Record of the week: It’s the composer of the year

Record of the week: It’s the composer of the year

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norman lebrecht

May 10, 2019

From the Lebrecht Record of the Week:

I started writing about Mieczyslaw Weinberg in the early 1990s when he was unknown outside Russia and forgotten within. Some emigres played me his string music and I found the communication so direct and personal that I could not understand his neglect. A Polish Jew, Weinberg fled to the Soviet Union in 1939, was befriended by Shostakovich and narrowly survived incarceration in the Stalin murder machine. Although there are common gestural elements with his friend and mentor, Weinberg is an original musician, haunted by ghosts of his own….

Read on here.

And here.

Et maintenant en francais

Comments

  • Euphonium Al says:

    Thanks for your work on bringing Weinberg’s wonderful music to light. A great composer who survived many of the worst atrocities of the 20th-century. I love the Naxos series with various symphonies, suites, and concerti.

  • Bone says:

    I must not have listened to the same recording. Exceedingly underwhelmed by conducting and performance. But #13 by Siberian Orchestra was interesting enough to make me want to look for more of his music.

  • Tommy says:

    A most expected direction of this review… 🙂 Cheerleading stuff.

    But I have to say I’m joining that crowd too, at least for this particular recording. It’s better than expected and I guess most here will find the music worthwhile. So to take a serious look at this release is mandatory. Listen before buy.

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