Leó Weiner (1885-1960)
Complete Works for Orchestra Volume 4
Violin Concerto No.1 in D major Op.41 (1958)
Variations on a Hungarian Folksong Op.30 (1949)
Serenade Op.3 (1906)
Divertimento No.3 Op.25 Hungarian Impressions (1950)
Júlia Pusker (violin)
Budapest Symphony Orchestra MÁV/Valéria Cśanyi
rec. 2019-24, Hungaroton Rottenbiller Street Studio; MÁV Orchestra Studio, Budapest, Hungary
Naxos 8.574707 [68]
The ongoing survey of the complete orchestral works of Leó Weiner on Naxos has reached Volume 4, more than five years since Volume 3 appeared. The programme is once more a judicious and well-planned mix of concertante and orchestral works. Conductor Valéria Cśanyi and the Budapest Symphony Orchestra MÁV reappear as the main artists. They prove again to be idiomatic and committed performers, if perhaps lacking the very last degree of finesse. Likewise, the Naxos recording is good and detailed if maybe not of the very highest standard.
The disc opens with Weiner’s very likeable Violin Concerto No.1. According to the liner notes, this was the last major score Weiner completed, and he never heard it performed. It is in fact an orchestration of his Op.9 violin sonata from 1911. The prevailing mood is lyrical and indeed pastoral. By the standards of the ‘warhorse’ concerti, the level of required technical virtuosity is fairly low. The sonata origins probably explains the absence of a cadenza. Of course, it is still very hard to play as well as Júlia Pusker does it here. She has exactly the measure of the work. She produces long flowing lyrical lines without any sense of forced tone or unnecessary intensity. In the closing Presto,she is in complete control of the heightened level of virtuosity required.
This really is a rather charming and benevolent work. The four movements run to a total of just under 26 minutes; the longest is the finale at 8:50. Interestingly, the USP for this performance is that it appears to be the first to play this finale complete. The liner notes say that in previous recordings there have been ‘traditional’ (not sanctioned by the composer) cuts of some 150 bars. The only other version I have and know is a Hungaroton recording played by Vilmos Szabadi. Funnily enough, the timings of the two finales are very similar. That is mainly down to Szabadi choosing a much slower basic tempo. Pusker’s tempo choice is a true Presto, played with quicksilver brilliance and thus preferable to Szabadi’s, fine musician though he is.
It is a notable feature of the programme that Weiner’s musical voice remained essentially unchanged across the more than 50 years represented here. Clearly, in the case of the sonata/concerto he was quite happy to stick with the earlier work pretty much note for note. Remarkably, in the three other Hungarian / folk-influenced scores there is little difference between the precociously attractive Serenade Op.3and the Divertimento No.3 Hungarian Impressions of 44 years later.
Weiner was never a field collector of folk material in the way that Bartók or Kodály were. He used museum collections as his source material, and was happy to handle these attractive tunes as a starting point for his sophisticated orchestral treatments. Weiner was a master orchestrator albeit in a Romantic vein, so these melodies provided him with exactly the right kind of opportunity to write good-natured colourful scores. The early Serenadehas remained his most famous single work, understandably so. It is a model of its type – lucid scoring for a Beethoven-sized orchestra (double winds, two trumpets, two horns) – which results in attractive music of an ideal length. The performance here is a nice blend of care and character. Perhaps Neeme Järvi’s fairly recent version on Chandos with his Estonian orchestra is more sophisticated in terms of engineering and playing but this music can benefit from the slightly more earthy approach it receives here.
I had not heard the Variations on a Hungarian Folksongbefore. This brief work, at 5:18, crams in seven variations on a march-like theme. Originally this was the last movement of the Hungarian Peasant Songs that Weiner wrote for piano. As ever with him, the result is attractive and well achieved. He never strives for effect or aims to shock the listener. By the standards of the mid-20th century, this certainly is a very conservative score.
The liner notes mention that Weiner suffered various creative crises triggered in part by the horrors of World War II and in part by the rapid change in public taste away from neo-Romantic to more Modernist music – something which he struggled to relate to. The use of folk music and the inspiration they brought helped him break down his creative block. This is evident in the Divertimento No.3 Hungarian Impressions, an appealingly unbuttoned and enjoyable work. Again perhaps Järvi is more impressive by the sheer polish and finesse of the playing – this type of score always played to his strengths. Yet few of those who listen to this new Naxos recording will be disappointed by the results.
Collectors of this series will welcome a new volume. For those yet to discover Leó Weiner’s angst-free art, this is probably a good place to start. Hopefully it will not take another five years for the next volume in this series to appear.
Nick Barnard
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