Mieczyslaw WEINBERG (1822-1882)
Complete Piano Works 3
Children's Notebook - Book I, op.16 (1944) [13:10]
Children's Notebook - Book II, op.19 (1944) [17:07]
Children's Notebook - Book III, op.23 (c.1946) [12:39]
21 Easy Pieces, op.34 (1946) [17:46]
Can-Can, in Honour of Rastorguyevo (1965) [1:09]
Allison Brewster Franzetti (piano)
rec. Kean University, New Jersey, USA, 25-26 June 2010. DDD
GRAND PIANO GP610 [61:49]
On the face of it, Grand Piano's third volume in Allison Brewster
Franzetti's recording of Weinberg's complete works for solo
piano looks like one for the most serious of collectors or stoutest
of Weinberg fans only. The three Children's Notebooks and Easy
Pieces op.34 seem to add up to an hour's worth of music that
hardly qualifies as 'essential' Weinberg, especially in comparison
with the three Sonatas of volume 1 (GP603) and a further Sonata
and Partita in volume 2 (GP607, review).
These are not even first recordings: the three Children's Notebooks
appeared both in 2011, played by Elisaveta Blumina for CPO (777
517-2), and in 2010, with Jascha Nemtsov on Hänssler Classic
(93.233).
Yet what true music-lover would be without Schumann's Kinderszenen
or Album for the Young or Debussy's Children's Corner?
Weinberg is every bit as compelling a composer as Schumann or
Debussy, as his rapidly growing discography testifies.
The 21 Easy Pieces were written in the space of three
summer days in 1946, a fact to which their brevity - the shortest
lasts barely fifteen seconds! - relative simplicity and general
upbeat nature testify. For Weinberg these primarily pedagogic
pieces probably felt like a well-earned rest after the recent
Third Sonata.
Of much more interest are the somewhat misdirectingly named
Children's Notebooks. Though Weinberg had them published
in three sets, the final volume also contained the previous
two, and the composer had written 23 Preludes on the
surviving manuscripts, indications that he also saw them as
a contiguous project. At the time he had befriended Shostakovich,
whose own Children's Notebook op.69 was completed shortly
after Weinberg's. Whereas Shostakovich's were aimed at his six-year-old
daughter, only child prodigies are likely to have much joy with
most of Weinberg's! Their sophistication lies not only in their
post-war harmonies but in their slightly noirish expressiveness,
hinting at emotional depths and nooks beyond a child's ken.
Nevertheless, with a typical length of two minutes and a rhythmic
lyricism underpinning every item, audiences of all ages should
find the Notebooks a very satisfying experience.
New York-born Allison Brewster Franzetti rounds off with a sub-minute
Can-Can, which sounds as though it dates from Weinberg's
own childhood, although he actually wrote it in 1965! Brewster
Franzetti is wife of Argentina-born composer-pianist Carlos
Franzetti, best known perhaps for his jazz/'classical' fusion
music, which the couple have played and indeed recorded together
(see review).
Her two previous Weinberg volumes were very well received, and
Brewster Franzetti again shows herself to be on multi-faceted,
persuasive form. She needs to be too, because this cycle has
some mano a mano competition from Scottish pianist Murray
McLachlan, whose recording of Weinberg's six Piano Sonatas
proper has just been released by Divine Art in two consecutive
volumes of their excellent Russian Piano Music series
(DDA25105, DDA25107).
Sound quality is very good, although it should be noted that
the recording is close up. David Fanning's English-German notes
are well written, and there are some nice black-and-white photos
of the composer from the archives.
Naxos/HNH's Grand Piano label has got off to a flying start,
with twenty releases so far in its first year. All have featured
a different cover painting by the Norwegian artist Gro Thorsen,
which if nothing else adds to the collectible allure of the
series.
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at artmusicreviews.co.uk
Brewster Franzetti again shows herself to be on multi-faceted,
persuasive form.