Mieczysław Weinberg was born on 8 December 1919 in Warsaw. He is the author of the opera titled The Passenger, the Kaddish Symphony and over 150 other pieces which are now being re-discovered by musicians all across the world. On the occasion of the composer’s 100th birthday, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews invites its audience to the three concerts on three consecutive evenings, on 7-9 December 2019.
On Saturday, 7 December, flutist Ania Karpowicz, pianist Marek Bracha and the Hashtag Strings will perform a programme composed of Weinberg’s early pieces. For the evening’s finale, we will listen to the Double Concerto for flute, grand piano and strings, a new piece by young Warsaw-based composer Mikołaj Majkusiak, inspired by Weinberg’s 21th Symphony Kaddish.
On Sunday, 8 December, a meeting with Dr Daniel Elphick, a British musicologist whose book titled Music behind the Iron Curtain: Weinberg and his Polish Contemporaries has just been published by Cambridge University Press, will take place at POLIN Museum. University of London lecturer will talk about Polish and Jewish threads in Weinberg’s life opus. Following the meeting, a duet of Mark Glanville (bass-baritone) and Marc Verter (grand piano) will present the material from their new record titled Citizen of Nowhere. POLIN Museum’s main hall will resound with, i.a., songs composed by Weinberg to the lyrics of Tuwim and Peretz.
On Monday evening, 9 December, Gidon Kremer, the leading ambassador of the Polish-Jewish composer’s oeuvre will perform for the finale of the Wajnberg@100 series. This eminent Latvian violinist and conductor will perform the Polish premiere of Chronicle of Current Events. Weinberg’s music will be accompanied by a video screening. Kremer will be accompanied by the Kremerata Baltica orchestra and the soloists: Eszter Zemlenyi (soprano) and Georgijs Osokins (grand piano).
More information at: https://www.polin.pl/pl/aktualnosci/2019/11/06/100-rocznica-urodzin-mieczyslawa-wajnberga