Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996)
String Quartet No.16 Op.130 (1981)
String Quartet No.1 Op.2/141 (1937, rev.1985)
String Quartet No.17 Op.146 (1986)
Silesian Quartet
rec. 2020, Concert Hall of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music, Katowice, Poland
CD ACCORD ACD284 [63]
String Quartet No.2 Op.3/145 (1939-40, rev.1986)
String Quartet No.3 Op.14 (1944)
String Quartet No.4 Op.20 (1945)
Silesian Quartet
rec. 2021, Concert Hall of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music, Katowice, Poland
CD ACCORD ACD291 [76]
I find myself repeating the same phrase every time I have another Weinberg work to review, that they seem to be coming thick and fast - which for anyone who has discovered this composer is fantastic news. It would seem that the Silesian Quartet is just one of various quartets who are set to record all seventeen of his quartets and on CD Accord, have already released four earlier volumes of his works (review ~ review). Only recently I reviewed the Arcadia Quartet’s recording of nos. 1, 7 & 11 (Chandos CHAN20174 - review) which was their Volume 2, implying that there are more to come. I believe the French quartet Quatuor Danel was the first to record all his quartets on the CPO label between 2008-2012.
‘Art is in the eye of the beholder’ or in the case of music, in the ear of the listener, and to borrow another well-worn saying ‘one man’s meat is another man’s poison’. In the case of Weinberg there are clearly two camps: those who are convinced history will accord him the deserved status of being one of the greatest of Soviet composers and even of being among the 20th century’s greatest string quartet composers, and those like cellist Alexander Ivashkin who considered him a clone of Shostakovich and whose imitation of his music demeaned it. One of my own fellow reviewers Néstor Castiglione is in that camp and his review of the Cello Concertino and Fantasy for Cello reflects that view, which is totally at odds with my review of the same disc and that of another fellow reviewer, Michael Cookson as well as the cellist on that disc, Pieter Wispelwey. The members of the Arcadia Quartet also sing the praises of Weinberg’s string quartets and are grateful to have discovered such a wealth of material to record. Anyone who wonders what Weinberg’s music would have been like had he never met Shostakovich or heard any of his music can listen to the first and second string quartets (see below about the second). Weinberg later freely admitted his debt to his older friend and likewise Shostakovich acknowledged his debt to Weinberg. Incidentally, there are plenty of detractors of Shostakovich himself who believe he had little to say and what he did say he didn’t say very convincingly. There will always be at least two camps in respect of anything and my reviews simply reflect my view; I don’t insist it is the only point of view to hold, it is simply mine and I know there will be plenty who agree with it.
Weinberg’s second string quartet, completed in 1940, is a far cry from his first, written when he was still a student, and shows how considerably he had matured in two short years. No doubt some credit is due to his teacher in Minsk, Vasily Zolotarev himself a pupil of Balakirev and Rimsky-Korsakov. The opening is an absolutely lovely tune which implies a man with few troubles, though this surely could not have been further from the truth considering he had been forced to leave his family and flee to the Soviet Union to escape the Nazi invaders of his homeland. The quartet is dedicated to his mother and sister whom, along with his father, he never saw again. The second movement, however, is considerably more anxious in mood with questing violins displaying a level of concern without resolution. The third movement is a dance-like ditty, perhaps intended to raise the spirits again while the closing movement is an upbeat rondo recalling elements from the opening and demonstrates a young composer enjoying getting his musical thoughts down on paper. It is a wholly satisfying quartet that shows a highly talented 21-year-old flexing his compositional muscles to great effect. Similarities between this quartet and Shostakovich’s second and sixth quartets have been noted yet both of those were written after Weinberg’s second which was completed before he had even met the older composer. Hopefully this drives another nail into the coffin marked ‘Weinberg was a Shostakovich clone’.
The third quartet begins with a theme that fires on all cylinders with a motoric drive that keeps its momentum throughout its seven-minute length. The second movement is slow and song-like, wearing a degree of sadness on its musical sleeve right from the start. Generally, Weinberg’s life at the time was happy, his daughter Victoria having been born only a few months previously and a promising and burgeoning career clearly ahead. Perhaps something was nagging at him privately or it was simply that the thoughts of his lost family recurred too often for him to feel at ease writing music that reflected no feelings of regret about leaving his parents and sister to their inevitable fate back in Poland. The final movement sounds like a release from those tensions and the mood is distinctly more upbeat before a more serious note appears towards its end. It was saddening to read in the booklet notes, which incidentally have been well translated albeit by a native Pole (though also proof read by Jason Lowther - a very sensible but to my knowledge unique occurrence), that it would seem Weinberg never got to hear the quartet played and it received its first performance by the aforementioned Danel Quartet only as late as 2007. It is always hard to understand why such a thing should happen, especially since there is nothing the least controversial in it and when you consider that the fourth quartet - which, remarkably, he completed within the space of 7 days in March 1945 - received its first performance a mere nine months later in January 1946.
Around the same time his piano quintet was receiving plaudits and was nominated by Shostakovich for a Stalin Prize, the highest accolade any work could receive. His older friend clearly had not the slightest feeling that Weinberg was either stealing his musical clothes or was in any way an inferior composer - this despite one of the Stalin Prize jury members, an architect, being critical of what he perceived was music loaded with “attempts at technical inventiveness” because at times the composer alternated bowing with plucking, i.e., pizzicato, which had been a feature first found in a work from 1607! Perhaps this emphasises why architects were not necessarily best placed to judge music on such a panel - just as having a composer pronounce an opinion on a building might also be likely to result in an egg-on-the-face moment. The fourth quartet consists of two themes, one which has one of the violins engaged in a winding upward scale that then corkscrews its way down again. The second movement begins with spiky rhythms which include what later became the familiar allusion to Jewish music and the use of the bow col legno, i.e., with the wooden side against the strings and plenty of pizzicato is heard so just as well the architect from the Stalin Prize jury was not asked to give an opinion about this quartet. The third movement is funereal in mood but in the most tastefully musical way, shot through with the most excruciatingly heartfelt and beautiful melodies. The fourth and final movement begins with a satisfyingly peaceful episode but then abounds with different ideas, one of which disturbs the apparent calm which, nevertheless struggles to reassert itself and succeeds in so doing as it comes to a close.
Hot on the heels of the above disc came the next one; in fact, it arrived in the same package. This includes the aforementioned first string quartet which, though remarkable for one so young, is in marked contrast to those that came after. Weinberg revised the quartet almost fifty years later, adapting the writing more for the members of a quartet since, being a pianist, his approach didn’t originally think so much along string lines (he dedicated it to his piano teacher at the Warsaw Conservatoire, Józef Turcyński). It would be fascinating to be able to hear it in its original form to hear how many deletions he made, especially in the second and third movements. It is more lyrical in the first two movements than we are used to with Weinberg - not that he isn’t in later works but it is the Weinberg we have got to know more in the last movement with characteristically angular sounds very much to the fore and which also includes a reference to a Jewish dance, a freilach; Jewish folk references were favourite things for him to allude to. The quartet comes to an abrupt and unexpected end.
The quartet No. 16 was written in 1981 and with his sister in mind and at a time when he was working on his sixteenth symphony composed in memory of his mother. It is very poignant to read in the brochure notes, explaining his many references to the war that “…it wasn’t me who chose that topic. It was dictated by fate, the tragic fate of those who were dear to me. I believe it is my moral obligation to write about the war and the terrible suffering that our century brought upon people.” The mood is sombre from the word go; he eventually discovered that his father, mother and sister had perished in Trawniki concentration camp, also used by the SS to train collaborationist auxiliary police, mainly Ukrainians who assisted in the massacre of the 12,000 Jews incarcerated there along with 31,000 from the Majdanek camp and five other sub-camps in Operation Harvest Festival on November 3, 1943. They were also complicit in similar massacres in eleven other camps, including Auschwitz, a thought that brings you up short in light of present-day events. The second movement is just as bleak with dissonant harmonies at the opening followed by a mournful passage that seems to cry out in pain and suffering. The third movement marked lento is again a deeply thoughtful lamentation full of nostalgia and heartfelt regret. The closing movement summarises all that has been lost and smashed apart, amounting to a crushing comment on those tragic and appallingly wicked events.
The quartet No. 17 was composed to celebrate the long-standing friendship and close collaboration with the Borodin Quartet which by the time it was written had endured over forty years. The Borodins were the first to be offered the premičre of Weinberg’s new chamber works and they gave first performances of six of them. Ironically, however, the quartet for whom it was composed on this occasion did not get to give its first performance; that privilege fell to the Quatuor Danel in 2009. Why this was the case I cannot imagine. The notes quote Weinberg expressing his total confidence in the Borodins when he said that he never needed to give any consideration to what may or may not work because “With them everything always works out!” The single movement seventeenth, which has six sections within three movements, begins in a sunny atmosphere with rays of light shining in all directions, its mood upbeat and happy. This, however, does not last and a cello solo which alludes to a solo cello sonata that Weinberg had written for the Borodin’s cellist Valentin Berlinsky’s 60th birthday, begins a far more inward-looking and reflective episode. Danuta Gwizdalanka, the booklet author, speculates as to whether there is a message within this melancholia meant only for them. Who can say? But the music is powerfully felt and expressed. The final section, a dialogue between viola and cello, is similarly slow and pensive before the opening feeling of joie de vivre returns thanks to a recapitulation of the opening joyful theme that all four instruments demonstrate they are happy to comply with, and the quartet ends with a resounding and exclamatory note from them all.
The booklet notes also explain that fate dealt another blow in that Weinberg never heard either version of his first quartet as explained above, but as I expressed in an earlier review of the work, having it along with quartets from later in his career we get the opportunity of hearing the progress of Weinberg’s musical thoughts and his development as a composer.
I hesitate to choose which version of the first quartet I like best, having recently reviewed the Arcadia Quartet’s version of it – and appreciated it, as I do Quatuor Danel’s performance. Often, I find I like whichever I’m listening to as much as any other; likewise, with the sixteenth. However, when it comes to quartet No.17, I really enjoyed the Silesian Quartet’s rendition which emphasises the joyful nature of the opening, making the contrasting, more sombre nature that unfolds later all the more telling. All six of the quartets on these two discs are played magnificently with genuinely insightful performances and it is noteworthy that their disc of Grażyna Bacewicz’s complete string quartets (Chandos CHAN10904) gained them the Gramophone Classical Music Award for Best Chamber Music Album of the Year. The sound on these two discs is sharp and clear and I thoroughly recommend them.
Steve Arloff
Performers: Szymon Krzeszowiec (1st violin), Arkadiusz Kubica (2nd violin), Łukasz Syrnicki (viola), Piotr Janosik (cello)
