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A Weinberg Concert in New York
Reviewed by Richard Pleak

On 11 November 2008 in New York City, there was a concert of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's works as Program III of the series Music in Exile: Émigré Composers of the 1930s at the Museum of Jewish Heritage - a production of the Royal Conservatory of Music, Canada, featuring members of the ARC Ensemble. The performers were mostly the same as on the recent Weinberg CD, On the Threshold of Hope: Mieczyslaw Weinberg Chamber Music, and included two of the works on that CD, the Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 28 (1945) and the Piano Quintet, Op. 18 (1944). The CD has a song-cycle for bass, Jewish Songs after Shmuel Halkin, Op. 17 (1944), but this concert had a different song-cycle, also for bass, From Zhukovsky's Lyrics, Op. 116 (1976).

It is a joy for me to hear live performances of Weinberg's music, an uncommon event in New York. This was a wonderful concert, which was tempered by traffic problems that led to my missing the Clarinet Sonata. A shame, as I much admire Weinberg's writing for the clarinet, especially in the Chamber Symphony No. 4 and here in the Sonata. The song-cycle was an event, the US premiere, and I was hearing it for the first time. The bass, Robert Pomakov, was superb: forceful and delicate, with subtle use of vibrato and shading. The pianist, Dianne Werner, played the rather spare but very compelling piano part with immediacy and excellent technique. The vocal line is mostly lyrical and romantic, befitting this romantic poet, while the piano part strays from it, offering contrasts with interesting supportive variations and unusual quirks, and shares commonalities with the piano parts of Shostakovich's late song-cycles. The last Zhukovsky song, 'A. S. Pushkin', starts with bold strokes of piano chords, similar to Shostakovich's Quintet, and ends with broadening outlined arpeggiated chords. The innovations in this work make me wish to hear it again and again.

Weinberg's Piano Quintet, written a few years after Shostakovich's, draws from him and yet is an entirely different species. The performers here were as in the recording, except that violinist Erika Raum was indisposed and replaced by the adept Benjamin Bowman (an appropriate name!). The works starts incohesively with lack of focus, but soon finds both sharp focus and bite. The second-movement scherzo is a wonderful mix of things: bold rhythms, subtle col legno effects and a central, almost jarring, folk-dance. The third movement and second scherzo opens with quiet muted rustlings and builds to striking boldness, interrupted by a bizarre and schmaltzy waltz that morphs into utter seriousness, and ends with a bold flourish. The Largo fourth movement is sparse, with many duet and solo passages, again building up to a strong climax, and blending into the strange fifth movement, beginning with strong rhythms and is interrupted by an Irish- or Scottish-sounding jig, followed by a long minimalist passage of repeated quiet notes in the strings and a recurring, hangingly uncadenced motif in the piano. Hard to imagine Emil Gilels playing this in Moscow in 1945! As two women leaving the theatre remarked, 'What a work! Really wacky!' Yes, and amazing.

This programme was dedicated to the memory of the dear Per Skans, the late expert on Weinberg; Martin Anderson was thanked in the acknowledgements.