Weinberg's String Quartet No. 4 was dedicated to the Bolshoy Theatre String Quartet, who premiered the work in Moscow on January 19, 1946.
Composition History
Weinberg's String Quartet No. 16 is dedicated to his sister Ester, who died following the Nazi invasion of Poland and would have turned sixty in the year of the quartet's composition.
Performer Biography
The Arcadia Quartet has won multiple international competitions, including the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in London in 2012.
Recording & Production
This album is part of the Arcadia Quartet's project to record the complete set of seventeen string quartets by Mieczysław Weinberg.
Critical Reception
The Fourth Quartet was the first of Weinberg's quartets to be assessed musicologically, by Lev Raaben in his 1963 study of Soviet Instrumental Chamber Music.
Composer's Artistic Vision
After the death of his friend and mentor Shostakovich in 1975, Weinberg felt freer to return to instrumental genres that Shostakovich had mastered, exploring new expressive paths.
Composer Biography
Mieczysław Weinberg's String Quartets Nos. 3, 4, 5, and 6 were all composed between 1944 and 1946, a period described as his "anni mirabiles" (miraculous years) in chamber music.
