Mieczysław Weinberg, promotional material provided by IAM and NEOS
As part of the Polska Music programme, the NEOS music label together with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute have released five albums by the renown composer Mieczysław Weinberg. The works were recorded at the Bergenzer Festspiele 2010, where the composer's music was recently celebrated
After the DVD and Blu-ray release of the Pasażerka / The Passenger opera, whose recent staging was met with great success, the NEOS label has decided to released a further number of Mieczysław Weinberg's works, that include the composer's symphonies, concertos, sonatas, and the monumental Requiem.
This NEOS series, contains all the works that had been performed at the Bergenzer Festspiele over the summer of 2010. The current release is in cooperation and support from the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, and in years to come, the NEOS label plans to expand it's series of works by the great and still newly discovered composer.
David Pountney, the artistic director of the festival in Bregenz explains:
The Weinberg retrospective at the Bergenzer Festspiele in 2010 was centered around the premier staging of the opera The Passenger, as well as the twenty other works, that as a whole revealed the extraordinary wealth behind the work by this forgotten composer.
Weinberg felt obliged to justify his survival of the Holocaust - becoming the only sole survivor from his family. His sublime achievements heard in his symphonies and chamber music pieces are filled with melancholy and defiance, and whose sources reflect the notion of that very survival. We are extremely thankful to NEOS for giving an opportunity to others to renew their interest in the music of this inspirational and important composer.
The NEOS (in greek new) music label was created by Wulf Weinmann in May 2011. The label concentrates on releasing compositions of the XX and XXI century, and a great number of these compositions have or will be recorded for the first time. In order to maintain a high artistic and editorial level of the endeavor, a great emphasis is placed on the choice of the performers and groups that perform the music, as well as the cultural institutions that support these projects. The NEOS label is set to release approximately twenty five CD and SACD recordings every year, which will be then distributed in Germany and Austria by Harmonia Mundi.
Further information about the releases of Mieczysław Weinberg's music, as well as the Pasażerka / Passenger recording by the NEOS label can be found on the neos-music.com website.
Source: Polska Music project material