Weinberg: String Quartets Nos. 2-4 Silesian Quartet

• Mieczysław Weinberg (1919 - 1996): String Quartet No. 2, Op. 3:
• 1Weinberg: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 3: I. Allegro08:35
• 2Weinberg: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 3: II. Andante08:07
• 3Weinberg: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 3: III. Allegretto04:01
• 4Weinberg: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 3: IV. Presto03:44
• String Quartet No. 3, Op. 14:
• 5Weinberg: String Quartet No. 3, Op. 14: I. Presto06:58
• 6Weinberg: String Quartet No. 3, Op. 14: II. Andante sostenuto08:22
• 7Weinberg: String Quartet No. 3, Op. 14: III. Allegretto04:22
• String Quartet No. 4, Op. 20:
• 8Weinberg: String Quartet No. 4, Op. 20: I. Allegro comodo09:36
• 9Weinberg: String Quartet No. 4, Op. 20: II. Moderato assai07:03
• 10Weinberg: String Quartet No. 4, Op. 20: III. Largo marciale09:28
• 11Weinberg: String Quartet No. 4, Op. 20: IV. Allegro moderato06:29
• Total Runtime01:16:45

Info for Weinberg: String Quartets Nos. 2-4

Mieczysław Weinberg (Polish: Wajnberg) wrote his first string quartet in May 1937. In autumn 1939, he made his way in dramatic circumstances to the Soviet Union, and there, exempted from military service due to poor health, he was given the chance to continue his training in composition at the Minsk Conservatory. His teacher there was 67-year-old Vasily Zolotarev, once a pupil of Mily Balakirev and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Persuaded by Professor Zolotarev, or perhaps acting on his own initiative, Weinberg began writing another string quartet on 25 November. He finished this first 'student work', and his second for such a line-up, on 13 March 1940. He dedicated it to his mother and sister, whose fate was unknown to him.

(...) A dozen or so months later, when Germany invaded its former ally in the summer of 1941, Weinberg was forced to flee for a second time. On this occasion, he made his way to Tashkent, to where members of the Leningrad Conservatory were also evacuated in the autumn. In December, he had an opportunity to hear his String Quartet No. 2, Op. 3 performed by these exiled musicians. Afterwards, the work probably ended up in a drawer and was shown only to composer-friends, which would explain the similarity between this piece and certain episodes from Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartets Nos. 2 and 6, written at a later period when both composers maintained close contact. Forty-five years later, Weinberg returned to the material of his youth. Using the experience he had gained over the past decades, he made certain alterations. He changed very little in the first two movements: he made a few abbreviations, developed certain themes in a slightly different way, and added variety to others by complementing existing parts with new ones; sometimes he also changed the articulation or register. He then added a new movement in the form of a short delicate intermezzo (largely through playing con sordino and the abundance of rests between Quartet No. 2, this time assigned opus number 145, that the Silesian Quartet performs on this album.

Silesian Quartet

The Silesian String Quartet
is one of the leading chamber ensembles in Poland. In its earliest years it honed its craft under the tutelage of members of such quartets as LaSalle, Amadeus, Juilliard, Smetana, and Alban Berg.

Today, the Silesian String Quartet enjoys international renown, performing on concert stages in the majority of European countries as well as in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Japan, China and South Korea. It has appeared in such prestigious venues as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Konzerthaus in Vienna, De Singel in Antwerp, Schauspielhaus in Berlin, Tivoli in Copenhagen, Salle Pleyel in Paris, Carnegie Hall in New York, Jordan Hall in Boston, Hoam Art Hall in Seoul, and Bellas Artes in Mexico City. The ensemble’s repertoire draws on the masterpieces of the chamber music canon, with a strong focus on the works of contemporary composers.

The chamber musicians of Silesia boast a very rich discography. They have recorded music from many eras, with special emphasis on Polish music from the last three decades. Their recordings can be found on over 50 albums released on such labels as Chandos, ECM, EMI Poland, Olympia, CD Accord, and Radio Katowice. Six of them have been singled out for Fryderyk Awards of the Polish Phonographic Industry in the category of Best Chamber Music Album. Since 1993, the ensemble had organised the International Chamber Music Festival Silesian String Quartet and Guests, which in its past 25 editions has welcomed several dozen outstanding artists from Poland and abroad.

The Silesian String Quartet has also been the recipient of numerous prizes and distinctions, among the most important of which are the Gold Cross of Merit (1999), the Orpheus Award for the best performance of a piece by a Polish composer during the Warsaw Autumn Festival (2002), the Honorary Gold Badge for Services to the Silesia Province (2005), and the Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis (2008).

Booklet for Weinberg: String Quartets Nos. 2-4