Austere and Brooding

'... deserving of serious consideration.'

Polish-born Moscow-based Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996) was one of the twentieth century's most prolific composers to come out of Eastern Europe. His output is profuse and covers practically every genre, but his predilection was always the sound of the symphony orchestra, and many of his pieces are indeed symphonic. During the first part of his career Weinberg concentrated more on writing symphonies, but either side of his fiftieth birthday, his creative concerns turned to opera, and his symphonic compositions became more widely spread. The Tenth Symphony appeared in 1968 and No 11 in 1970...