Weinberg: Sonatas for Violin Solo Gidon Kremer

• Mieczysław Weinberg (1919 - 1996): Sonata No. 3, Op. 126:
• 1Weinberg: Sonata No. 3, Op. 12622:24
• Sonata No. 2, Op. 95:
• 2Weinberg: Sonata No. 2, Op. 95: I. Monody01:28
• 3Weinberg: Sonata No. 2, Op. 95: II. Rests01:44
• 4Weinberg: Sonata No. 2, Op. 95: III. Intervals01:58
• 5Weinberg: Sonata No. 2, Op. 95: IV. Replies02:17
• 6Weinberg: Sonata No. 2, Op. 95: V. Accompaniment02:41
• 7Weinberg: Sonata No. 2, Op. 95: VI. Invocation03:47
• 8Weinberg: Sonata No. 2, Op. 95: VII. Syncopes03:23
• Sonata No. 1, Op. 82:
• 9Weinberg: Sonata No. 1, Op. 82: I. Adagio-Allegro05:29
• 10Weinberg: Sonata No. 1, Op. 82: II. Andante05:37
• 11Weinberg: Sonata No. 1, Op. 82: III. Allegretto03:46
• 12Weinberg: Sonata No. 1, Op. 82: IV. Lento05:05
• 13Weinberg: Sonata No. 1, Op. 82: V. Presto05:42
• Total Runtime01:05:21

Info for Weinberg: Sonatas for Violin Solo

The three sonatas of Polish composer Mieczysław Weinberg, written in 1964, 1967 and 1979, are among the most richly creative and technically challenging 20th century works for solo violin, and their radical expressivity draws the listener in. Gidon Kremer, a key figure in the revival of interest in Weinberg’s music, ranks these pieces with the Bartók sonata for their challenges and rewards.

As he has said, “I am very pleased that the world is slowly recognizing Mieczysław Weinberg as an important composer. For me personally, the treasure trove of his compositions remains a constant source of enthusiasm and inspiration." Recorded at the Lockenhaus Chamber Music festival and at Studio Residence Palesius, Lithuania, this edition of the Weinberg violin sonatas is issued on the occasion of Kremer’s 75th birthday.

Gidon Kremer’s ardent championing of the work of Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996) has helped to bring about a re-evaluation of the Polish composer’s music. “I am very pleased,” Kremer has said, “that the world is slowly recognizing Mieczysław Weinberg as an important composer. For me personally, the treasure trove of his compositions remains a constant source of enthusiasm and inspiration."

The present edition, conceived as “a monument to magnificent 20th century solo literature for violin” brings together Weinberg’s three sonatas, written in 1964, 1967 and 1979. These are richly creative and technically demanding works, rooted in the great tradition established by Bach’s sonatas and partitas for solo violin. Yet, while they are reflections on contrapuntal invention, they are also radically expressive pieces. Each has a strikingly different formal design, and heard side by side they give insight into the evolution of Weinberg’s musical thought.

Gidon Kremer has drawn comparisons between Weinberg’s complex Third Sonata (dedicated to the memory of the composer’s father) and the Bartók solo sonata. It is a work overflowing with dynamism and colour and emotion. In the liner notes Wolfgang Sandner remarks that the sonata´s „underlying character, with its extremely dissonant double-stops, madcap agglomerations of trills and passages of almost ghostly textural thinness, only becomes comprehensible in the light of its dedicatee and his fate, which Weinberg must have borne constantly in mind in his efforts to fashion a dramatic musical edifice.“

The album was recorded at Lockenhaus and at Studio Residence Palesius, Lithuania, is his third ECM release to feature music of Mieczysław Weinberg, and follows discs emphasizing Weinberg’s chamber music and chamber symphonies, performed with musicians of Kremerata Baltica.

On the present recording he plays a violin made by Nicola Amati in 1641, which, as he says, “allowed great tension and versatility to be imparted to the notes of Weinberg.”

The album is issued on the occasion of Gidon Kremer’s 75th birthday on February 27.

Gidon Kremer, violin

Gidon Kremer
Violinist, artistic director and founder of Kremerata Baltica.

Driven by his strikingly uncompromising artistic philosophy, Gidon Kremer has established a worldwide reputation as one of his generation’s most original and compelling artists. His repertoire encompasses standard classical scores and music by leading twentieth and twenty-first century composers. He has championed the works of Russian and Eastern European composers and performed many important new compositions, several of which have been dedicated to him. His name is closely associated with such composers as Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt, Giya Kancheli, Sofia Gubaidulina, Valentin Silvestrov, Luigi Nono, Edison Denisov, Aribert Reimann, Pēteris Vasks, John Adams, Victor Kissine, Michael Nyman, Philip Glass, Leonid Desyatnikov and Astor Piazzolla, whose works he performs in ways that respect tradition while being fully alive to their freshness and originality. It is fair to say that no other soloist of comparable international stature has done more to promote the cause of contemporary composers and new music for violin.

Gidon Kremer has recorded over 120 albums, many of which have received prestigious international awards in recognition of their exceptional interpretative insights. His long list of honours and awards include the Ernst von Siemens Musikpreis, the Bundesverdienstkreuz, Moscow’s Triumph Prize, the Unesco Prize and the Una Vita Nella Musica – Artur Rubinstein Prize. In 2016 Gidon Kremer has received a Praemium Imperiale prize that is widely considered to be the Nobel Prize of music.

In 1997 Gidon Kremer founded the chamber orchestra Kremerata Baltica to foster outstanding young musicians from the Baltic States. The ensemble tours extensively and has recorded almost 30 albums for the Nonesuch, Deutsche Grammophon, Burleske and ECM labels. “After Mozart” (Nonesuch, 2001) received an ECHO prize and a GRAMMY award in 2002, while their recent release on ECM of works by Mieczysław Weinberg was nominated for a GRAMMY in 2015.

Maestro Kremer will lead Kremerata Baltica on landmark tours of North America and Europe in 2016-17 to celebrate the orchestra’s 20th anniversary and his 70th birthday year.

Booklet for Weinberg: Sonatas for Violin Solo