ARTICLES BEING VIEWED NOW:
- Unique Strengths - Ron Bierman listens to music by Billy Childs, Sergei Prokofiev, Nikolai Medtner and Ludwig van Beethoven played by Alexander Malofeev, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra and conductor Rafael Payare
- Francisco Feliciano
- France
- 'The C[ritic]s can Drown in their Baths' - English pianist Myra Hess is the subject of Jessica Duchen's new biography, which will be published in February 2025
- A New Approach to Competitions - Applications are now open for the new Shanghai International Musician Competition
VIDEO PODCAST: New Recordings - Find out about Adrian Williams, Andriy Lehki, African Pianism, Heinrich Schütz and Walter Arlen, and meet Stephen Sutton of Divine Art Recordings, conductor Kenneth Woods, composer Graham Williams and others.
Soviet composer Mieczysław Weinberg was born in Warsaw on 8 December 1919 into a Jewish family. His father was a well-known composer and conductor from the Yiddish theatre, and his mother was an actress, also working in Yiddish theatre companies.
Weinberg studied piano at the Warsaw Conservatory from the age of twelve, and graduated in 1939, fleeing to the Soviet Union when World War II began, and studying composition in Minsk. When the war reached Soviet territory, he was evacuated to Tashkent, where he met and befriended Dmitri Shostakovich, who persuaded Weinberg to move to Moscow, where the two composers lived near to one another and shared ideas.
At the end of his life, Weinberg had Crohn's disease and became housebound but continued to work. He was baptised into the Russian Orthodox Church on 3 January 1996 and died in Moscow on 26 February 1996.
CD Spotlight. Magnificent Throughout - Robert McCarney listens to music by Mieczysław Weinberg. '... a wonderful rich ripe legato feel and sound.'
CD Spotlight. Fine Performance - Orchestral music by Mieczyslaw Weinberg, heard by Geoff Pearce. 'Serenade Op 47 No 4 ... represents a happier and undemanding part of the composer's output, written, I guess, to appease the authorities.'
CD Spotlight. Austere and Brooding - Weinberg orchestral music, heard by Gerald Fenech. '... deserving of serious consideration.'
CD Spotlight. Emotional Power - Moisey Weinberg's Symphonies 5 and 10, recommended by Geoff Pearce. '... this music truly speaks with the language of our time.'
CD Spotlight. Emotional Range - Shostakovich and Weinberg string quartets, heard by Andrew Schartmann. '... virtuoso passages leap off the page with excitement ...'
CD Spotlight. Powerful Capabilities - Piano trios by Weinberg and Shostakovich, heard by Howard Smith. '... notable gusto ...'
Ensemble. An Eclectic Mix - Mieczyslaw Weinberg's 'The Portrait' at Opera North, experienced by Mike Wheeler
Ensemble. An Immensely Successful Event - Thomas Bielinski reports from the West Cork Chamber Music Festival 2009
Record box. Russian transcriptions - Basil Ramsey listens to music from the Jewish Folk Music Society