A New Recording Makes the Case for the Soviet Composer Mieczysław Weinberg

Five seconds, maybe ten: that’s what it usually takes to recognize the aural “signature” of a great composer. The finest singers demonstrate this quality most clearly. Nobody sounds quite like Callas or Schwarzkopf or Pavarotti (or Hampson or von Stade, for that matter), though thousands have tried. But composers have it, too, a sonic complex that includes not only musical content (melodies, motives) but how that content is laid out (orchestration, counterpoint, pacing). It might be difficult to distinguish a lesser-known Haydn symphony or opera from one by Mozart, but every knowledgeable classical-music lover knows Mozart from Beethoven, Schubert from Schumann, Tchaikovsky from Borodin, Britten from Walton, Berg from Webern.