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Weinberg: Solo violin sonatas - Roth

Weinberg: Solo violin sonatas - Roth

Challenge Classics  CC 72688

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical - Chamber


Weinberg: Solo violin sonatas
Shostakovich: 3 Fantastic Dances

Linus Roth (violin)
José Gallardo (piano)


Just a decade ago the name “Mieczysław Weinberg” drew a blank from music lovers. If you went into a record store you either didn’t find a dedicated index card with his name on it, or else five differently spelled ones. Weinberg’s music and its surge to a more general acknowledgment is the surest sign that there are still unearthed geniuses among composers out there, whose unearthing can enrich our musical diet and change our perception of the musical past.

This disc continues Linus Roth’s discovery and exploration of Weinberg, which started with learning about, reading, playing and recording the Sonatas for Violin and Piano and has most recently led to his initiating the International Mieczysław Weinberg Society. He has since recorded Weinberg’s works for violin and orchestra; here he is back with chamber music: Weinberg’s three unaccompanied violin sonatas, whose dates of composition are 1964, 1967 and 1978. This last Third Sonata, op.123, is the most challenging and important: somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes long, it provides challenges all of its own. Apart from its share of technical challenges, its one-movement structure asks for continuous play. This sonata is dedicated to the memory of his father Shmil Weinberg, who was a composer and conductor at the Yiddish theater in Kishinev. Given that Weinberg knew, that his father had been murdered in the Holocaust, the sonata isn’t easy listening. It is a challenge for performers and listeners alike: it demands and deserves dedication on the part of the listener, whom it rewards eventually by revealing a surprising, raw tenderness behind the veneer of thorns.

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Review by Adrian Quanjer - June 2, 2016

When I reviewed (March 2014) Weinberg’s violin concerto on Challenge Classics CC 72627 I said the following: “Roth's playing is, like the French say, ‘à couper le souffle’. A rising star? I for one wouldn't be surprised if we were to hear more of him. Always in control, and seemingly easy in the difficult 'Vivace', he is able to let his violin, the 1703 ‘Dancia” Stradivarius, weep and sing from pp to ff without a single scratch”.

Now, having listened once again to Roth, this time playing these solo sonatas, I have no hesitation in confirming what I said then, going even one step further: He is nothing less than a miraculous magician. The three Weinberg sonatas are so devilishly demanding that only few can play them faultlessly. If I were a Music Director and had to audition a new Leader or Concertmaster, this would probably be the kind of material that would best help me in a ‘make or break’ choice. I know of only one other violinist: Gidon Kremer, who can do this too with absolute tonal command. In view of the critical complexity, such a requirement would, indeed, seem to me of overriding importance to avoid ending up with a whiningly discordant rendition, especially for those with sensitive ears. Linus Roth makes these sonatas not only sound transparent and wholly convincing, but turns them at the same time into a set of most rewarding musical masterpieces.

Roth may undoubtedly be considered one of todays most experienced and knowledgeable Weinberg connoisseurs. Over the last decade or so he thoroughly studied his oeuvre and how best to interpret it. Together with his partner, pianist José Gallardo, he recorded in 2013 for Challenge Records all 6 sonatas for violin and piano - unfortunately not available in high resolution format - as well as several other pieces for violin and orchestra, including the afore mentioned violin concerto.

His friendship with Dimitri Shostakovich is by now, I assume, a known fact, and I find Roth’s choice for including the three ‘Fantastic Dances’, as transcribed for violin and piano by Harry Glickman, a fitting addition to the recital. Placed before and in between, it gives the ear a chance to ‘reset’. Don't expect something like the violin concerto. Weinberg's solo sonatas are about anguish and eeriness; about desolation and solitude.

This may not be suitable for beginners and first time Weinberg explorers, but experienced and adventurous music lovers will find here much to admire and enough to sharpen the musical mind. Linus Roth not only advocates, but also ably demands respect for Mieczysław Weinberg as one of the major composers of the 20th century.

The Serendipitous recording (in the fine acoustics of the Jesus-Christus Kirche in Berlin, Germany) is up to the required standard.

One final remark:

Weinberg, Vainberg, Wajnberg? Which is the correct spelling? Several versions exist. One possible reason may stem from his stay in the Soviet Union, where his name had to be translated into Cyrillic script. Transliteration has always been, and still is, a kind of problem. But in a recent (2015) study by the Polish scholar, Professor Danuta Gwizdalanka, supported by a birth certificate, claims that the correct spelling is Wajnberg.

Blangy-le-Château,
Normandy, France

Copyright © 2016 Adrian Quanjer and HRAudio.net

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