Wajnberg Violin Sonatas Nos. 2, 5 & 6

Featuring

Michał Kowalczyk
Dagmara Niedziela
Mateusz Rożek
Mieczysław Weinberg

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Composer Biography

Mieczysław Wajnberg, the composer, was raised in an assimilated Jewish family in Warsaw and fled to Minsk, then Tashkent, and finally Moscow due to World War II.

Critical Reception

Mieczysław Wajnberg's music is currently experiencing a well-deserved renaissance, with his violin sonatas increasingly appearing in concert programs.

Compositional Technique

Wajnberg believed that melody was the most important element in music, including instrumental music, and often derived melodic and rhythmic material from lyrical themes, returning to them in new harmonic contexts.

Performer Biography

Michał Kowalczyk, the violinist on this album, has been the leader of the Silesian Chamber Orchestra since 2021 and plays a violin made in 2006 by Adam and Wioletta Stalmach.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Wajnberg's music is highly personal, blending national romantic traditions, Jewish musical idiom, Polish heritage (especially Chopin), elements of Shostakovich's style, and a strong autobiographical flavour, while also navigating Stalinist artistic restrictions.

Composer Biography

Wajnberg moved to Moscow and remained there for the rest of his life, thanks to the intervention of Dmitri Shostakovich, who was fascinated by Wajnberg's work and became his close friend.