6 days to go: the composer the world almost forgot

Dear friends,

Yesterday it was Mozart and Beethoven. Today, a name many of you may be hearing for the first time: Mieczysław Weinberg. On 18 October you’ll hear his Second Sonata for cello and piano.

A life like a novel

Weinberg was born in Warsaw in 1919. In 1939 he fled east from the German occupation; his parents and sister were murdered. In Moscow he found a friend and champion in Dmitri Shostakovich. “I count myself as his pupil, his flesh and blood,” Weinberg said, though he never formally studied with him. In 1953, at the height of Stalin’s antisemitic purges, he was arrested, and he was only released after Stalin died.

He wrote the Second Cello Sonata in 1958–59, prompted by the great cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. In the first movement the cello sings a long, grieving line over bell-like chords in the piano. In the Andante it plays muted, as if from far away. And the finale takes off, relentless, full of rough, folk-like turns.

Today’s listening tip

This time you can hear the musicians themselves: Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and Martin Helmchen recorded the sonata in 2025 on their album «From Eastern Europe». Start with the finale. After that, you won’t forget the name Weinberg.

Listen to the finale on Spotify · Apple Music

Compare

In the same year, 1959, Shostakovich wrote his First Cello Concerto, also for Rostropovich. Listen to its first movement, then to Weinberg’s finale: two friends, the same moment, the same cellist in mind, and two very different voices.

Search for: Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 Rostropovich

Did you know?

Among much else, Weinberg wrote 17 string quartets and the opera The Passenger, about an Auschwitz survivor. It wasn’t staged until 2010, at the Bregenz Festival, years after his death, and it set off the great Weinberg revival.

Tomorrow: a Christmas present from Robert to Clara Schumann.

Warm wishes,
Andreas Haefliger & Marina Piccinini

The duo

Marie-Elisabeth Hecker won the Rostropovich Competition in Paris in 2005, the first cellist in its history to take first prize and two special prizes at once. Martin Helmchen won the Clara Haskil Prize in 2001, and his recording of all five Beethoven piano concertos won a Gramophone Award in 2020. Married, they perform together around the world and run the «Fliessen» festival in Brandenburg. Their latest album: «From Eastern Europe» (Alpha Classics, 2025) on Spotify · Apple Music

Marie-Elisabeth Hecker & Martin Helmchen, cello & piano
Sunday, 18 October 2026, 5.30 pm · Parish Church of St. Peter and Paul, Bürglen UR
Pay as you like (cash or TWINT) · about 70 minutes, no interval
Reserve a seat

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