion" of his works.Grove, p. 236.
Although he never formally studied with Shostakovich, the older composer had an obvious influence on Weinberg's music. Explicit connections include the pianissimo passage with celesta which ends the Fifth Symphony, reminiscent of Shostakovich's Fourth and written around the time of that work's premiere. Another Weinberg work, his sixth piano sonata, quotes one of the Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues. More general similarities in musical language include the use of extended melodies, repetitive themes and extreme registers. This has been one of the main criticisms voiced of Weinberg: Alexander Ivashkin has argued that composers such as Weinberg damaged not only their reputations, but also that of Shostakovich himself: "these works only served to kill off Shostakovich's music, to cover it over with a scab of numerous and bad copies".Ivashkin, Alexander p. 255. Shostakovich and Schnittke: the erosion of symphonic syntax in Fanning (ed) Shostakovich Studies. Cambridge University Press (1995). ISBN 0521452392 .
Nevertheless, Shostakovich was not the only influence on Weinberg's style. Nikitina identifies Prokofiev, Myaskovsky, Bartók and Mahler as other influences, while the trumpet concerto quotes Mendelssohn's well-known Wedding March. Naturally Jewish music features heavily, but one can also find other ethnic elements, including Moldavian, Polish, and Armenian. Weinberg has been identified by some critics as the source of Shostakovich's own increased interest in klezmer themes in the period after he met the Jewish composer.MacDonald, Ian. [Music Under Soviet Rule: MIECZYSLAW VAINBERG].
References
External links
- [Onno van Rijen's Weinberg Worklist]
- [http://www.freewebs.com/black_arrow/ Weinberg-dedicated Site
- [WEINBERG & HIS MUSIC]
- [WORKS FOR CELLO SOLO]
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.