Bacewicz - Piano Quintets, Quartet for Violins, Quartet for Cellos
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Label: Chandos
Cat No: CHAN10976
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Chamber
Release Date: 6th April 2018
Contents
Artists
Silesian QuartetWojciech Switala (piano)
Krzysztof Lason (violin)
Malgorzata Wasiucionek (violin)
Polish Cello Quartet
Works
Piano Quintet no.1Piano Quintet no.2
Quartet for 4 cellos
Quartet for 4 violins
Artists
Silesian QuartetWojciech Switala (piano)
Krzysztof Lason (violin)
Malgorzata Wasiucionek (violin)
Polish Cello Quartet
About
The 2017 Gramophone Award-winning Silesian Quartet here presents its second recording on Chandos, again devoted to the works of the Polish female composer Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969), in a rare programme full of contrast and individuality.
The four works brought together here – two unusual quartet formations and two piano quintets – form an integral part of the central, chamber music strand in Bacewicz's output. While the Quartet for Four Violins (1949) and the First Piano Quintet (1952) have maintained a strong presence in both concerts and recordings, the intriguing Quartet for Four Cellos (1963) and Second Piano Quintet (1965) are lesser-known pieces.
This is yet another must-have, preceding the fiftieth year of Bacewicz death commemorations, a composer whose music is now considered by broadcasters, promoters, critics, and artists as an essential part of the Polish repertoire.
The four works brought together here – two unusual quartet formations and two piano quintets – form an integral part of the central, chamber music strand in Bacewicz's output. While the Quartet for Four Violins (1949) and the First Piano Quintet (1952) have maintained a strong presence in both concerts and recordings, the intriguing Quartet for Four Cellos (1963) and Second Piano Quintet (1965) are lesser-known pieces.
This is yet another must-have, preceding the fiftieth year of Bacewicz death commemorations, a composer whose music is now considered by broadcasters, promoters, critics, and artists as an essential part of the Polish repertoire.
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Piano Quintet no.1 - I Moderato molto espressivo - Allegro - Poco meno mosso
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2Piano Quintet no.1 - II Presto - Poco meno mosso - Tempo I
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3Piano Quintet no.1 - III Grave - Meno mosso - Tempo I
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4Piano Quintet no.1 - IV Con passione - [ ] - Tempo I - [ ] - Tempo I - Grandioso
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5Piano Quintet no.2 - I Moderato - Piu mosso - Allegro - Meno mosso - Piu mosso -
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6Piano Quintet no.2 - II Larghetto - Grandioso - Sostenuto - Tempo I
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7Piano Quintet no.2 - III Allegro giocoso - Poco meno mosso - Tempo I - Meno mosso - Lo stesso tempo
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8Quartet for Four Violins - I Allegretto - Allegro giocoso - Poco meno - Poco meno - Tempo II
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9Quartet for Four Violins - II Andante tranquillo
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10Quartet for Four Violins - III Molto allegro
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11Quartet for Four Cellos - I Narrazione. dotted crotchet = 42 - Poco piu mosso - Poco meno mosso -
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12Quartet for Four Cellos - II Riflessioni. crotchet = 50 - Piu mosso - Poco meno mosso -
Europadisc Review
Almost fifty years after her death in January 1969, just a few weeks shy of her sixtieth birthday, the music of Grażyna Bacewicz is steadily beginning to win the admiration it deserves outside her native Poland. Of the larger independent record labels, Chandos has been particularly assiduous in promoting Bacewicz’s works, with recordings of six of her seven violin concertos by Joanna Kurkowicz and an award-winning double album of the seven string quartets from the Silesian Quartet, all produced in partnership with the Polish Adam Mickiewicz Institute. Now the Silesian Quartet make a welcome with return with ‘friends’ in fine new accounts of Bacewicz’s two piano quintets, and the quartets for four violins and for four cellos. None of these works are new to the catalogue, but the coupling and the high standards set by the Silesian Quartet make this release particularly attractive.
Bacewicz was herself a virtuoso violinist (she studied in Paris with Touret and Flesch, and in the mid-1930s she had led the Polish Radio Orchestra), but as a composer it was in the more collegial atmosphere of chamber music that she found her core métier, and you can sense it throughout this absorbing disc. In the piano quintets the main competition comes from Krystian Zimerman and friends on Deutsche Grammophon (coupled with Bacewicz’s Second Piano Sonata), but these Chandos accounts with pianist Wojciech Świtała edge with a more authentically cameral atmosphere and interpretations that feel as though they’ve really been ‘lived in’, yet without any suggestion of routine. In the First Quintet of 1952, the music marries a residual French neo-classicism with the influence of folk music (above all in the Presto second movement), but what hits you most is the combination of complete compositional assurance and a truly individual creative voice. From the understated yet haunting opening, through the compelling first movement proper, the lively scherzo and the profoundly moving slow movement to the impassioned but characteristically exuberant finale, this is music of huge expressive commitment, and the performance reflects this, coupling emotional openness with formidable technical assurance.
The Second Piano Quintet (1965) comes from a period when Polish music under the Communist regime was at last opening up to mid-century avant garde influences from the West, and the music here has a tougher edge, with a competitive dynamic creeping in between the strings on the one hand and the pianist on the other. Touchstone quotations from Bacewicz’s own Partita for violin and piano (1955) do nothing to detract from the music’s originality and, in the cascading figuration of the first movement as well as the jocularity of the finale, there is still that trademark exuberance that makes Bacewicz’s music so endlessly appealing. Once again, it is the assuredness and commitment of the performance, not least in the more overtly confrontational episodes, that seals the deal in this beautifully balanced account.
The earliest music here is the Quartet for Four Violins (1949), in which the Silesian Quartet’s Szymon Krzeszowiec and Arkadiusz Kubica are joined by Krzysztof Lasoń and Małgorzata Wasiucionek. Originally conceived as a teaching piece for students, there is enough real musical substance in this three-movement work to have ensured its place as a firm favourite with professionals, and this performance revels in Bacewicz’s mastery of violin textures and technique. The outer movements combine spikiness and elegance, while the introspective central Andante is thoroughly enchanting.
Even more compelling is the 1963 Quartet for Four Cellos, which again finds Bacewicz at her edgiest in some of her most uncompromising music, a veritable patchwork of sonorities and techniques. The use of dissonance-driven structures and extended techniques has a Bartók-like brilliance to it, while the fragmentary ideas are a reminder of the Polish trend for music focused in ‘the moment’ (sonorism, as it was known). Here the members of the Polish Cello Quartet excel themselves, capping a marvellous team achievement over the disc as a whole.
With excellent notes from Adrian Thomas, wonderfully evocative cover artwork, and superb recordings from an all-Polish team, this is a disc to set alongside the Silesian Quartet’s benchmark account of Bacewicz’s quartets. It deserves to be every bit as successful.
Bacewicz was herself a virtuoso violinist (she studied in Paris with Touret and Flesch, and in the mid-1930s she had led the Polish Radio Orchestra), but as a composer it was in the more collegial atmosphere of chamber music that she found her core métier, and you can sense it throughout this absorbing disc. In the piano quintets the main competition comes from Krystian Zimerman and friends on Deutsche Grammophon (coupled with Bacewicz’s Second Piano Sonata), but these Chandos accounts with pianist Wojciech Świtała edge with a more authentically cameral atmosphere and interpretations that feel as though they’ve really been ‘lived in’, yet without any suggestion of routine. In the First Quintet of 1952, the music marries a residual French neo-classicism with the influence of folk music (above all in the Presto second movement), but what hits you most is the combination of complete compositional assurance and a truly individual creative voice. From the understated yet haunting opening, through the compelling first movement proper, the lively scherzo and the profoundly moving slow movement to the impassioned but characteristically exuberant finale, this is music of huge expressive commitment, and the performance reflects this, coupling emotional openness with formidable technical assurance.
The Second Piano Quintet (1965) comes from a period when Polish music under the Communist regime was at last opening up to mid-century avant garde influences from the West, and the music here has a tougher edge, with a competitive dynamic creeping in between the strings on the one hand and the pianist on the other. Touchstone quotations from Bacewicz’s own Partita for violin and piano (1955) do nothing to detract from the music’s originality and, in the cascading figuration of the first movement as well as the jocularity of the finale, there is still that trademark exuberance that makes Bacewicz’s music so endlessly appealing. Once again, it is the assuredness and commitment of the performance, not least in the more overtly confrontational episodes, that seals the deal in this beautifully balanced account.
The earliest music here is the Quartet for Four Violins (1949), in which the Silesian Quartet’s Szymon Krzeszowiec and Arkadiusz Kubica are joined by Krzysztof Lasoń and Małgorzata Wasiucionek. Originally conceived as a teaching piece for students, there is enough real musical substance in this three-movement work to have ensured its place as a firm favourite with professionals, and this performance revels in Bacewicz’s mastery of violin textures and technique. The outer movements combine spikiness and elegance, while the introspective central Andante is thoroughly enchanting.
Even more compelling is the 1963 Quartet for Four Cellos, which again finds Bacewicz at her edgiest in some of her most uncompromising music, a veritable patchwork of sonorities and techniques. The use of dissonance-driven structures and extended techniques has a Bartók-like brilliance to it, while the fragmentary ideas are a reminder of the Polish trend for music focused in ‘the moment’ (sonorism, as it was known). Here the members of the Polish Cello Quartet excel themselves, capping a marvellous team achievement over the disc as a whole.
With excellent notes from Adrian Thomas, wonderfully evocative cover artwork, and superb recordings from an all-Polish team, this is a disc to set alongside the Silesian Quartet’s benchmark account of Bacewicz’s quartets. It deserves to be every bit as successful.
Reviews
For those invigorated by the Silesian Quartet’s complete [Bacewicz] quartet set, here’s an exciting new addition: two piano quintets. They are works of real substance and originality. The First (1952) is an assured achievement with a powerful identity. ... In this, and the Second Quintet, pianist Wojciech Świtała’s playing is spirited and incisive. By 1965, Bacewicz was emboldened to enter the avant garde, and her Second Quintet is confrontational and virtuosic. The Silesians tap in to its nervous energy. ... Look out for more Bacewicz: her time has come. Helen Wallace (Chamber Choice)BBC Music Magazine
The Silesian Quartet’s Gramophone Award-winning Chandos cycle of her string quartets (8/16) made a powerful case for Bacewicz as a 20th-century master of the form on a par with Shostakovich and Tippett. This new disc reinforces that conclusion: this is the potent, instantly communicative music of a larger-than-life artistic personality. ... If you’ve already got the Silesians’ Bacewicz quartet cycle, be assured that these performances share the same emotional commitment, attention to detail and electrifying verve. If you haven’t: well, this disc deserves to make a lot of converts. Richard BratbyGramophone June 2018
[Bacewicz] wrote for strings and piano as a singer might write for their own voice: as someone who knows the instruments’ capabilities inside out, knows how to harness their particular resonances and make each instrument speak naturally and eloquently. ... the energised playing from all the musicians involved is consistently polished and engaging. Eric JealThe Guardian 26 April 2018
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