Yet more Weinberg: Chamber Symphonies

Classical Explorer has presented two previous posts on the music of Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996): String Quartets, Volume One on Chandos and the Piano Quintet and excerpts from Children's Notebooks on Oehms Classics. Here's the next in line: two of that composer's Chamber Symphonies, Nos. 2 and 4.

While we will be quoting from this Naxos release, this link takes yo uto a Medici.tv stream of these two chamber symphonies coupled with holographic projections (!); and thsi concert also includes Piazzolla's Four Seasons of Buenes Aires.

The last decade of Weinberg's life brought reflection on and reworkings of earlier pieces. The intensity is marked: listen to the finale of the Second Chamber Symphony, Op. 147 of 1987:

The piece revisited in this Chamber Symphony is the Third String Quartet, Op. 14 (1944, but never performed prior to this reuse in public). The central Intermezzo is fascinating: faltering, almost:

While the Chamber Symphony No. 2 had been scored for string and timpani (and drew from an earlier string quartet), No. 4, Op. 153 (1992) is for string orchestra, clarinet and triangle and stands as a unique composition in and of itself. The clarinet has a very active, concertante role; the triangle, in contrast, appears only occasionally in the finale. Listen to  the second movement for Weinberg's pungent use of the clarinet:

The clarinet and solo cello song in the third movement is infinitely touching, and beautifully played here:

This was Weinberg's very last completed work, and the finale is utterly remarkable. Completely individual, fragmented, pained, it sounds like a cri de coeur: Krimer's performance is compelling, as is Igor Fedorov's clarinet playing:

The Fourth Chamber Symphony might be Weinberg's last completed piece but I am sure it won't be the end of our Weinberg explorations ....a terrific disc.