Alto’s newest release its Mieczysław Weinberg series returns to international availability some of the earliest recordings of his music played by close artistic collaborators. These rare Weinberg recordings, made by some of the Soviet era’s greatest artists, flew under the radar of music journalists and reviewers when they were first released, and ring with unparalleled authenticity and authority.
“[In 1994,] with only 14 months to live, Weinberg celebrated his 75th birthday. … He lived just long enough to witness a new wave of interest. A series of CDs began in the 1990s, and his friend Tommy Persson (the Swedish judge who had brought medicines which almost certainly gave the composer a few extra years of life) was able to present Weinberg with (some of) those issues. … The broadcaster and documentary maker Per Skans went straight to the point, describing Weinberg’s neglect as ‘scandalous’. How gratifying for Persson that his underwriting of several CDs that appeared then not only kept the music alive for specialist collectors but touched off what has been described in Russia as the ‘Weinberg boom’.”
– David Fanning, Gramophone, Jan. 2020
“Weinberg (1919-1996) is surely the most fascinating Soviet-era composer that most Western listeners, until a decade ago, had never heard of … this music is not going away again.”
– Jeremy Eichler, The Boston Globe, July 19, 2014
“Weinberg [is] definitely here to stay.”
– Russell Plain, The New Yorker, March 1, 2017
