Weinberg, M :: Konzert [Concerto] Nr. 1 op. 75

Peermusic Classical presents 'Konzert [Concerto] Nr. 1 op. 75' for flute and piano by Mieczyslaw Weinberg.

Mieczyslaw Weinberg (also known as Moisei Samuilovich Vainberg) was born in 1919 in Warsaw, where his father was a musician at a Jewish theater. As a child he played there himself while simultaneously studying piano at the Warsaw Conservatory. In 1939 he fled from Poland to Minsk; the evacuation of the Minsk Conservatory let him to Tashkent, then in 1943 to Moscow with the help of Shostakovich, where he lived until his death in 1996.

The Concerto for Flute and Orchestra No. 1, Op. 75, the first of Weinberg's two flutes concertos, was premiered in 1961 by the Russian flutist Aleksandr Korneyev at the Moscow Conservatory.

The first movement is a dashing scherzo-like affair, sustained at an almost consistent forte like its counterpart in the Second Sinfonietta and the String Quartet No. 9. Moving from D minor to the tritonal opposite pole of A flat minor, the slow movement unfolds as a dark-hued, introspective passacaglia, making especially effective use of the lower register of the flute. the finale opens with a klezmer-like waltz, of the kind that tumbled often and easily from Weinberg's imagination. In this finale the flute inhabits an Arcadian world related to that of Nielsen's Flute Concerto, casting occasional sideways glances towards darker regions, as if to remind both listener and soloist not to sink too easily or deeply into their respective comfort zones.