Twenty years after his death, interest in Mieczysław Weinberg’s music is burgeoning, thanks to standard-bearers such as violinist Linus Roth, who, having recorded almost all of Weinberg’s works for violin with either piano or orchestra, now tackles the three solo violin sonatas. You can hear why he didn’t begin with them: dense, serious, and spiky, even in the relatively playful passages, they make for unforgiving listening back-to-back. Roth and pianist José Gallardo punctuate them with the three tiny Fantastic Dances by Weinberg’s friend Shostakovich, but it’s not enough to clear the air. Listen to the sonatas individually, however, and one appreciates not only the plate-spinning skill with which Weinberg keeps different strands of music airborne, suggesting much more than one actually hears, but also the poise and intensity of Roth’s performance; the Third Sonata, from 1978, unfolds in an unbroken, nearly half-hour stretch, and Roth’s achievement in maintaining its tension is considerable.
