Classical Hour
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla Mieczysław Weinberg

Mieczysław Weinberg (1919–1996) grew up in a Jewish family in Warsaw. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, he managed to escape to Moscow, but his immediate family remained behind and later perished in a concentration camp. Weinberg established himself as a composer, but as a Polish Jew in the Soviet Union after the war, he remained highly vulnerable. In 1953, he was arrested.

One of those who helped secure his release was his close friend Dmitri Shostakovich. As a composer, Weinberg often remained in the shadow of his renowned mentor, but in recent years, interest in his music has grown, particularly for Symphony No. 21, subtitled Kaddish. His last completed orchestral work, the symphony reflects his upbringing in a Jewish environment and is dedicated to the Holocaust victims of Warsaw