Hi-Res Downloads

96kHz/44.1kHz/24-bit FLAC, ECM 481 0669 (supplied by www.highresaudio.com)

The 2CD set was released in February '14 while Kremer and his strings group were touring the States with music by Weinberg in their programmes. (ECM made the recordings at Lockenhaus and Neuhardenberg in Nov '12/Dec '13, the Sonatina for violin/piano at lower resolution, as noted on HRA’s web page.) Music by the Polish composer – who went to Moscow but did not prosper – was admired by Shostakovich, and Kremer sees an affinity, especially in the 1968 symphony here, commissioned by Rudolf Barshai. This is a tough work, with brief respite found in (iii), Canzona. Weinberg had forged an uncompromising individual style but Kremer’s powerful advocacy makes you persevere and want to return to these tracks; the full strings are very convincingly represented. CB

Sound Quality: 95%

Hi-Fi News Lab Report

As accurately represented on HRA’s website, the Sonatina tracks 5-7 are sampled at 44.1kHz, the remainder at 96kHz as illustrated here [see Graph]. Violin string harmonics stretch out to beyond 40kHz into background noise. PM