Information
Composer: Alexandre Tansman; Grażyna Bacewicz
- Tansman - Piano Concerto No. 1
- Bacewicz - Piano Concerto
Julia Kociuban, piano
Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic Orchestra
Paweł Przytocki, conductor
Date: 2020
Label: DUX
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These two Polish piano concertos, written a quarter-century apart, make for diverting listening but LP playing time. Given the rarity of the concertos on disc, however, that might not prove an insuperable obstacle.
Tansman’s 1925 Concerto embraces impressionism in its opening paragraphs, quite vivid elements too, made the more so by virtue of Dux’s very forward sound perspective. Fortunately the piano is not spotlit, Mercury long player-style, so that orchestral detail is in no way suppressed and whilst the soloist is no primus inter pares - this is a real concerto not a concerto grosso piece – she has been sensibly balanced. Amidst the dramatic flourishes one can certainly detect Ravel’s influence but the powerhouse chording, the exuberance and rhythmic pattering are all Tansman’s. Folk inflection has to wait for the slow movement, a study in sophisticated songfulness, and slightly jazzy, before a scintillating scherzino – blink and it’s gone – leads on to a somewhat neo-classically enriched finale. Here one can feel Tansman’s exuberance, his confidence in the medium, and his brilliantly communicative joyfulness.
Grażyna Bacewicz wrote her concerto in 1948 for a competition organised by the Polish Composers’ Union to mark the centenary of Chopin’s death. No first prize was awarded but at least she won second prize. Of her concertos it’s those for her own instrument, the violin, that are the most popular; this piano concerto has been largely overlooked. Possibly its ‘occasional’ nature has told against it. Nevertheless, it’s valuable to have it recorded in tandem with the Tansman, dissimilar though they are, and in so spirited and forthright a performance as this. Stormy and neo-classical it is also, for Bacewicz, quite a flashy work not representative especially of her more ambiguous and tensile chamber pieces. Even in the calm opening of the central slow movement one soon finds things ratcheting up several notches, but the most personal music is also to be found here, a limpid piano soliloquy reminiscent of a nocturnal amidst a series of taut variations. One can certainly discern the outline of an Oberek amidst the toccata-like brilliance of the finale. It’s a work of virtuoso - externalised qualities, in other words, with shafts of intimacy.
Both concertos have been finely served by the young Julia Kociuban and by the gutsy performances of the Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic Orchestra under their conductor Paweł Przytocki. Still, another concerto wouldn’t have gone amiss.
— Jonathan Woolf
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Alexander Tansman (12 June 1897 – 15 November 1986) was a Polish-born French composer. Born in Łódź to Jewish parents, he studied piano, composition and conducting before earning a law degree from Warsaw University. After moving to Paris in 1919, he gained recognition as a pianist and composer, influenced particularly by Stravinsky and Ravel. His international career included performances and tours across Europe, Asia and America. During World War II, he fled to Los Angeles with his family. Although he continued composing prolifically after returning to Paris, his neo-Classical style gradually fell out of favor.
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Grażyna Bacewicz (5 February 1909 – 17 January 1969) was a Polish composer and violinist of Lithuanian origin. Educated in Łódź, Warsaw and Paris, she studied composition with Kazimierz Sikorski and Nadia Boulanger and violin with prominent teachers including Carl Flesch. She achieved early recognition as a performer and later devoted herself primarily to composition and teaching. Bacewicz produced a substantial body of neoclassical music, with particular emphasis on violin and string repertoire, including seven violin concertos and seven string quartets. Her works received numerous international and national awards.
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Julia Kociuban (born 18 January 1992) is a Polish pianist. She studied at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Universität Mozarteum Salzburg and the Royal College of Music in London. She earned a doctorate in music in 2019 and completed postgraduate studies in cultural management in 2020. Kociuban has performed extensively across Europe, America and Asia in major concert halls and international festivals. She regularly appears as a soloist and chamber musician and collaborates with leading orchestras and conductors. She also teaches at the Bacewicz University of Music in Łódź.
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