Weinberg’s late style lives in a world of its own. The Soviet avant-garde had moved away from the masters like Shostakovich and Prokofiev and appeared to forget about Weinberg, who made no effort to get his works performed. The Fifteenth Quartet is made up of nine movements played Attacca. The opening three movements give the impression of all passion being spent, muted, gentle, introspective music of great beauty where time seems to stop until it suddenly explodes in defiance. The Sixteenth is dedicated to his sister Esther who died in the Holocaust. She tried to escape with him from Warsaw, but was not able for the journey and turned back, the long and moving lamentation of the slow movement is surely for her. There is both pain and beauty in this extraordinary quartet, unlike any other music anywhere. Before he composed his Seventeenth Quartet Weinberg went back to the beginning and revised his first two Quartets, which may explain the almost carefree tone of his final Quartet composed exactly fifty years after the First. Ever one to surprise us, Weinberg produces another ecstatic slow movement before ending this series with a cheeky, light-hearted almost Haydnesque Allegro.
