This album was recorded in the Omsk Philharmonic Hall in Siberia, which underwent a major acoustic redevelopment between 2010 and 2011.
Recording & Production
The Omsk Philharmonic Hall was redeveloped to enhance the listening experience by creating strong early lateral reflections, a technique also used in Dallas and Birmingham.
Compositional Technique
Weinberg's Symphony No. 21 includes a piano solo quoting the opening melody from Chopin's First Ballade, intended as a symbol of Poland and its sufferings.
Composition History
Mieczysław Weinberg's Symphony No. 21, composed between 1989 and 1991, is dedicated 'To the victims of the Warsaw ghetto', though his family perished elsewhere.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Mieczysław Weinberg drew on Moldavian, Polish, and Jewish folk traditions in his music, which was especially meaningful to him as a refugee from Nazi invasions.
Performer Biography
The Siberian Symphony Orchestra, one of Russia's largest, was founded in 1966 and has toured extensively, earning the title 'Academic' in 1996.
Historical Context
Composer Mieczysław Weinberg faced a dark period during the last five years of Stalin's rule, being stigmatized in the anti-formalism campaign of 1948 and imprisoned in Lubyanka jail in 1953.
