Weinberg : Sonatas for Violin and Piano (II) : Nos. 3, 4, 5

Album review

Ten, fifteen years ago, only connoisseurs knew who Mieczysław Weinberg was. The likes of David Fanning, Per Skans, Tommy Persson, Martin Anderson or Robert Reilly (in Surprised by Beauty : A listener's Guide to the Recovery of Modern Music) introduced him passionately to a small but growing audience. Now Weinberg has become the poster-boy for a truly great but neglected composer enjoying a renaissance. Posthumous, alas: Weinberg died, largely forgotten and ignored and suffering from Crohn's disease on January 3, 1996.
Pithily described, Weinberg is "like Shostakovich, but without the smile". The quip plays on the grim and dark image of Dmitri Shostakovich's music, which Weinberg could redouble at the push of a button. By those who didn't know how truly mutual Weinberg's relationship with his 13-year older friend and colleague was, the former was dismissed as a lesser clone of the latter. Weinberg contributed to the easy misperception, stating that "...although I have never had lessons from him, I count myself as his pupil, as his flesh and blood". But Weinberg was capable of humor and wit, not just grimness. (© Arion / Jens F. Laurson)