Grażyna Bacewicz - Orchestral Works, Vol. 2 (Peter Donohoe; Sakari Oramo)

Information

Composer: Grażyna Bacewicz

• Symphony No. 2
• Piano Concerto
• Concerto for Large Symphony Orchestra

Peter Donohoe, piano

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Sakari Oramo, conductor

Date: 2025

Label: Chandos

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Review

Sakari Oramo confirmed his sympathy for the music of Grażyna Bacewicz with recordings of the Third and Fourth Symphonies (12/23), and this follow-up volume does not disappoint.

Certainly, the Second Symphony (1951) exudes a variety of incident out of all proportion to its length. This is as true of its first movement’s pivoting between equivocation and resolve as in the eloquence of a Lento with Bacewicz’s scoring at its most resourceful, a Scherzo whose poetic asides never offset its vivacity, then a finale whose concision (as with Roussel’s Fourth Symphony, which may well be the model) is demonstrably to the benefit of the work as a whole.

Again, in the Piano Concerto, Bacewicz is conscious of the implications of socialist realism while steering clear decisively of its values; this latter work finding the neoclassicism of her early maturity at its most combative. Peter Donohoe relishes the tensile interplay of an initial Allegro evoking Bartók and finds real plangency in the Andante with its variations on a folk song. Closer to Szymanowski, the final Allegro is driven home with all the requisite panache.

The Concerto for Orchestra (1962) indicates where Bacewicz was heading stylistically. If the opening Allegro still follows an orthodox evolution, that of the Largo is as much timbral and textural as motivic – its colouristic aspect reflecting this composer’s fascination with Xenakis. The ensuing Vivo anticipates Lutosławski’s formal concepts from later that decade, while the finale makes a virtue of any seeming discontinuity as it heads to a defiantly conclusive close.

Those who have the CPO and Ondine recordings can rest content, but for anyone wondering why Bacewicz is now considered among the more notable composers of her era this Chandos release, replete with its provocative notes from Katarzyna Naliwajek, is the preferred option.

— Richard Whitehouse

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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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Peter Donohoe (born 18 June 1953) is an English pianist. He studied at Chetham's School of Music, University of Leeds and the Royal Northern College of Music, and later with Olivier Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod. Donohoe has performed internationally with major orchestras and appeared at leading venues and festivals, including the BBC Proms. In addition to extensive touring, he is a respected jury member at prominent piano competitions such as the Tchaikovsky and the Queen Elisabeth competitions. He has also produced acclaimed recordings, including Mozart piano sonatas and works by Haydn, Grieg and Busoni.

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Sakari Oramo (born 26 October 1965) is a Finnish conductor. Born in Helsinki, he started his career as a violinist and concertmaster of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and studied in Jorma Panula's conducting class at the Sibelius Academy. Oramo was principal conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1998–2008), the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (2003–2012), and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (2008–2021). Since 2013, he has been chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, with which he has recorded commercially for such labels as harmonia mundi and Chandos.

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