Stefano Zanchetta: Weinberg Violin Sonatas
I recently had the pleasure of listening to Stefano Zanchetta's latest album, which features the Complete Violin Sonatas of Mieczyslaw Weinberg. As someone who isn't a music critic, I won't attempt to use the perfect metaphor to describe this work. In my honest opinion the word “euphonious” has no place in any review, but certainly with Weinberg, you would be way off base.
Weinberg was an intriguing figure, considered by some to be the third great Soviet composer, alongside Prokofiev and Shostakovich, who was his close friend and protector. Despite having written over 150 works, including symphonies, a violin concerto, operas, film scores, and dozens of sonatas for various string instruments, Weinberg's compositions received little recognition outside the Soviet Union during his lifetime due to his Jewish heritage. However, his music has since been embraced by many great musicians, including Zanchetta, whose latest CD features the three solo sonatas for violin.
I found Zanchetta's performance to be truly captivating. As a maker of stringed instruments, I'm particularly interested in how a sonata performance can bring out the natural qualities and potential of the instrument for which it was written. Zanchetta's masterful playing accomplishes this with a Herculean measure of endurance and concentration. The album's opening track, the 3rd Sonata, opus 126, which runs for over 23 minutes without interruption and features the most challenging scoring imaginable for a solo instrument, showcases Zanchetta's remarkable talent. From jarring cadences to haunting flautando passages, the music remains lyrical and true to the innate sounds of a concert violin. The partnership between Zanchetta and Weinberg is nothing short of captivating.
This leads me to a final thought about supporting modern music. The future of string music and violin-making alike depends on top string players embracing modern works. As a fellow creative, I’ve found that the best way to make a great sounding violin is just to get it in the hands of a great player. That violin, however, needs to be deserving of the trust an artist may place in it for expressing all they love in music. The same is true of modern music. We want to promote the dissemination of new works that will continually invigorate our listening experience, but audiences need to be enchanted with masterful performances that bring out the full potential of the instruments for which they are written.
Stefano Zanchetta's latest release of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's Complete Violin Sonatas does just that, brilliantly.
Gregg Alf