The two-CD album Weinberg: Songs for no-one (NFPMA 99161/2) is the culmination of many years of work by singer Tomasz Raff, whose aim was to record all of Mieczyslaw Wajnberg's songs for bass voice with piano. Thus, containing the phonographic premieres, this edition fills one of the most important white gaps in 20th-century vocal lyricism. Recorded in 2021 at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews and in 2024 at the Academy of Music in Gdańsk, it is released on the sub-label of the British phonographic label Alto - Northern Flowers. From 14 March 2025, the album will be available in digital form on streaming portals, before going into worldwide distribution.
Songs for no-one is the world phonographic premiere of the result of Mieczysław Wajnberg's compositional work performed over 35 post-war years and read only in the third decade of the 21st century. Songs in Russian interpreted by Tomasz Raff, Liana Krasyun-Korunna and Mischa Kozlowski, which have been performed few times in their history, are just now becoming more relevant. It is worth trying to listen to the message of this comprehensive album, which proclaims that even in the most difficult times, one can strive to cultivate sensitivity and tenderness and to preserve the right to freedom and peace, to love and be loved.
Mieczysław Wajnberg - a Polish, Jewish and Russian composer - composed his songs to the words of such eminent poets as William Shakespeare, Afanasij Fet, Yevgeny Baratinsky and Vasily Zhukovsky.
Subsidised by the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk and as part of the "Mobilni w Kulturze 2021" Scholarship Office of Culture of the City of Warsaw.
Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC
Additional information at the Artist's websire: https://www.tomaszraff.pl/playlist/weinberg-songs-no-one/
