MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

CD REVIEW



Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


Buy through MusicWeb for £12.00 postage paid.
You may prefer to pay by Sterling cheque or Euro notes to avoid PayPal. Contact for details

Purchase button

 

 

 

Samuil FEINBERG (1890-1962)
Piano Concerto No.2 Op.36 (1945) [37:21]
Suite for Piano No.2 Op.25 (1936) [5:26]
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

Piano Sonata No.11 in B flat major Op.22 (1800) [23:48]
Samuil Feinberg (piano)
USSR State Symphony Orchestra/Nicolai Anosov
rec. Moscow 1946 (Concerto); 1939 (Suite); 1960 (Beethoven)
MELODIYA MEL CD 10 01005 [66:43]




One of the more heartening things of the last few years has been the attention paid to Samuil Feinberg, both as executant and composer. This Melodiya release neatly conjoins those two facets of his art in presenting the Second Concerto and the Suite.

The Concerto was composed in 1945 and recorded the following year in Moscow with that first class accompanist Nicolai Anosov conducting the USSR State Symphony Orchestra. It’s an unusual work, quixotic and not easily pinned down, and perhaps all the more valuable for it. Feinberg alternates puckish whimsy with stern orchestral interjections – added to which there’s a certain Delphic Bachian reserve. Contrasts of deep bass and light treble are also woven into the fabric of a score in which the idiom seems at least partially derived from Medtner. The aloof lyricism of the slow movement is enlivened by some coruscating drama further deepened by some evocative writing for bass clarinet. The scherzo is a blistering ride, though the finale, whilst reverting to the puckish spirit of the opening is, in truth, not always so distinguished thematically. The recording, as one might expect of this vintage, is rather congested and crude. It tends to limit appreciation of the subtlety of Feinberg’s orchestration but the forward sound of the piano is to the advantage of the heroic composer-executant who delivers a powerhouse performance.

His Suite is cast in five very brief movements, the slightest less than a minute long. The centrepiece is the beautifully nourishing lied that lies at the Suite’s heart. The Allegretto finale is full of fluid grace. The sound is typical of Moscow recordings around this time, 1939 – constricted. The sole example of Feinberg’s playing of music other than his own here comes in the form of Beethoven’s Op.22. This receives a highly emotive and driving reading; left hand accents aren’t pointed with, say, Kempff’s refinement or strategic intent. Feinberg’s sound picture is very much more dense, more congested than that cultivated by the German player. Those darker and teakier textures are most obvious in the same sonata’s slow movement. There’s more of everything; more arm weight, more pedal, more obvious depth, a blacker, bleaker place entirely. This sonata has also been reissued on Classical Records CR076 where it’s coupled with Opp. 7 and 109. The CR transfer has the piano significantly more forward in the aural picture but Melodiya’s transfer is otherwise decent for the 1960 vintage.

I certainly hope that Melodiya’s Feinberg reissue programme will explore further and wider.

Jonathan Woolf

 

 

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.