Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla conducts this concert recorded at LSO St Luke’s and broadcast on the 25th anniversary of the death of Mieczysław Weinberg. The conductor won Gramophone’s Recording of the Year 2020 for her DG debut album, featuring Weinberg’s Symphonies Nos.2 and 21. In the Second, one of his earliest works, he contrasts dissonance and tension with more lyrical episodes. Shchedrin’s 13‑movement Carmen Suite is written for strings and percussion. Inspired by the raw material of Bizet’s opera – which it sometimes reproduces faithfully, sometimes distorts, fragments and reassembles – the suite was conceived for the Bolshoi Ballet. Shchedrin’s wife, Maya Plisetskaya, danced the title role at the premiere.

Mieczysław Weinberg
Symphony No.2 for string orchestra
Georges Bizet, arr. Rodion Shchedrin 
Carmen Suite

Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla conductor
London Symphony Orchestra

Enjoy the audio recording of Weinberg’s Symphony No. 2 with Gidon Kremer here!