Recordings of Weinberg’s Solo Cello Music

courtesy of Naxos of America

About a month ago I wrote about a new release from Accentus Music of Gidon Kremer giving solo violin performances of Mieczysław Weinberg’s Opus 100, a set of 24 solo cello preludes that he composed for Mstislav Rostropovich in 1969. Rostropovich had given the world premiere performance of Weinberg’s Opus 43 cello concerto on February 25, 1964; but he never played the preludes. Kremer’s performances were apparently recorded to compensate for Rostropovich’s neglect.

Much as I appreciated his recording, it left me curious about how those preludes would sound on the cello, particularly two that shamelessly quote earlier cello concertos. To my surprise, I discovered that Naxos had released two CDs accounting for all of the music that Weinberg had composed for solo cello, not only the preludes but also four sonatas composed between 1960 and 1986. These recordings were made by cellist Josef Feigelson, who, like Kremer, was born in Latvia. They were originally released by Olympia Compact Discs Ltd., a British label initially formed to reissue out-of-print European recordings, particularly those recorded behind the Iron Curtain.

The Feigelson recordings, on the other hand, were “originals, the results of recordings made at the State University of New York at Purchase in June of 1996 and November of 1997. Those two CDs were then, themselves, reissued by Naxos, the first in 2010 and the second in 2011. Having now listened to both of these albums, I have to say that, for all of the many ways that Kremer has devoted himself and his Kremerata Baltica ensemble to promoting Weinberg’s music, music written for the cello still sounds better when it is played by the cello! Furthermore, to be fair to Feigelson, the recording sessions for the first ECM New Series album of Weinberg’s music played by Kremer and Kremerata Baltica did not take place until November of 2012, making Feigelson one of the first performers to revive interest in Weinberg after his death on February 26, 1996.

Over the last two decades, the number of recordings of Weinberg’s music has not necessarily flourished; but it still does more than adequate justice to this composer’s legacy. For that matter, I know of at least one instance in which one of those recordings inspired musicians to add Weinberg to their working repertoire. The fact that Feigelson’s first recording session took place so soon after Weinberg’s death suggests a determination to make sure that Weinberg’s legacy received more attention than the composer himself did during his lifetime. In other words these recordings have particular historical significance, and Naxos should be praised for keeping them in circulation.