Ah, Mieczyslaw Weinberg, not Moishey Vainberg. One can understand the mistake. Mieczyslaw Weinberg was the Polish composer who emigrated to the Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics at the start of World War II. Moishey Vainberg was the Russian composer who was the close friend and artistic confidant of
Dmitry Shostakovich. But Weinberg or Vainberg, the man who wrote the works recorded on this disc by
Gabriel Chmura and the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra is a strong-willed and hard-edged mensch, a mensch who is surely one of the great composers of the second half of the twentieth century. Although one can hear echoes of
Shostakovich in the sparseness of the scoring, the robust themes, and muscular rhythms are pure Weinberg/Vainberg. As
Chmura and the NPRSO's powerful, passionate, and precise performances prove, the thing that Weinberg/Vainberg had most closely in common with
Shostakovich was his ironic sense of tragedy. More than the leanness of the textures, Weinberg/Vainberg's music shares with
Shostakovich the thinness and sharpness of life on the edge of the abyss. Chandos' sound is simple, honest, and true.