Weinberg: Symphony No. 6, Op. 79 & 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34 Philharmonisches Orchestra Altenburg Gera & Laurent Wagner

• Mieczysław Weinberg (1919 - 1996): Symphony No. 6, Op. 79:
• 1 Symphony No. 6, Op. 79: I. Adagio sostenuto 13:12
• 2 Symphony No. 6, Op. 79: II. Allegretto 07:23
• 3 Symphony No. 6, Op. 79: III. Allegro molto 06:55
• 4 Symphony No. 6, Op. 79: IV. Largo 08:39
• 5 Symphony No. 6, Op. 79: V. Andantino 11:09
• 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34:
• 6 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34: No. 1, Merry March 00:22
• 7 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34: No. 2, The Nightingale 00:46
• 8 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34: No. 3, The Skipping Rope 00:28
• 9 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34: No. 4, Baba-Yaga 00:22
• 10 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34: No. 5, Girl Friends 00:51
• 11 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34: No. 6, The Sick Doll 01:15
• 12 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34: No. 7, The Tin Soldier 00:43
• 13 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34: No. 8, Granny's Fairytale 01:11
• 14 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34: No. 9, The Little Shepherd 00:46
• 15 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34: No. 10, Hide and Seek 00:37
• 16 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34: No. 11, Old Man Frost 01:39
• 17 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34: No. 12, Melancholy Waltz 01:21
• 18 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34: No. 13, The Goldfish 00:38
• 19 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34: No. 14, Petrushka's Lament 00:55
• 20 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34: No. 15, A Game of Tag 00:18
• 21 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34: No. 16, The Little Ball 00:21
• 22 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34: No. 17, Lullaby of the Dolls 01:29
• 23 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34: No. 18, Little Bears 00:58
• 24 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34: No. 19, Little Hares 00:37
• 25 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34: No. 20, The Grey Wolf 00:39
• 26 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34: No. 21, Good Night 01:52
• Total Runtime 01:05:26

Info for Weinberg: Symphony No. 6, Op. 79 & 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34

"Many of my works are related to the topic of war, but this is not the result of a conscious decision; rather, having to deal with the issue of war is something which has been imposed on me by my own fate and the tragic fate of my family. I consider it my moral duty to write about war and about the appalling things which have befallen people in our century." With this statement, Mieczyslaw Weinberg describes his biography, his character and his aims as a composer. These four observations alone are probably enough to enable us to hear his music with greater historical and emotional awareness. This new release is a portrait of a most underrated composer and Shostakovich's best mate Mieczyslaw Weinberg.

Elisaveta Blumina, piano
Konzertchor Rutheneum
Philharmonisches Orchester Altenburg-Gera
Laurent Wagner, conductor

Elisaveta Blumina
Eminent german pianist Elisaveta Blumina belongs to a generation of young musicians who put the music centre stage and do not pander to every demand by the music business. This has not gone unnoticed and has earned her an ECHO Klassik award, together with her trio "Ensemble Blumina", (with Kalev Kuljus and Mathias Baier) for the best recording of chamber music composed in the 20th and 21st centuries. Elisaveta Blumina is steeped in the great Russion piano tradition of Heinrich Neuhaus.

Besides her performing career Elisaveta Blumina has assumed the role, since 2012, of artistic director of the International Chamber Music Festival Hamburg. As a child, pianist Elisaveta Blumina was a keen dancer and had a passion for the ballet. She had been accepted into the famous Vaganov Ballet school and was determined to become a ballerina. However, based on X-ray scans, doctors concluded that she would grow too tall for a ballerina and suggested to send her back to the music school for specially gifted children.

At the age of 12, she was accepted at the Art School of the Hermitage Museum where she studied art history for five years.

Since childhood, Elisaveta Blumina associates sounds with colors. Thus, she always has colors in mind when making music, and associates tonal harmonies or dissonances with certain color combinations. When Elisaveta Blumina started painting a few years ago, this was just another form of music making that allowed her to express her fantasies free from the constraints of concert life.

Elisaveta Blumina is one of the leading performers of 20th and 21st century music, as illustrated by her recordings of the works of composers Nikolai Kapustin, Fazil Say, Sergey Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovitch, Sofia Gubaidulina, Galina Ustvolskaya, Eric Sweeney, Giya Kancheli, Valentin Silvestrov and Grigori Frid. In particular she has spearheaded the re-discovery of the Polish-Jewish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg: a series of recordings with all his piano and some chamber music works is currently being produced for the labels "cpo" and "Capriccio". Currently Elisaveta Blumina is recording Weinberg's complete piano solo works. A total of 30 CD recordings covering a broad repertoire have been enthusiastically received by the specialised press and earned Elisaveta Blumina a reputation as an extraordinary musician.

Elisavets Blumina performs in the most prestigious halls like, Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, the Cologne Philharmonie, the Gasteig in Munich, the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas in Kuala Lumpur, the Victoria Hall in Geneve, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Berlin Philharmonic, Laeisz-Halle and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Tel-Aviv Art Center, the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Beethovenhalle Bonn or the Carnegie Hall in New York. As a privileged chamber music player, Elisaveta Blumina collaborates with artists such as Vladimir Spivakov, Boris Pergamenshikov, Kolja Blacher, Johannes Moser, Ivry Gitlis, Wenzel Fuchs, the Vogler Quartet, Noah Bendix- Balgley, Maria Prudenskaja, Torleif Tondeen and Radek Baborak. She is frequently invited to appear music festivals across Europe and America including the Schleswig-Holstein, the Mecklenburg Vorpommern, Salzburg Ostfestpiele, Campos de Jordao, Verbier and Colmar festivals. Elisaveta has appeared as guest soloist with many orchestras including the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, Moscow Virtuosi, Sinfonia Varsovia, the Hamburg Philharmonic and Staatskapelle Halle with conductors such as Thomas Sanderling, Yuri Temirkanov, Vladimir Spivakov, Gerd Albrecht, Andrey Boreyko and Daniel Raiskin. She is fluent in French, Russian, Italian, Spanish, German and English.

Booklet for Weinberg: Symphony No. 6, Op. 79 & 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34