Tribute to the outstanding composer on the 30th anniversary of his passing

Celebrating Weinberg in Finland

February 26th, 2026, marked the 30th anniversary of the passing of the outstanding  composer who was known under different names in different countries. Born as Mojszei Wajnberg, as it is written in his birth certificate, in Poland, working and living in the Soviet Union as Moisei Vainberg, and dying in Moscow in 1996, he has returned to the world stage with a triumph after his passing as Miezyslaw Weinberg, in the Polish pronunciation of his name, which he did like himself, especially later in his life.  

A month before the commemorative date, a superb philharmonic orchestra that Finland has in the face of the Turku Philharmonic, one of the eldest European orchestras in general, performing without interruption for 236 years from 1790 onward, and which is widely known for its harmonious sound and deep and fine understanding of music, gave a memorable concert under the baton of Julian Rachlin, who is well known to the orchestra being there a guest conductor for many years and happy occasions.

Charlotta Kivistö , the orchestra independent, has told me that the very special concert’s idea and program was of Julian’s, and the orchestra was very grateful to their good friend and guest conductor for such a superb choice. The audience at the concert, with the performances of Turku Philharmonic are always sold-out, sat breathless, following every note of both Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony and Weinberg’s First Sinfonietta.  

There rarely could be a more perfect match, both in music and two great composers who were close friends, with such dramatic destinies of both of them. Shostakovich, who was a maestro with an international reputation , and who was a very caring and empathic man, did help his younger colleague Weinberg, who found himself to be a lonely Jewish refugee in a huge foreign country, in everything , big and small. It can be well said that without Shostakovich, there would not be Weinberg as a recognized composer, and that the life of Miezyslaw would be quite different. 

But before they met, an introvert quiet man with a supreme music talent Miezylaw, who was born Mojsze, had the chain of tragedies in generations. 

Early Years & the Family

Both Weinberg’s great-grandfather and  his grandfather were violently murdered in the infamous Kishinev pogrom in 1903. Both men were book-keepers in a sizable different companies. Weinberg’s father Shmuel, who was 20 at the time, had left Kishinev some years before these terrible events, as did many of his thirteen brothers and sisters, with several of them settled in Baku, Azerbaijan. After the pogrom, the Weinberg family was deeply affected, and the memory of its two........

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