Mieczyslaw Weinberg: Piano Works (Cpo Audio CD)

• Following on from CPO’s successful ongoing series of Weinberg’s Violin Sonatas and Works for Violin and Piano, is a disc of the Russian composer’s Piano Works. The first Piano Sonata, written when Weinberg was only twenty, is a work of emotional depth and musical maturity. Depth, seriousness, drama and technical demands differentiate Children’s Notebooks from other similarly titled exercises for children from the likes of Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and Khachaturian. Nevertheless the textures are lighter than typical Weinberg and the music is extremely approachable.

• These complex pieces are interpreted by the Russian pianist Elisaveta Blumina.