Quatuor Danel, Virpi Räisänen & Hannes Minnaar - Weinberg and Shostakovich

Mieczysław Weinberg and Dmitri Shostakovich

After the Polish-Jewish Weinberg fled to Russia in 1939, he became close friends with Shostakovich. While Shostakovich became an international celebrity, appreciation for Weinberg lagged.

Shostakovich wrote his Piano Quintet for the Glazunov Quartet, which wanted to play with him. He composed the work so that 'the quartet cannot play it without me, so that I had the opportunity to travel the world with them'.

Although the quintet is more than 30 years older than Weinberg's Three Palms, the similarity in tone and language is striking. Especially next to the entirely different world that Mahler's Rückert-Lieder and Chausson's Chanson Perpétuelle portray.