Volume 8 of Olympia’s Vainberg cycle completes the war trilogy of his symphonies with No. 19, a one-movement work for large orchestra lasting over half an hour. It is the most impressive of the three symphonies in its command of form, developing almost all its material from the themes heard at the outset, and doing so not in any kind of mechanical manner but with a remarkable grasp of the different kinds of music that can evolve from it. The mood is complex. This is no simple piece of banner-waving, nor of grieving; victory emotions are more complicated. Vainberg has written a troubling work. In some ways, it is an old-fashioned one, in that the post-Mahler, now post-Shostakovich symphony is not one popular in the eyes of programme planners, especially when the composer is so little known. Those curious about this remarkable composer will find here a strong, compelling piece of music, one that holds the imagination and the intellect.

It is a stronger piece than the so-called Chamber Symphony No. 3, written for a rather smaller but not really chamber orchestra. Disarmingly, Vainberg said that he had got in something of a muddle with his nomenclature, and in any case felt that 19 symphonies were plenty and that he needed to find some new description. This is certainly on a more contained scale than its companion on the record, but it is very well and inventively written. Vladimir Fedoseyev, Vainberg’s most important interpreter, conducts a performance of both works that it is difficult to imagine being more devoted or more penetrating. The sound quality of both is remarkably good, though it is a pity that Novembers in 1986 and 1991 were chosen for recording. Muscovite bronchial contributions are at their most enthusiastic at this time of year.

JW
(From: Gramophone, May 1997)