The son ofSamuel Weinberg from Bessarabia. As a composer, Moisei Weinberg didn't manage to build a sizable public during his lifetime. He often performed as a pianist. A legend has built up around the concert that took place in October 1967, when Weinberg stood in for Dimitri Shostakovich, who was unwell. He thus took part in the premiere performance of Shostakowich's Seven Romances After Aleksandr Blok, along with Galina Vishnievskaya, David Oistrakh and Mstislav Rostropovich. Al his life, Mieczystaw Weinberg spoke Russian with a Polish accent and his friends, including Shostakovich, called him by the Polish diminutive of his name: Mietek. In his compositions, he often made use of texts by Polish poets, especially Julian Tuwim. The list of his works is impressive, yet most of them remain unknown to the greater public. There are relatively few recordings, of which the most notable are albums pro- duced by the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Gabriel Chmura. He left behind 26 symphonies, 7 concertos, 17 string quartets, 19 sonatas, at least 150 songs, 7 operas and 2 ballets. He also created 65 film and animation scores, musical scores for theatre and radio shows. Many of these were published only after his death and today they appear in both Russian and Polish concert programmes and in orches- tras all over the world.