Mieczysław Weinberg: Complete Songs, Volume One
Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-96), the Polish-born composer who spent most of his life in the Soviet Union, was a close friend of Shostakovich, with whose musical language his own has much in common. Weinberg's vast output includes 26 symphonies, seventeen string quartets and some 200 songs. The three song-cycles recorded here date from across Weinberg's career. They demonstrate his extraordinary ability to create atmosphere, often from just a handful of notes, and encompass a wide range of emotion, from wartime suffering, through playfulness and protest, to maternal love.
Olga Kalugina, soprano
Svetlana Nikolaeva, mezzo soprano
Dmitry Korostelyov, piano
Listen To This Recording:
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Children’s Songs, Op. 13, for soprano and piano, to poems of Itzhok Lejb Perez (1943)
- No. 1, Introduction
- No. 2, The Bread Roll
- No. 3, Cradle Song
- No. 4, The Hunter
- No. 5, On the Green Mountainside
- No. 6, Grief (The Orphan’s Letter) attacca Coda
- No. 1, Dedication
- No. 2, War burns indomitably
- No. 3, What for?
- No. 4, Much has fallen silent
- No. 5, The poor ignoramuses laughed
- No. 6, A Spring Evening
- No. 7, In the Twilight
- No. 8, Someone was sighing at the grave
- No. 9, A Voice
- No. 10, Memory
- No. 1, The child was left alone
- No. 2, And I am not alone
- No. 3, Little feet, little hands
- No. 4, Rocking the cradle
- No. 5, Night
- No. 6, A sorrowful mother
- No. 7, The dew
- No. 8, Meekness
- No. 9, Fear
- No. 10, A discovery
- No. 11, My song
Beyond the Border of Past Days, Op. 50: Song-cycle for mezzo soprano and piano, to poems of Alexander Blok (1943)
Rocking the Child, Op. 110: Song cycle to poems of Gabriela Mistral (1943)
MusicWeb International :
‘Olga Kalugina’s account of them in Russian is everything it should be. Kalugina has a bright, attractive rather Slavic-sounding voice which seems entirely appropriate to this music. For the Introduction and first four songs she is perfectly in folk mood and in the final song her plangent intensity is profoundly moving. […]
Kalugina is equally at home in these late Weinberg songs and her account, often understated, can be quite poignant. In all three song-cycles, the singers are ably accompanied by Dmitry Korostelyov. Weinberg was a pianist himself and Korostelyov seems remarkably unphased by any of the demands that Weinberg makes of him.
This is a fine start to Toccata’s Weinberg series. Weinberg’s music deserves to be better known and this disc should win many converts for his alternative view of Soviet modernism.’
—Robert Hugill, MusicWeb International
Fanfare Magazine :
‘the high production values. The two singers are satisfying. […] Both are masterful at shaping the music, and they and pianist Dmitri Korostelyov do not seem to be sight-reading the material at all. One feels that they are deeply into the music. Natural and well-balanced sound completes the picture. This disc is a major addition to the catalogue, introducing us to some deeply moving music.’
—Henry Fogel, Fanfare Magazine, July/August 2013