Irina Shostakovich and Alexander Raskatov - a conversation about Mieczysław Weinberg

In April 2015 the International Weinberg Society (www.weinbergsoc... ) filmed this conversation of Irina Shostakovich and composer Alexander Raskatov about the life of Mieczysław Weinberg.
The International Weinberg Society was founded to promote the music of Mieczysław Weinberg (*1919 in Warsaw; † 1996 in Moscow), to bring attention to his works, to encourage musicians to perform his music and make him known to a wider audience.
Its mission is to organise concerts, lectures, exhibitions and multidisciplinary events which are focused on Weinberg´s music and life, his close connection to Dimitri Shostakovich and his importance to classical music in the 20th century.
One of the Society´s objectifs is to contribute to the financing of recordings of his music, as well as the publication and translation of articles and books about his life.

[@sir9integra9jr]

I'm playing one of Weinberg's cello solo sonatas on a recital soon. This interview is so valuable for my research on him; there just isn't a whole lot out there about Weinberg that discusses him in more depth than his basic professional and biographical details.

[@linusroth650]

Thank you, glad it helped you!

[@davidpountney6989]

Such a moving testimony. Thank you! I am so proud of the fact that following the Bregenz Festival 2010 when we played 23 pieces by Weinberg, symphonies, string quartets and of course the operas The Passenger and Portrait his music has become widely known and recordings fill up the shelves with his music. I am glad you mentioned Medvedev also who was such a brilliant dramatist and theatre writer.

[@linusroth650]

Thank you! This month teh Bavarian State Opera staged teh Passenger as well, which means one could argue that finally Weinberg made it to the most important stages

[@goorming]

Weinberg is one of the few composers that I would call an undeniable genius. Its extremely impressive to have published 150 works and all of them are of immense quality and amazing pieces of music. The man really lived and breathed music.

[@linusroth650]

I absolutely agree, he was a true genius!

[@alanwerner8563]

sorry I don’t speak Russian. So this is ALL lost on me. Especially considering that the closed captions are Totally Illegible. It’s because they are printed against the White Background of that table. Even moving them up to the other side of the frame (the top against the books) would help a lot.

[@vito_nacci]

They mention the last years of Weinberg as filled with solitude and bitterness, worrying how his music would die with him: then how we explain (and connect with this) the winning in 1990 - just one year before his death! - of the State prize of USSR for the arts, given by the party itself (not to mention the recognition as Popular artstist in 1980 of RSFSR and in 1971 as Honoured artist of RSFSR)

[@linusroth650]

thank you for your comment. i don´t think the official prices of the Soviet Union wouldn´t necessarily mean having a prosperous, successful or happy life. besides that, to my information he received the prize of the USSR in 1980, not 1990.

[@vito_nacci]

​​@@linusroth650 This is a very hard and ambiguous matter to be studied, I'm noticing going through as much material and literature as I can: the actual reception in Soviet Union by his contemporaries, I really can't get to the bottom of it. He actually won the USSR state prize for the arts in 1990, specifically for the composition of Chamber music n1 and n2 (both composed in 1987). It was not easy to find on the internet the list of the laureates. As much as the memories of the people that met the composer are incredibly precious, they are inevitably imbued with personal thoughts and subjectivity, unable to reach historical truth. Thanks very much for sharing this video

[@linusroth650]

i double checked, and yes, you seem to rigth it was in 1990. nevertheless his music wasn´t performed too much in the last 10 years of his life, at least by far not as much as in the 40s- mid 70s. none of the big soviet stars took his music to the west, but only performed it in the USSR ( Oistrach, Rostropovich, Gilels, Kogan ) . The next generation like f e Kremer concentrated on more avantgarde composers like Schnittke, Gubaidulina etc and never performed Weinberg until lately, when Weinberg´s "renaissance" started. after all it depends mainly on us performing artists if a composer gets played ot not...

[@FilipSandecomposer]

Tnak you for sharing this unique footage. I love Weinberg! He deserves so much recognition!!!!

[@linusroth650]

thank you for watching!

[@davidfloren5339]

I'm one who thinks the 6th, 7th and 12th symphonies need more performances, as well as some of the string quartets of course!

[@linusroth650]

toatlly agree!

[@albertmm96]

apparently there was some confusion with the first photo in this video? There we can see Irina and Dmitry Shostakovich with the armenian artist Saryan. The photo, of course, has nothing to do with the theme of the interview.

[@linusroth650]

well, it´s an interview with ...Irina Shostakovich after all ;-). And she wanted this photo to be used

[@arielveiatanasovski4096]

What is the music in the intro?

[@miriamviolin]

Weinberg's Violin Concertino op.42 :)

[@linusroth650]

it´s this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h6evaXyvdtWnetk

[@linusroth650]

@@miriamviolin exactly kzbin.info/www/bejne/h6evaXyvdtWnetk