DESCRIPTION:
Mieczyslaw (Moisey) Weinberg, Piano Sonata No. 6, op. 73 (1960) / Мечислав Вайнберг, Соната №6, опус 73 (1960)
Liliya Ugay, piano / Лилия Угай, фортепиано
I. Adagio
II. Allegro Molto 04:45

Mieczyslaw Weinberg was referred by his close friend Dmitri Shostakovich as “one of the most outstanding composers of the present day.” Weinberg’s life went through possibly the worst struggles a man could experience in the twentieth century as he was in the center of both Hitler’s and Stalin’s persecutions. Born in Poland, in Jewish musical family, Weinberg graduated from the Warsaw Conservatory as a pianist soon before the Nazis attacked Poland. He fled to the USSR border and became a refugee; however, his parents and a sister did not make it, and as he learned 20 years later, all of them died in a concentration camp. Later Weinberg said that because the war took life of many of his closest family, it had to become one of the main themes in his music.

In the USSR Weinberg studied composition at the Minsk Conservatory for two years; in 1941 the Nazis attacked the USSR, and Weinberg, who could not be mobilized into the army due to his health problems, was evacuated to Tashkent, Uzbek SSR. During the Second World War Tashkent became a main evacuation place for the Leningrad intelligentsia: there, Weinberg met Natalya Vovsi, a daughter of a famous Jewish actor and activist Solomon Mikhoels. While in Tashkent Weinberg finished his first symphony and sent it to Shostakovich, who was impressed by the work and invited Weinberg to Moscow. In 1948, during the Soviet antisemitic repressions Mikhoels was murdered on the personal order of Stalin, and it was followed by Weinberg persecution and his arrest in early 1953. Weinberg spent 79 days in jail and was released the same year, thanks to Stalin’s death.

Shostakovich and Weinberg became very close friends, who regularly shared with each other the music they wrote, as well as playing Shostakovich’s symphonies in four-hand piano duos. Consequently, the two had a significant influence on each other. Unlike Ustvolskaya, Weinberg admired Shostakovich and considered himself his student although he never took lessons with him. It seems that Weinberg preferred to stay in the shadow of his older friend; it could be a safe position because fame could lead to more persecutions. Weinberg’s music nevertheless was appreciated and performed by the most respected Soviet musicians, among which are Leonid Kogan, Emil Gilels, Mstislav Rostropovich, Kirill Kondrashin, and German conductors Kurt and Thomas Sanderling. Weinberg died at the age of 76 in Moscow. His music is currently actively being revived worldwide.
(c) Liliya Ugay, 2016

The recording is made at Morse recital hall, Sprague hall, Yale School of Music recording studio, New Haven, CT, USA.
The slide-show consists of the photographs from WWII and Soviet Gulag camps. I don't own any rights for these images.