[Mieczysław Weinberg] Symphony No.12 Op.114 (Score-Video)

Performers: Maxim Shostakovich / USSR All-Union Radio & Central Television Grand Symphony Orchestra —————— Special Thanks to my friend ‪@工具人-p8n‬ for permission to reupload his video on YouTube! Here's the original video link: www.bilibili.com/video/BV17pMy6yEs7/ —————— When Dmitri Shostakovich died on August 9, 1975, Mieczysław Weinberg had not composed a symphony in five years. To honor the friend and mentor he regarded as the "greatest symphonist of our time," Weinberg offered a personal tribute in the form of a grand, four-movement, non-programmatic orchestral work. Written between December 1975 and February 1976, the Symphony No.12 is one of the most expansive of Weinberg’s purely instrumental symphonies. It bears the explicit dedication: "In memory of Dmitri Shostakovich." The road to its premiere was fraught with obstacles. Weinberg initially invited conductor Kirill Kondrashin to lead the first performance, but Kondrashin flatly rejected the score upon receipt. On the one hand, Kondrashin already held reservations about Weinberg's recent vocal works (as noted in earlier descriptions); upon reviewing the Twelfth, he charged that Weinberg's music had grown "dry, uneven, and inexpressive" ever since the Eighth Symphony. On the other hand, faced with its immense scale—running nearly an hour in performance—Kondrashin assumed Weinberg would adhere to old habits and demanded extensive cuts before agreeing to conduct it. Deeply insulted by Kondrashin’s attitude, Weinberg severed their friendship. The premiere finally took place as a radio broadcast on October 13, 1979, performed (most likely) by the USSR State Radio Symphony Orchestra under Maxim Shostakovich. Among the numerous musical memorials dedicated to Shostakovich, Weinberg’s symphony occupies a unique position: it is virtually the only major commemorative work that contains no direct quotations from Shostakovich’s music. Critical reception has been divided on this point. Some commentators discern a pervasive Shostakovian "quotational aura," hearing the work as a chronicle of gratitude and ambivalence woven from a Shostakovich-like texture of irony, paradox, and mourning. A more perceptive view suggests that Weinberg’s use of Shostakovich’s idiom was "nomadic": whereas in Shostakovich’s own music the D–E♭–C–B (D-S-C-H) motif served precise functional and symbolic roles, here the elder composer’s language is deeply internalized, unfolding like a panoramic survey across Shostakovich’s stylistic periods. I am particularly fond of the finale, where Weinberg broadens the D-S-C-H signature into a cryptic, structural tonal allusion. Cast in rondo form, the movement opens with an enigmatic refrain struck by the marimba, marked by shifting tonality that modulates sequentially through D major, E-flat major, and C major. The musical argument then develops from this major-triad motif, wandering through D, E-flat, and C major and their relative keys. Through dense contrapuntal layering in the woodwinds and strings and the eventual arrival of the brass, the theme gathers immense momentum before erupting into a sardonic climax. Yet the theme’s energy is quickly exhausted; as the marimba motif repeats, the strings respond only with an elegiac background, which eventually dissolves into a chromatic haze in the strings and celesta—echoing both the close of the first movement of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony and the toy-shop conclusion of his Fifteenth. Sustained string pedals set up an expectation of a final resolution in D. Instead, Weinberg delivers a startling subversion: the low strings suddenly plunge down to a low C, leaving the movement with an expectation-defying, open-ended close. This was likely calculated because the most tonally stable element in the finale’s theme is centered on D (the complete D-major arpeggio dominates the theme), leading listeners to anticipate a resolution in D and overlook the subsequent modulations (E-flat major to C major), particularly when the phrase endings point toward C and G major. By abruptly pulling the final pedal down, Weinberg anchors the conclusion to the theme's ultimate tonal destination, overturning all expectations. Furthermore, having the double basses strike this C fortissimo generates resonant overtones that evoke a tolling funeral bell—a stroke of profound expressive ambiguity. (Description provided by ‪@工具人-p8n‬) —————— I do not own neither the score, nor the recordings used in this video. This is only for educational purposes. If you have any complaints regarding copyright issues, please write to me directly at asorabji20(at)gmail(dot)com before submitting a report to YouTube and I will remove the video ASAP.