Mieczysław Weinberg, Chamber Sinfonies I & II, Concertino for Violin

A companion and friend of Dmitri Shostakovich 1919-1996 "The unique magic of Mieczysław Weinberg’s music is not easy to describe. Closely interwoven with his biography, which bore the painful marks of the upheavals of the 20th century, his compositions emerged as a musical reflection of his life. And yet, they resist clear-cut interpretations: Weinberg’s music is too complex and ambiguous, as technically demanding as it is fascinating. At times, contradictions become audible—for instance, when Weinberg, in his darkest hours, finds a musical language that expresses lightness and joy. Such is the case in his Concertino Op. 42, composed in the summer of 1948, when the ever-growing antisemitism of the Stalinist regime, clearly palpable since the end of the war, began to affect Weinberg’s life directly. At the same time, in the spring of 1948, the music scene came under the grip of government censorship as part of a propaganda campaign. At its center stood Weinberg’s close friend Dmitri Shostakovich... In March 1948, in an attempt to deflect suspicion, Weinberg wrote one of the obligatory and painful self-denunciations, acknowledging his “mistakes” and pledging to adapt his style to official expectations. As if to underscore these statements, he composed his Sinfonietta No. 1 Op. 41 around the same time—a work that stands out in Weinberg’s oeuvre for its straightforwardness and simplicity. Yet only a few months later, in June 1948, Weinberg composed the Concertino, Op. 42. Unlike the Sinfonietta, however, this composition can by no means be called a strategic work of political calculation....." (Excerpt from the liner notes by Verena Mogl)