I'd like to add a qualification to Steve Schwarz's otherwise excellent review of Weinberg's ballet The Golden Key, in the form of a note from Per Skans which can be found at the URL http://www.freewebs.com/black_arrow/: [quote] Per Skans on Mieczyslaw Weinberg's (Moishei Vainberg's) name: "Why Weinberg? Why not Vainberg? Why not Wainberg? Or Vajnberg? Or Wajnberg? The reason is very simple: Weinberg is correct, all other spellings are wrong! Weinberg grew up and spent his first twenty years in Poland, where the Latin alphabet is used, and he and his family spelt the name exactly this way. Its origin is German/Yiddish. Any other spelling in the Latin alphabet must thus be avoided! I confess having a certain guilt myself, since I once accepted - without checking them - certain rumours that Weinberg himself preferred the spelling "Vainberg". I discovered my error after I had written the texts for half a dozen CDs in the large series of Olympia in London, and I wanted to change the spelling, but they refused. In fact I understand this, because it would have confused their customers if they had changed it in the middle of a series. Nevertheless the CDs have unfortunately contributed to the present Babylonic situation. The variety of (wrong) spellings is due to the circumstance that various people believed that the original spelling of the name was the one of the Russian alphabet. They then transliterated the name into the Latin alphabet, according to various rules (an ironical detail being that Soviet scores -- of all! -- used the correct spelling Weinberg!). But now Weinberg is becoming increasingly accepted. The New Groves, the famous dictionary, used the English transliteration "Vaynberg" some years ago, but in the Internet edition they have now corrected this into Weinberg. I am at present writing a biography in English which is scheduled to appear in 2005 at Toccata Press in London; there I of course am using the correct spelling Weinberg! Per Skans Uppsala, Sweden [unquote] Cheers Martin Anderson Toccata Press [log in to unmask] www.toccatapress.com