Siberian Symphony Orchestra - Weinberg: Symphony No. 21, Op. 152 & Polish Tunes, Op. 47 (2014)

Mieczysław Weinberg, born in Warsaw in 1919, became a close friend of Shostakovich in Moscow, after fleeing eastwards before the invading Nazis in 1939. His style has much in common with Shostakovich's: fluent contrapuntal skill, a keen feeling for melody, often inflected with Jewish cantilena, and an acute sense of drama which combines a natural narrative manner with an extraordinary ability to create atmosphere. Since his death in 1996, his vast output — which includes 26 symphonies, seven operas and seventeen string quartets — has enjoyed increasing recognition as some of the most individual and compelling music to have been composed in the twentieth century. This recording pairs an early orchestral work, the suite Polish Tunes of 1950, with the last full orchestral symphony he was to complete, dedicated to the memory of those who died in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Veronika Bartenyeva, soprano
Siberian Symphony Orchestra, orchestra
Dmitry Vasilyev, conductor