Przemysław Witek - Mieczysław Weinberg Piano & Chamber Works (2015)

Tracklist

01. Piano Sonata No. 2 in A minor Op. 8 – 1. Allegro
02. Piano Sonata No. 2 in A minor Op. 8 – 2. Allegretto
03. Piano Sonata No. 2 in A minor Op. 8 – 3. Adagio
04. Piano Sonata No. 2 in A minor Op. 8 – 4. Vivace
05. Children's Notebooks Op. 16
06. Piano Sonata No. 4 in B minor Op. 56 – 1. Allegro
07. Piano Sonata No. 4 in B minor Op. 56 – 2. Allegro
08. Piano Sonata No. 4 in B minor Op. 56 – 3. Adagio
09. Piano Sonata No. 4 in B minor Op. 56 – 4. Allegro
10. Piano Quintet Op. 18 – 1. Moderato con moto
11. Piano Quintet Op. 18 – 2. Allegretto
12. Piano Quintet Op. 18 – 3. Presto
13. Piano Quintet Op. 18 – 4. Largo
14. Piano Quintet Op. 18 – 5. Allegro agitato

"Mieczysław Weinberg is a composer whose life and work were most strongly influenced by World War II. "So many of my works are connected with the subject of war. Unfortunately, I did not choose it. It was imposed by my fate, the tragic fate of my family. I consider it my moral duty to write about war, about this horror that happened to people in our century" (I. Żmodia, Honesty, truthfulness and full devotion. A conversation with a composer about his work, transl. M. Terlecka, "Sowiecka Muzyka" 1988, no. 9, p. 23).

The pieces in the album come mainly from the war years: Piano Sonata No. 2 in A minor, Op. 8, was composed in 1942 during the composer's stay in Tashkent, Children's Notebooks, Op. 16 in 1944, shortly after moving to Moscow, the Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 18, comes from the same year. A work that was written at a different time is the Piano Sonata No. 4 in B minor, Op. 56 from 1955, which Weinberg composed shortly after another extremely stigmatizing event in his life, namely his arrest for links with a group of Jewish doctors who were allegedly planning an assassination attempt on Stalin in early 1953". (Przemysław Witek, fragment of the discussion of the pieces in the booklet accompanying the CD).

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