Weinberg and Sjostakovitsj

Mieczysław Weinberg and Dmitri Shostakovich are quite the pair. After the Polish-Jewish Weinberg fled to Russia in 1939, he and Shostakovich formed a close friendship. Whereas Shostakovich grew into an international celebrity, Weinberg’s recognition lagged behind. Quatuor Danel, one of the best quartets of our time and always good for extraordinary concerts, performs Shostakovich’s famous 1940 Piano Quintet alongside Weinberg’s lesser-known 1977 Three Palms, together with pianist Hannes Minnaar and singer Virpi Räisänen.

Shostakovich wrote his Piano Quintet for the Glazunov Quartet, who were very eager to play with him. He composed the work in such a way that ‘the quartet cannot play it without me, which gave me the chance to travel the world with them’. Although the quintet is over three decades older than Weinberg’s Three Palms, the similarity in tone and language is striking. Especially when set alongside that very different world outlined by Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder and Chausson’s Chanson perpétuelle.

Programme booklet (Dutch)