Of the works Weinberg wrote as an up-and-coming composer during the terrorizing last years of Stalin’s reign, Children’s Notebooks are a heartbreakingly beautiful and varied set of works, whose name does not reflect the level of difficulty inherent to this collection. 21 Easy Pieces, Op. 34, is a wonderfully imaginative and varied set that is perfect for young students. Can-Can is a short, entertaining dance composed for Olga Rakhalskaya, who became Weinberg’s second wife and mother of their daughter, Anna. – Allison Brewster Franzetti

The third volume of the complete piano works focuses on the three sets of Children’s Notebooks, twenty-three charming miniatures written to meet the strong demand for music for children in the Soviet Union. Weinberg’s sets, however, were criticised for so-called inappropriate sophistication. The 21 Easy Pieces for Piano, Op. 34 are mood pictures, less technically demanding than the Notebooks but certainly not aimed at beginners.

Whilst Mieczysław Weinberg was establishing his reputation in Moscow with a series of string quartets and other chamber music, he also wrote a sequence of piano music called Children’s Notebooks. Weinberg, who was later to be arrested for ‘Jewish bourgeois nationalism’, may well have taken Schumann’s Scenes from Childhood and Album for the Young as models.

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Multiple Grammy® Award Nominee, Allison Brewster Franzetti has received international acclaim from critics and audiences alike for stunning virtuosity and musicality. She has performed with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Long Island Philharmonic, English Sinfonia, City of Prague Philharmonic, Denver Symphony, Colonial Symphony, Queens Symphony, European Women's Orchestra, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Janàcek Philharmonic, and City of Prague Philharmonic. Solo recitals include critically acclaimed débuts at Merkin Hall, New York and Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, a special performance at the Grammy® Salute to Classical Music, and concerts throughout the United States, Mexico, Europe, Argentina and Japan. An accomplished chamber musician, she has collaborated with renowned composers and performers, including Sir James Galway, John Corigliano, Carlos Franzetti, Lowell Liebermann, David Maslanka, Stephen Paulus, Eugenia Zukerman, Julius Baker and Robert White.

"Franzetti is a persuasive advocate throughout" – Gramophone

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