Weinberg: 24 Preludes

Mieczysław Weinberg's 24 Preludes for Solo Cello have a special history. He composed them in the late 1960s for Mstislav Rostropovich, who never played them. Their musical language is aphoristic, often brutal, provocative, and marked by an inner conflict. The Preludes reveal many different and very powerful gestures. Their performance must have been problematic during the Soviet era. Gidon Kremer has adapted the Preludes for solo violin, and this is the Welterstein recording of his adaptation. In his concerts, he often plays them with projections of images by the famous Lithuanian photographer Antanas Sutkus. Kremer's earlier approaches to the music of the long-neglected, brilliant composer Weinberg, in whom many see a legitimate musical heir to Dmitri Shostakovich from today's perspective, have been praised in the highest terms by music critics worldwide. Kremer seems to be the ideal interpreter for this exciting repertoire with his very own tone.