Polish by birth, Mieczysław Weinberg (1919 – 1996) escaped to the Soviet Union in 1939 and became a close friend and musical disciple of Shostakovich. He was a distinguished concert pianist, and piano music formed an important part of his prolific output. From pragmatic yet sophisticated pieces for children to the introspective and moving Sonatas, Weinberg’s music reflects his life in its blend of optimism, tragedy and bitter-sweet humour.

2008 Grammy® Nominee for Best Instrumental Soloist without Orchestra for 20th Century Piano Sonatas on Naxos Records (8.570401), Allison Brewster Franzetti has received international acclaim from critics and audiences alike for stunning virtuosity and musicality. She has performed with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Long Island Philharmonic, English Sinfonia, Denver Symphony, Colonial Symphony, Queens Symphony, European Women’s Orchestra, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Janáček Philharmonic, and the City of Prague Philharmonic. Solo recitals include critically acclaimed débuts at Merkin Hall, New York and Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, a special performance at the Grammy® Salute to Classical Music honoring Lang Lang and Earl Wild, and concerts throughout the United States, Mexico, Europe, Argentina and Japan. She is a 2003 Grammy® Award Nominee and a 2002 Latin Grammy® Award Nominee. An accomplished chamber musician, she has collaborated with renowned composers and performers, including Sir James Galway, John Corigliano, Carlos Franzetti, Lowell Liebermann, David Maslanka, Stephen Paulus, Eugenia Zukerman, Julius Baker and Robert White.

The works on this first volume range from very early yet characterful Mazurkas and the remarkably intense Lullaby, his Opus 1, to the at times dissonant Piano Sonata No 1 and the more classically oriented Piano
Sonata No 2.

These works range in date from 1950–55. The Partita is notable for its alternation of the intimate and the intensely dramatic, whereas the Sonatina is lyrical, though never straightforward. The Piano Sonata No 4 fuses folk inspiration, rhythmic vivacity and melancholy in a profoundly personal way.

This album focuses on the three sets of Children’s Notebooks, 23 charming miniatures written to meet the strong demand for music for children in the Soviet Union.

Weinberg’s early life included two dramatic escapes from the Nazis, as he left his native Poland to the Soviet Union. His arrival in Moscow in 1943 saw a period of relative stability in his personal life and an extraordinary burst of creative vitality, which saw him composing the works in this album, including the deeply expressive, technically challenging and superbly varied Piano Sonatas Nos. 5 and 6.