The Jewish Chamber Orchestra Munich, mezzo-soprano Shachar Levi, and conductor Daniel Grossmann present songs by Mieczysław Weinberg and orchestral works by two composers who have all but vanished from history. Jozef Koffler, a Polish Jew, was captured with his wife and young son by German troops in the city of Lwów in 1944, deported to the ghetto in Wieliczka and …

The Telegraph Quartet presents the second volume in its 20th-Century Vantage Points series with a new album examining the turbulent years of war and its aftermath from 1941-1951 through string quartets by Grażyna Bacewicz, Benjamin Britten, and Mieczysław Weinberg. As Kai Christiansen writes in the liner notes, “Each composer featured on the album lived a unique wartime life that unmistakably …

German cellist Marie-Elisabeth Hecker caused a sensation by winning both the First Prize and two Special Prizes at the eighth Rostropovich Competition twenty years ago, while her duo partner Martin Helmchen has also been performing on the most prestigious international stages for two decades. Partners both on and off the concert platform, the two artists are passionate advocates of chamber …

The Transylvanian-based Arcadia Quartet reaches the fifth volume in its acclaimed series of recordings of the complete string quartets of Mieczysław Weinberg with this release featuring Quartets Nos 3, 9, and 14. As in previous volumes, the varied program features quartets from contrasting periods of Weinberg’s compositional development. Quartet No. 3, composed in 1944, could be considered as the first …

Founded in 2019, the New York-based chamber orchestra Parlando is the brainchild of conductor Ian Niederhoffer, a Musical America “New Artist of the Month” and BBC Music Magazine “Rising Star.” In the ensemble’s debut album, Niederhoffer explores from the 20th century as a tool of cultural resilience in the face of censorship, particularly in the Soviet Union. The album opens …