Cello Works From Weinberg & Korngold

Hidden Legacies: Weinberg and Korngold Kristina Reiko Cooper, cello. Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra/Constantin Orbelian Delos 3616 Total Time:  61:28 Recording:   ****/**** Performance: ****/****

Hidden Legacies brings together works for cello and orchestra by two 20^th-Century composers whose lives were turned upside down by political turmoil and persecution of their Jewish heritage.  One of them, Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957), is perhaps better known from his work in Hollywood during the 1930s and 1940s.  The other, Mieczyskaw Weinberg (1919-1996), faced continuous scrutiny in Stalinist Soviet era though had great support from Shostakovich and other important conductors and musicians.  The Naxos label has rolled out a variety of recordings of his work which has helped raise awareness for his music.  It is Weinberg’s work which is a primary focus here on this release.

Mstislav Rostropovich gave the premiere of the Cello Concerto in c, Op. 43 in 1957.  The work is cast in four movements.  The opening “Adagio” sets a moody, reflective tone with gorgeous, long sustained lines emphasizing the warm sound of the cello.  The second movement moves us forward rhythmically with echoes of Jewish melodic lines.  An explosion of energy provides more technical virtuosic displays.  The rhythmic interplay is similar to what one might find in Shostakovich, though less acerbity on display here.  A folkish quality is also hinted at in this movement’s playful side.  The final “Allegro” also brings back references to the opening theme which is like a memory that glances backward at what has transpired.  This is a substantial work that has accessible modern language and engaging thematic and rhythmic ideas that engage the listener.  Certainly it is a work well worth being part of the cello concert repertoire.

At the center here is a single-movement work with three primary segments, the Fantasia for Cello & Orchestra, Op. 52.  It is unclear who the original intended soloist was to be for the work which Weinberg worked on between 1951-53.  A cello-piano version was performed by Daniil Shafran who later gave a performance of the orchestrated version (heard here) in 1966.  The work is rich in thematic material often with a folkish quality that certainly endears itself to the listener.

Korngold’s Cello Concerto, Op. 37 is a little different from his violin concerto in that it was written specifically for a film, rather than assembled from film tunes for a new work.  It was written for the 1946 film, Deception, a melodramatic love triangle story involving concert pianist, a cellist, and an egomaniacal composer!  The concerto is a plot device used to push the story to the film’s climax.  The work is rather short, just under 12 minutes in this performance, but has three primary sections.  The brevity of the work may be one reason for its relative neglect as it might feel more like an extended encore than something to program itself.  But, that would diminish the overall technical requirements and virtuosic writing Korngold fills the piece with accompanied by an equally rich, and large orchestra.  The score was one of the last he completed before leaving Hollywood to try and recover his European concert career and property seized by the Nazis.  The work’s interconnectedness to artists of the time is rather fascinating as well.  Gregor Piatigorsky was Korngold’s choice to play the piece but Warner Bros. refused to pay his high fee.  The part fell to Eleanor Aller, principal cellist of the WB Studio Orchestra who would record it for the soundtrack and later perform it that year with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.  (Aller is the mother of conductor Leonard Slatkin—in the small world of Hollywood music.)

Kristina Reiko Cooper is an American cellist currently residing in Tel Aviv.  She has performed internationally and champions new work as well as commissioning pieces.  Her performance here uses a 1743 Guadagnini cello.  Whether that instrument is also to thank for the gorgeous warm tone she extracts from it or not, these are quite beautiful performances and the lyrical quality of this instrument Cooper certainly brings to the forefront throughout the three works recorded here.  She is front and center in the sound picture well balanced against the Kaunsas orchestra, from Lithuania.  The ensemble has a full rich quality to match Cooper’s sound.

The music never quite has that satiric or sardonic edge that one hears in Shostakovich.   Instead, Weinberg’s music tends more to a Post-Romantic quality.  The slight modernisms are generally part of his unique expressiveness and that melancholic aspect is on full display in the slower movements.  The folkish qualities are also fun rhythmically and the orchestra responds well in these segments.  Overall, an excellent and engaging release with stellar performances that provide an emotionally satisfying listen.