Mieczyslaw Weinberg (Moishei Vainberg) dedicated site

Mieczyslaw Weinberg (Moishei Vainberg)

Mieczyslaw Weinberg (Moishei Vainberg) is one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. He has until recently been unknown and neglected, and continues to be seen in the shadow of his great friend Shostakovich until this very day. This site hopes to change the latter by offering various resources about the composer, containing information about his life, work, recordings etc. thereby giving listeners the opportunity to recognize the immense power and originality of Vainberg's music.

Contents:

Outstanding article about the life of Vainberg and his music, written by Robert R. Reilly for the Catholic Information Center's periodical magazine Crisis (now the Crisis Magazine), Feb 2000.

Another good biography in an article from classical.net

A short article/essay written by me about Vainberg's music, together with brief descriptions of selected works as an extension. Also, information about obtaining musical scores.

List of works, and recordings/discography of Vainberg.

Links to a comprehensive discography of Vainberg's works, and to recording companies/labels for Vainberg CDs.

Links to other useful references/sites about Vainberg.

"[Moishei] Vainberg, aka Mieczyslaw Weinberg, 1919-96, has suffered for far too long from being considered (where he is considered at all) as being a Shostakovich epigone. But Shostakovich was not of that opinion: His professional and personal respect for Vainberg ran very deep, and practical; [...] The superficial similarities of style fall away once you get to know Weinberg's [Vainberg's] music, and a fully formed, wholly individual composer emerges, one of the most compelling voices of the 20th century."

From Fanfare USA, Recording reviews, Martin Anderson
(http://www.chamberorchestrakremlin.ru/record/Rec_rev_Vainberg_Fanfare.htm [Online 7/4/2004])

"[...] Weinberg is the third great Soviet composer, along with Prokofiev and Shostakovich."

From Classical.net Reviews, "Mieczyslaw Weinberg", Steve Schwartz
(http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/o/oly00473a.html [Online 10/4/2004])

Per Skans on Mieczyslaw Weinberg's (Moishei Vainberg's) name:

"Why Weinberg?
Why not Vainberg? Why not Wainberg? Or Vajnberg? Or Wajnberg?

The reason is very simple: Weinberg is correct, all other spellings are wrong! Weinberg grew up and spent his first twenty years in Poland, where the Latin alphabet is used, and he and his family spelt the name exactly this way. Its origin is German/Yiddish. Any other spelling in the Latin alphabet must thus be avoided!

I confess having a certain guilt myself, since I once accepted - without checking them - certain rumours that Weinberg himself preferred the spelling "Vainberg". I discovered my error after I had written the texts for half a dozen CDs in the large series of Olympia in London, and I wanted to change the spelling, but they refused. In fact I understand this, because it would have confused their customers if they had changed it in the middle of a series. Nevertheless the CDs have unfortunately contributed to the present Babylonic situation.

The variety of (wrong) spellings is due to the circumstance that various people believed that the original spelling of the name was the one of the Russian alphabet. They then transliterated the name into the Latin alphabet, according to various rules (an ironical detail being that Soviet scores -- of all! -- used the correct spelling Weinberg!). But now Weinberg is becoming increasingly accepted. The New Groves, the famous dictionary, used the English transliteration "Vaynberg" some years ago, but in the Internet edition they have now corrected this into Weinberg.

I am at present writing a biography in English which is scheduled to appear in 2005 at Toccata Press in London; there I of course am using the correct spelling Weinberg!

Per Skans Uppsala, Sweden"

This site will use for the composer's name both the spelling appearing on Olympia CDs (Vainberg), and the composer's own spelling (Weinberg) synonymously. This is done to avoid confusion, however, I hope that over time the correct spelling, as explanied above, will become the accepted one.

About me:

I am an Australian student studying pure mathematics and computer science at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. My interests include computer programming, philosophy and, of course, classical music.

If you have any comments or queries please e-mail me.

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	Outstanding article about the life of Vainberg and his music, written by Robert R. Reilly for the Catholic Information Center's periodical magazine Crisis (now the Crisis Magazine), Feb 2000.
	Another good biography in an article from classical.net
	A short article/essay written by me about Vainberg's music, together with brief descriptions of selected works as an extension. Also, information about obtaining musical scores.
	List of works, and recordings/discography of Vainberg.
	Links to a comprehensive discography of Vainberg's works, and to recording companies/labels for Vainberg CDs.
	Links to other useful references/sites about Vainberg.