Since his death in 1996, the music of Mieczysław Weinberg is being discovered by musicians and listeners all around the world.

He had a remarkable life story. Born in Warsaw in 1919, his early musical experiences were as pianist and ensemble leader at a Jewish theatre where his father was composer and violinist. In 1939, though, his parents and sister were murdered in the German occupation and he fled to Belorussia, finally ending up in Moscow where he lived for the rest of his life.

He had a close connection with Shostakovich; it was originally at Shostakovich’s invitation that he moved to Moscow, and when he was imprisoned in 1953 at the height of Stalin’s anti-Semitic purges it was Shostakovich who got him out.

He never exploited his ‘victimhood’, instead celebrating his adopted country, and had many titles conferred on him including ‘Honoured Artist of the Russian Republic’, ‘People’s Artist of the Russian Republic’ and ‘State Prize of the USSR’.

His vast output includes 26 symphonies, seven operas, seventeen string quartets and much other chamber music, and some 200 songs.

His style has much in common with Shostakovich: fluent contrapuntal skill, an acute sense of drama and a keen feeling for melody, often inflected with Jewish cantilena.

Produced in association with the International Centre for Suppressed Music.