MIECZYSLAV WEINBERG (1919 1996)

Known also as MOISHE VAINBERG

This article is written as a supplement to my Shostakovich notes. In Part II I

briefly mentioned Shostakovichs close friendship with the Polish born Jewish
composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg whose story is so compelling as well as
horrendous that it deserved and would get from me a separate note to itself.
Few may know of him, let alone his music and just possibly there may be a brief
illustration by Matthew in his last lecture. I will make no detailed attempt to
describe his music but there are some 26 symphonies and string quartets as
well as about a dozen stage works, operas, operettas and ballets. His music is
varied and at times it can sound very like Shostakovich in style although more
close knit, more terse. If you are ever chosen to take part in the television
programme, Pointless, and are asked to name a composer beginning with a V
or a W I would strongly tip Weinberg.
I first came across a disc of his in those halcyon days of the CD when you could
go into the classical section of HMV at the eastern end of Oxford Street, opposite
Marks. It had its separate entrance to the basement, down some steps adorned
with black and white photos of old Hollywood stars. Later you gained access
from the front down an escalator. Whichever, once inside the classical
department it was a temple of sound and a veritable emporium of discs. For
thirty years from 1983 the CD remained supreme with visits also to be made to
Farringdons, Covent Garden Records (but better known as 84 Charing Cross
Road), Music Discount Centre, Classical LP and even in Blackheath there was
Village Voice, the first to go. Gradually they began to disappear but HMV was
as unsinkable as the Titanic. Alas it also struck an iceberg. These days you
cannot even get a CD player for a car.
There was nothing you could not find and plenty of unknowns and anonymous
on which to chance your arm. It was at HMV, I picked up a Russian disc on
Olympia of Vainberg who was still living. Since Naxos and Chandos have issued
discs he is more often called Weinberg, the difference probably arising from the
different alphabets between Poland, the country of his origin and Russia where
he lived the greater part of his life.
He was born in Warsaw where he lived from 1919 to 1939. His mother was born
in Odessa but her family was from Moldavia and there are works he wrote with
titles referring to Moldavian themes. That gave his music a degree of ethnic
approval later on in the age of Socialist Realism although the Soviet authorities
had not the wit to recognize that some of the Moldavian themes could at times
be .as Jewish as Fiddler on the Roof. His father, Shmuel Moiseyevich Weinberg
was a violinist and composer at the Scala Yiddish theatre in Warsaw and it was
here that Moishe made his debut as a pianist and music director at the age of
10. At 12 he entered the Warsaw Conservatory concentrating primarily on the
piano. There were plans mooted for him to go to the USA for further studies but
these were never realized. With the invasion of Poland by Germany on 1 st
September 1939 the writing was on the wall. He managed to get himself out of
the country and settled in Minsk, largest city of Belarus, then part of the Soviet
Union. His parents and his sister, Esther, remained in Warsaw and subsequently
interned before being burnt alive in the Trawniki concentration camp. The First
Hammer Blow of Fate.
At Minsk Weinberg attended composition classes at the conservatory for two
years, studying under Vassily Zolotaryov who himself had studied more than
thirty years previously under both Balakirev and Rimsky-Korsakov.
In 1941 came the German invasion of the Soviet Union as you may recall with
the Leningrad Symphony of Shostakovich. Once more Weinbergs safety was
imperilled and necessary for him to move on eastward again. This time he made
his way to Tashkent in Uzbekistan where he obtained work as a coach at the
opera. It was relatively safe and quiet. It was in Tashkent that Weinberg met and
married his first wife, Natalia Vovsi who was the daughter of Solomon Mikhoels,
artistic director of the Moscow State Jewish Theatre. He was the most famous
Jewish actor of his time and during the war was the chairman of the Jewish Anti-
Fascist Committee. In this capacity he travelled around the world, meeting with
Jewish communities to encourage them to support the Soviet Union in its war
against Germany.
It was at Tashkent in 1943 that Weinberg composed his first symphony and
Mikhoels encouraged his new son-in-law to send the score to Shostakovich to
seek his opinion on the work. Shostakovich was more than impressed and went
on to arrange for Weinberg to be offered an official invitation to come to
Moscow. This turned out to be the beginning of a close lifetime friendship
between the two of them. Shostakovich was a mentor and critical advisor.
Weinberg himself would write I am a pupil of Shostakovich but I have never
had lessons from him. I count myself his pupil, his flesh and blood. Their
friendship became such that each of them would always send any new
composition to the other to seek their comments. It was a two way exercise.
Each dedicated a work to the other, in the case of Shostakovich, it was a string
quartet. In the case of Weinberg it was a symphony. Thus it came about that
Weinberg was to settle in Moscow for the remainder of his long life except for
one period of enforced absence which I will come to shortly. Shostakovich had
earlier developed his interest in Jewish music and some of his best artistic
acquaintances were Jews. One such great friend was Solertinsky in whose
memory he wrote the second piano trio. One gets the feeling that Weinbergs
arrival on the scene plugged the gap that Solertinsky had left. Much of the
Jewish sounding melodic lines written by Shostakovich would undoubtedly now
have been by Weinbergs influence on him in the first place.
With the end of the second world war Weinberg found himself amongst the top
notch of Soviet composers, happy to produce the work that was required of him.
His compositions encompassed a number of genres from symphonies to circus
music. He wrote music for sixty films at least. He was an expert piano player
and found himself playing alongside the likes of David Oistrakh, Leonid Kogan
and Rostropovich until there was an unexplained falling out after Rostropovich
had left the Soviet Union. However there were dark clouds gathering, both
politically and culturally. On the political front, Stalin was more and more
virulently anti-semitic and demonstrating that this pursuit was not just a Nazi
speciality. On the cultural front there was the second Zhdanov decree in 1948
where Weinberg was criticized for formalism and cosmopolitanism, which in
coded language, if not plain Russian, meant Jewish influence. Up till then,
Weinberg, who always refused to join the Communist Party, had seemed safe
and even praised by the newly elected head of the Composers Union,
Khrennikov, for depicting the shining, free working life of the Jewish people in
the land of Socialism.
One big fish to be a victim of the new Stalin purge was his father in law, Mikhoels
who had continued in his role as Chairman of the Jewish anti-Fascist
Committee. With his prominent role as an actor, steps were taken for his
removal. It was during a meeting of the Composers Union that Weinberg
received news of his father-in- laws sudden death in a motor accident. It was
in fact a political assassination. He had been shot and then his body run over
by a lorry. Later in the Khrushchev era it was admitted to have been organized
upon the direct orders of Stalin. For Weinberg, this was the second hammer
blow of fate, a family death by assassination, first the Nazis, now the Soviets.
This was Mahlerian indeed.
Whilst he kept his head down, it was clear that there was a campaign afoot
concerning the number of Jewish professors and tutors at the Conservatory
including its chancellor. Gradually they were being stripped of their position
and removed without there being the talent available to replace them, just like
Stalin did with his generals before the war. For Weinberg who taught there it
was fast becoming only a matter of time. He could forsee what was likely to
happen and in 1952 he and his wife, Natalia, visited the Shostakovichs. Natalya
expressed their concern for their seven year old daughter and that should
anything happen to them she should not be taken into public care. They asked
Shostakovich if he would, in that event, act as her ward and take her into their
family and be brought up by them. Shostakovich readily agreed and signed a
power of attorney to this effect, another instance of the compassion of the man.
Eventually, the charge was laid against Weinberg of plotting to set up a Jewish
republic in the Crimea. It was at the time of the Doctors plot. Seven out of nine
of the doctors were Jewish and links were made to Natashas uncle, who was
executed. The reign of terror dribbled down to Weinberg. He was questioned,
threatened with torture and confessed to involvement by others.
Weinberg was arrested in January 1953. The third hammer blow. He thought he
would not survive his internment, if only due to his poor health at the time. In
Gulag temperatures of -30, he was taken outside in only his prison garb and
shorn of all his hair. He was interrogated and allowed no sleep between 11:00
p.m. and 6:00 a.m. In an act of great courage, Shostakovich, impervious to the
danger to himself, sent a letter, protesting Weinberg's innocence to Beria, chief
of the NKVD, the predecessor to the KGB. He was a particularly unpleasant piece
of work, the Soviet equivalent of Heinrich Himmler. Weinberg was released at
the end of April of 1953. It was unlikely that Beria had responded to the request
but Stalins death one month before opened the prison gates for Weinberg and
many others. To celebrate his release, the Shostakovichs and Weinbergs held a
dinner party at which they burned the power of attorney.
Oddly Weinberg never complained or challenged. He continued with his
composition living a long life in his Moscow flat, continuing with his cycle of 26
symphonies, which included four chamber symphonies, one less than
Myaskovsky. He was modern but never avant garde as would be the next
generation. He and Shostakovich remained the closest of friends until the death
of Shostakovich in 1975 after which Weinberg wrote his 12 th symphony in
memoriam to Shostakovich. Weinbergs health was none too good over the
twenty years which followed. He has been largely forgotten as being neither
traditionalist nor avant garde but his turn will surely come. After what he went
through, he deserves it.