Weinberg: Sonata for Clarinet & Piano, Op. 28

The extensive and highly significant oeuvre of Mieczyslaw Weinberg is gradually getting the recognition it deserves in the West. Cpo has championed the music of Weinberg and last year released a successful disc of his piano music with Elisaveta Blumina. If in his early piano compositions Weinberg created surprises with his unexpected musical maturity, then the chamber works for woodwinds selected here display even more emotional depth, seriousness, and drama. The artists on this disc skilfully master the astonishingly high technical demands of these pieces.

Polish-born composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg, a protégé of Shostakovich, is one of the great neglected masters of the 20th century, a major composer whose works are now finally beginning to be recorded and performed

• The works recorded on this Grammy-nominated album date from 1944-1945 when the composer, having escaped from the Nazis, saw a new beginning for himself in the Soviet Union. His entire family had been killed in the Holocaust—hence the title of the CD

This release represents a brief and thoroughly enjoyable programme of clarinet works of the 20th century. Especially interesting is the comparison of sonatas written at a similar time, but in completely different cultural circles.

Mieczslaw Weinberg lived and worked in Moscow for over fifty years. He was held in great esteem by composer colleagues but his work remained largely unknown to the public. He wrote 7 operas, 20 symphonies, and 17 string quartets. Great sound with powerful, intense music.