The East-West Chamber Orchestra, founded by Rostislav Krimer, is an 'orchestra for peace' dedicated to strengthening cultural cooperation between eastern and western Europe.
Performer Biography
Igor Fedorov, the clarinet soloist, is one of few clarinettists globally to enjoy an exclusively solo career and was the longest-term student and successor to Professor Ivan Mozgovenko, who knew Weinberg personally.
Composition History
Mieczysław Weinberg's Chamber Symphony No. 2 revisits his String Quartet, Op. 14, from 1944, which had never been publicly performed.
Compositional Technique
The Chamber Symphony No. 4, Mieczysław Weinberg's last completed work, features an obbligato clarinet and a triangle, and its movements form an unbroken continuity.
Historical Context
Mieczysław Weinberg's father-in-law, the renowned actor Solomon Mikhoels, was murdered in 1948, and Weinberg himself was imprisoned for alleged 'Jewish subversion' until Stalin's death in 1953.
Composer Biography
Mieczysław Weinberg, a highly regarded pianist, fled Warsaw in 1939 due to the Nazi invasion and found asylum in Minsk, Belarus.
Cultural Impact
Despite declining fortunes in his final decades, Mieczysław Weinberg's extensive output, including 26 symphonies and 17 string quartets, is now highly regarded as a significant continuation of the Russian symphonic tradition.
