Stefan Irmer, the pianist on this album, is known as a 'dedicated truffle hunter among German pianists' for his work in discovering and interpreting forgotten piano music.
Composer Biography
As a young pianist in Warsaw, Mieczysław Weinberg received an offer to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia from the world-famous virtuoso Josef Hofmann, but World War II prevented these plans.
Composer Biography
Mieczysław Weinberg, a Polish-Jewish composer, lost his entire family in the Holocaust and was himself persecuted as a Jew under Stalin's regime.
Historical Context
Mieczysław Weinberg was arrested in 1953 during Stalin's anti-Semitic 'Doctors' plot' campaign, which falsely accused Jewish doctors of conspiring against Soviet leadership.
Composer Biography
Mieczysław Weinberg and Dmitri Shostakovich, who was 13 years his senior, became lifelong close friends after Shostakovich invited Weinberg to Moscow in 1943.
Recording & Production
This recording was made in the Konzerthaus Abtei Marienmünster, a concert hall chosen for its natural acoustics, and avoids artificial sound manipulation.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Mieczysław Weinberg's music blends traditional tonal music with 20th-century innovations, strict polyphony, Jewish music, and light entertainment genres into a unique and recognizable idiom.
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