A fitting tribute to a great artist and friend

From May 23, 2014:

The fourth disc in the Naxos series of Weinberg symphonies includes the most impressive work so far: the 12th Symphony, written in memory of Dmitri Shostakovich. Weinberg makes reference to the symphonies of his friend and supporter, and this work has more of the sound and feel of a Shostakovich symphony than some of the others on disc. Weinberg is emphatically an original composer, though, and not just a Shostakovich clone. As Alex Ross has noted Weinberg’s music and ideas contributed to Shostakovich’s art as well as in the opposite direction. There are many felicities of orchestration that show Weinberg’s originality, like the intertwining of marimba and strings in the 4th movement. This is a serious and deeply sad work that’s a fitting tribute to a great artist and a friend with whom he shared many triumphs as well as adversity.

The Golden Key Suite also shows Weinberg’s mastery of a large orchestral palette, but in a lighter mood. The composer looks back to Prokofiev and Stravinsky in this suite chosen from music written for a 1962 ballet. Kudos to Naxos, and Chandos as well, as they continue building a picture of an important 20th century artist.

Another great entry in an important string quartet series

June 21, 2013:

This is the third set in the Pacifica Quartet's excellent series The Soviet Experience, which connects groups of Shostakovich string quartets with other Soviet string quartets. The Quartet is now up to the mid-1960s in their Shostakovich cycle: the pair of #9 and #10 date from 1964, while #11 was written in 1966 and #12 in 1968. The Pacifica Quartet are outstanding in these works, and they provide a strong case as well for the sixth quartet of Mieczslaw Weinberg, written in 1948.

The greatest work on these two discs is the twelfth quartet, which is special for musical and biographical reasons. Shostakovich uses atonality throughout the piece, and sets a grim mood with his opening theme, which contains all twelve, unrepeated, notes of the chromatic scale. Before an uncharacteristically optimistic ending, Shostakovich provides his usual jocular, sarcastic episodes, alternating with almost mystical periods that make reference to late Beethoven. High marks to the Pacifica Quartet for keeping all of this in hand. Knowing the circumstances of Shostakovich's life at the time, especially relating to his health, adds a tragic dimension to the music.

Kudos to Cedille for this fascinating series, providing the Pacifica Quartet a platform for a vital new Shostakovich series while adding context with important works by other Soviet composers. I've learned a lot from the excellent notes by David Fanning, and love the evocative posters used on the CD covers.