Weinberg’s fraught biography is reflected in many of the piano works which occupied the earlier part of his career. Some exemplify the extreme pressures placed on him, and others, to conform to official diktat – a period when he was arrested for ‘Jewish bourgeois nationalism’ – whilst others reveal the rich inspiration of folkloric music. The second volume of the complete piano works ranges in date from 1950-55. The Partita, Op. 54 is notable for its alternation of the intimate and the intensely dramatic, whereas the Sonatina, Op.49 is lyrical, though never straightforward. The Piano Sonata No. 4, Op. 56 fuses folk inspiration, rhythmic vivacity and melancholy in a profoundly personal way.