Weinberg’s Cello Concerto Op. 43 in C-minor was composed in 1948; it was premiered by Mstislav Rostropovich with the Moscow Philharmonic under the direction of Samuil Samosud. The “Big Brother” of the Concertino Op. 42 for violin and string orchestra which was written in the same year, is his first big concerto, which, with its folkloristic characteristics and klezmer colorings, saved him from accusations of formalism.

Nevertheless, for his works created during this time, Weinberg had to face up to the following criticism of the official political leadership published in the “Sowjetskaja musika” (No.2, 1948), which was not exactly harmless: “It often seems as if he considers it his main task to create a certain musical structure, a form for its own sake . . . The pursuit of originality at any price, the penchant for dry linearity, for harmonic gruffness, for breaking up the melody, strangles profound thoughts and feelings almost everywhere they surface in his music.” 

Review

“While Weinberg’s 20th Symphony is an abundantly abstract, at times brittle work, which requires a couple of hearings before it reveals itself, the Cello Concerto is a virtually luxuriant, Russian colored piece through and through . . . Thus, one can hear very nicely on this CD how Mieczylaw Weinberg, who was much admired by Dmitri Shostakovich, changed from being a rather late Romantic oriented composer to one who became increasingly more abstract in his late works. The interpretation of the Göteborg Symphonic is – as one has come to expect from this excellent orchestra – first class.”

Rainer Aschemeier, The Listener, 19.5.2012

Weinberg: Cello Concerto Op. 43
Symphony No. 20 Op. 150

Claes Gunnarsson
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
Thord Svedlund

Chandos CD, CHSA 5107

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