Weinberg Symphonies Nos 3 & 7*; Flute Concerto No. 1 Marie-Christine Zupancic (flute), *Kirill Gerstein (harpsichord); City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; *Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie/Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla DG 486 2402 78:21 mins
Here at last is the follow up to Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla’s award-winning 2019 Weinberg release – an equally superb, charismatically interpreted and intelligently programmed recording. The Third Symphony is an excellent starting point for those who are relatively unfamiliar with Weinberg’s work. It was composed in 1949 and apparently followed to the letter some of the strictures of Stalinist Socialist Realism in promoting a buoyant mode of expression and drawing much of its thematic material from folk music, as exemplified in the gently flowing Belorussian melody that opens the first movement. But the heartfelt climax to the slow movement and the satirical military music in the Finale tell a rather different story, subverting any veneer of optimism.
The Seventh Symphony, scored for solo harpsichord and string orchestra, is even more subversive. The bizarre juxtapositions of styles that place Baroque musical figurations and jazz-like rhythmic elements alongside string passages filled with Shostakovich-like angst make a really disconcerting yet powerful impact, and this vividly recorded performance, featuring Kirill Gerstein and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, brilliantly communicates all the music’s intensity and strangeness. Likewise, the CBSO, reprising their outstanding performance of the Third given at the 2019 Proms, delivers incisive and stunningly executed playing for their former principal conductor, and are equally alert as accompanists to Marie-Christine Zupanic’s virtuosic and expressive interpretation of the Flute Concerto No. 1. Given the excellence of this release, is it too much to hope for another recording from this team, perhaps featuring Weinberg’s Fourth and Sixth Symphonies?
Erik Levi
