Weinberg: Piano Sonatas, Opp. 8, 49bis & 56

Album Description

This is the fourth instalment of a gigantic recording project undertaken by Elisaveta Blumina of the piano works of Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-96): in it, we discover three sonatas, the Second from 1942, the Fourth from 1955 and the "Sonatina" from 1951 which is dedicated to Shostakovitch, revised in 1978 as Opus 49b, which is the version presented here. The gap between 1942's Second, written when Weinberg had yet to get to know Shostakovitch, and the two following works, is clear. Because before this foundational meeting, our composer was much more a follower of Prokofiev, with a dense, implacable, "motorist" writing style, whereas the later works show a much broader lyricism and a stunning, almost Mozartian, clarity. Note that the Fourth Sonata was first performed in 1957 by none other than Emil Gilels, its dedicatee. But alas for Weinberg, a part of his life and his career were thrown into shadow by the dark machinations of the sinister Stalin, and after the dictator's death in 1953 and a few lean years, the composer found himself progressively relegated to the rank of an epigone of Shostakovitch, and then, following the death of his friend, to that of a has-been, while various avant-gardes poured scorn on the past. It would take some twenty years after his death for him to be recognised for what he was: an excellent composer, first Soviet then Russian, in step with his own feelings, if not always with those of his times. © SM/Qobuz