Mieczysław Weinberg: born twice “I could spend a happy morning being Pooh...” Mieczysław Weinberg – Concertino, 24 Preludes The life of the author of this lovely song known to anyone in Russia, old or young, was not so easy, far from it. Moreover, in all sincerity - are there many knowing the composer’s name Marina Tarasova, cello among those who remember the loved verses and tune? In one of the published letters by Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-96) we read, “Today is September 1 (of the year 1965.-I.R.). The war started 26 years ago. I was nearly 19 years old... The frst period of my life was at its end. I had to be reborn for a Concertino for Violonello & String Orchestra, Op.43 (1st Version) new life, a different one. Like a speck of dust, I was involved into the monstrous rotation of the bloody with Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra, conductor Alexander Rudin time machine; all the threads that connected me to my family, youth, and pianism had to be [1] I. Adagio 4:04 broken, and my destiny was to stay alive in a miraculous way...” The Jewish boy born in Warsaw on December 8, 1919 was given the ancient Polish [2] II. Moderato espressivo 3:02 name of Mieczysław (the diminutive pet name Mietek remained for his life.) His father Samuel [3] III. Allegro vivace 3:19 Weinberg who had come from Russia was a musician - and the first teacher of the future [4] IV. Adagio 4:49 composer. Not long before his death, Mieczysław Weinberg would remember his childhood in an interview, “I was born into a family where Father made music from his childhood. He was a violinist, a composer... he travelled with vagrant companies of Jewish actors, and wrote music for them. 24 Preludes for Solo Cello, Op.100 At their performances, he played the violin, and conducted... As early as aged six, I started tagging [5] Prelude No.1 1:43 [17] Prelude No.13 1:45 along behind him... and at ten or eleven, I played the piano at Father’s theater.” [6] Prelude No.2 0:57 [18] Prelude No.14 0:46 Jozef Turczynski, professor of the Warsaw Conservatory who once graduated from the [7] Prelude No.3 1:04 [19] Prelude No.15 3:52 Conservatory in St.Petersburg as Anna Yesipova’s student, noticed and appreciated the [8] Prelude No.4 1:53 [20] Prelude No.16 2:15 outstanding talent of the young pianist. The famous Iosif Hoffmann who came to Warsaw [9] Prelude No.5 1:48 [21] Prelude No.17 2:36 for a tour was so enchanted by the talent of the young man, graduate of the Warsaw Conservatory, that he sent him an invitation to The Curtis Institute in Philadelphia directed by him [10] Prelude No.6 1:49 [22] Prelude No.18: Sarabande 3:59 at that time. But ... the Second World War broke out. “The night of the 6th to 7th September, [11] Prelude No.7 2:06 [23] Prelude No.19 2:22 1939 I played in a cafe,” Weinberg recollects. “All previous days, the Polish propaganda [12] Prelude No.8 1:07 [24] Prelude No.20 1:07 had been insisting that our (that is, Polish) troops were fghting successfully. And all of a sudden, [13] Prelude No.9 2:33 [25] Prelude No.21 1:15 the radio announced that the enemy broke through to Warsaw... The next morning, my sister and I [14] Prelude No.10 1:41 [26] Prelude No.22 1:25 set out eastward. My little sister soon returned to Father and Mother, because her shoes rubbed her [15] Prelude No.11 2:51 [27] Prelude No.23 2:21 feet terribly sore, but I went on. And for many days we wandered between the German and Polish [16] Prelude No.12 1:59 [28] Prelude No.24: Menuet 3:10 troops... On September 17, the Red Army intervened, and then we understood that we had to go to the Soviet Union, so in a day or two we all reached the demarcation line. There were Hitler’s troops TOTAL TIME – 63:56 on one side, and on the other, Soviet mounted border guards... I will never forget how mothers with babies in their arms embraced the horses’ legs and begged to let them pass to the Soviet side soonest. And fnally, an order came telling them to let the refugees pass.” Recorded at Studio 1 of State Broadcasting and Audio recording House, Moscow. In the turmoil and confusion of those days, the border guard clerk who checked documents Sound producers Alexander Volkov (1-4), Lubov Doronina (5-28), editing Alina recorded Mieczysław Weinberg as... Moisey; so he became Moisey for the next forty years, Mukhametrakhimova and Svetlana Novitskaya. Mastering A. Volkov. although friends called him Mietek as before. But did that formal loss of name mean anything 2 in the Warsaw Ghetto. It was the Red Army that rescued the future composer, and it was to the Lubyanka torture chambers. Weinberg was imprisoned in February 1953 because his wife was Red Army that he dedicated his First Symphony. And although the very frst opuses were composed a daughter of great Jewish actor and stage director Solomon Mikhoels and niece of a prominent back in Poland, Weinberg himself insisted, “I went into composing seriously only at the outbreak Kremlin doctor Vovsi. The case of the Kremlin doctors, the «murderers in white gowns», of war, when the Germans attacked Poland, and I ran away to the Soviet Union and entered the nearly became a deathly culmination of the so-called “struggle against Zionism», which Minsk Conservatory. I studied there with Professor Vasily Andreevich Zolotarev, a student of Rimsky- was in fact an anti-Semitic campaign unleashed by Stalin. That fabricated «case» fell into pieces Korsakov ... up to Hitler’s aggression against the USSR.” In two years as a student, Quartet No. 2, soon after Stalin’s death, but that intercession by Shostakovich was of serious importance in Piano Sonata, a vocal cycle to words by Julian Tuwim, and several songs were added to Weinberg’s Weinberg’s release. Weinberg recollected «Your buddies are sticking up for you, the investigator list of opuses. Weinberg dedicated his graduation work, Symphonic Poem for Large Orchestra, to his told me. Anyway, it is a fact that Shostakovich wrote a letter to Beriya. The witnesses who teacher. Ilya Musin conducted its performance at the Minsk Philharmonic on June 21, 1941 (!) delivered the letter to Beriya’s offce told me so.» The next morning, the Great Patriotic War started as Hitler attacked the USSR. War seemed to be The half-century of Weinberg’s «second life», that is, his half-century in Moscow produced following on Mieczysław Weinberg’s heels. A severe disease (spinal tuberculosis) prevented him from a rich harvest: 22 symphonies (the 22nd remained unfnished), four chamber symphonies, seven fghting at the battle-front. But Weinberg had weapons of another kind: he wrote his First Symphony operas including The Madonna and the Soldier, The Portrait (after Gogol), The Idiot (after when in evacuation in Tashkent, which he dedicated to the Red Army. Said Weinberg, “In Tashkent, Dostoevsky), and The Passenger, a ballet The Golden Key, his Requiem, cantatas, instrumental I made friends with Yuri Levitin, a composer who arrived there with the Leningrad Conservatory. He concertos, 17 string quartets, numerous songs... In no way can you call the soundtracks written liked my First Symphony very much, and as student and friend of Shostakovich, he sent the score by Weinberg for films «applied music» -whether «toons» loved by the whole nation, such as to Moscow, for Shostakovich to read it... In Moscow I got acquainted with Dmitry Dmitrievich. That Boniface’s Holiday and especially Winnie the Pooh, mentioned before, or be it a most popular was the moment that decided my whole life... When in Minsk, it was unusual for me to hear his Fifth comedy The Tiger Girl, or The Cranes Are Flying, (one of the most prominent Soviet flms awarded Symphony... from inside so to say (they engaged me to play the parts of piano and celesta.) It was the Golden Palm at the Cannes Festival). Weinberg’s music was a noticeable input to the success completely as if I was born anew. Since then, Shostakovich’s music has been captivating me to this of that remarkable flm. No wonder, because the «war theme» threaded through all his music. day. I am a disciple of Shostakovich. Although I never had a single hour of lessons with him, I consider Most of Weinberg’s scores had to wait long to be performed. For instance, the premiere of the First myself his disciple, fesh of his fesh.” Symphony was played not before twenty-fve years (!) had passed, namely on February 11, 1967 (by the Shostakovich greatly appreciated Weinberg’s talent as a brilliant pianist, and Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra under Kirill Kondrashin.) frequently asked him to learn his new music for premiere demonstrations. Such was the case with the Half that time passed from the concept and first sketches of the Cello Concerto (1945) opera Katerina Izmailova (second version of the ill-fated Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk), which Weinberg till the premiere by Mstislav Rostropovich on January 9, 1957 (Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra played from the vocal score at the Ministry of Culture. It should be remembered at this point that under Samuil Samosud.) It was sufficient for the Concerto concept of 1948 not to be in 1947, Shostakovich presented his prohibited Fourth Symphony to colleagues playing four-handed performed for nearly a decade in the atmosphere of «the struggle against Zionism.» Only after with Weinberg; and in the autumn of 1953, the same piano duo performed Shostakovich’s Tenth the 20th Congress of the Communist Party the Concerto (2nd version, 1956) was admitted to the Symphony to Mravinsky.