MIECZYSLAW WEINBERG (1919-1996): String Quartets, Vol. 6 - No. 2, Op. 3/145, No. 12, Op. 103 and No. 17, Op. 146.

Description: This series comes to an end with the early Second (1939-40), a rather lyrical and untroubled work belying the fact that its composer had just escaped the Nazi invasion of Poland less than three months previously; it was later reinstrumented, with an additional movement, as Weinberg's Chamber Symphony No. 1. The Seventeenth of 1986 is also surprisingly light-hearted and sunny in its brief, four-movement 16-minute course, leaving the tougher Twelveth as the meat in this programming sandwich. This dates from 1969-70, and its dodecaphonic elements, apparent allusions to the Bartók Fourth Quartet and other means of exciting unease and expressing lugubrious and intense emotions seem to point to the new Polish school of Lutoslawski and Penderecki: Weinberg's first-ever trip outside the USSR was three years earlier for the Warsaw Autumn Festival. Quatuor Danel.