Weinberg: Symphony No. 3 - Suite No. 4 from 'The Golden Key' Göteborgs Symfoniker - Thord Svedlund

• Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919 - 1996): Symphony No. 3, Op. 45 (1949-50, revised 1959):
• 1 I. Allegro 10:23
• 2 II. Allegro giocoso 04:39
• 3 III. Adagio 09:13
• 4 IV. Allegro vivace 08:11
• Suite No. 4 from 'The Golden Key', Op. 55d (1954-64):
• 5 I. Burattino's Dance with the Key 02:08
• 6 II. Elegy 03:03
• 7 III. Dance of Artemon 01:15
• 8 IV. Dance of the Cricket 00:44
• 9 V. Dance of the Cat and the Fox 01:44
• 10 VI. Dance of Shushera the Rat 01:04
• 11 VII. The Lesson 02:45
• 12 VIII. The Pursuit 04:13
• Total Runtime 49:22

Info for Weinberg: Symphony No. 3 - Suite No. 4 from 'The Golden Key'

The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra led by Svedlund is back with a new recording in the series devoted to works by Mieczyslaw Weinberg. Born in Poland into a Jewish family, Weinberg fled before the 1939 German invasion and spent most his life in the Soviet Union. He was a friend and neighbor of Shostakovich, a champion of his music. Symphony No.3 (1949-50) was composed shortly after Zhdanov launched the anti-formalism campaign to produce music for the People (drawing on folk material).

Conductor: Thord, Svedlund
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra

Symphony No. 3, Op. 45 (1949-50, revised 1959) in B minor - in h-moll - en si mineur
I Allegro - [ ] - Tempo I - Largo
II Allegro giocoso - [ ] - Andante sostenuto - Tempo I
III Adagio - Doppio movimento - Tempo I
IV Allegro vivace - Moderato - Tempo I
Suite No. 4 from 'The Golden Key', Op. 55d (1954-64) for large orchestra
1 Burattino's Dance with the Key. Allegretto - Presto - Allegro
2 Elegy. Andante tranquillo
3 Dance of Artemon. Allegretto
4 Dance of the Cricket. Moderato -
5 Dance of the Cat and the Fox. Allegro moderato
6 Dance of Shushera the Rat. Allegretto
7 The Lesson. Allegretto - Allegro
8 The Pursuit. Allegro - Presto - Prestissimo


Weinberg: Symphony No. 3/Suite No. 4 from 'The Golden Key'
The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Thord Svedlund is back with a new recording in Chandos’ ongoing series devoted to orchestral works by Weinberg. This is proving a benchmark series, one that has contributed significantly to Weinberg’s reappraisal in recent years. International Record Review described this recording of concertos by Weinberg (CHAN 5064) as ‘one of the most sheerly exciting album to come my way in a long time… a release of first importance’.

Born in Poland into a Jewish family, Mieczyslaw Weinberg fled before the German invasion in 1939 and spent most of his working life in the Soviet Union where he was a friend and neighbour of Shostakovich who did much to champion his music. He composed his Third Symphony between 1949 and 1950, shortly after the launch of Andrey Zhdanov’s ‘anti-formalism’ campaign which exhorted all Soviet composers to produce music for the People, i.e. in a broadly comprehensible language, preferably drawing on folk material. Weinberg obliged by placing a Belorussian folksong (‘What a Moon’) as a contrasting theme in the first movement, and a mazurka-like Polish folksong (‘Matek has died’) at the corresponding point in the second; the latter then transformed to produce the main theme of the finale.

This nod in the direction of official recommendations still was not enough to ensure a performance of the symphony. The premiere which had been scheduled to take place in Moscow was postponed. Later Weinberg was said to have discovered a number of ‘errors’ during rehearsals and therefore made the decision to cancel the performance. Perhaps this was simply an attempt to cover up official pressure to withdraw the work, perhaps not. In any case, Weinberg revisited the material ten years later, and the revised version was first heard in 1960 in the Great Hall of the Conservatory in Moscow, performed by the All-Union Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Gauk.

Weinberg composed the ballet The Golden Key in 1954 – 55 on a popular tale by Aleksey Tolstoy, which mixes elements of the story of Pinocchio with that of Petrushka, hinting too at Jack and the Beanstalk. The music itself can be heard as a gallery of the great Russian masters of orchestration, Weinberg taking us on a journey of Tchaikovskian waltzes, Rimskian brass works, flashes of Stravinsky’s Petrushka in the winds and in some of the dance rhythms, and gorgeous adagios of the sort Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet taught Russian composers how to write.

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