Grażyna Bacewicz - Piano Sonata No. 2; Piano Quintets (Krystian Zimerman)

Information

Composer: Grażyna Bacewicz

• Piano Quintet No. 1
• Piano Sonata No. 2
• Piano Quintet No. 2

Krystian Zimerman, piano

Kaja Danczowska, violin

Agata Szymczewska, violin

Ryszard Groblewski, viola

Rafał Kwiatkowski, cello

Date: 2011

Label: Deutsche Grammophon

-----------------------------------------------------------

Review

If Krystian Zimerman, relative recluse from the concert hall and recital room, let alone the recording studio, puts his name to something, in this case music by his fellow-Pole Grażyna Bacewicz, then it should be worth taking notice of.

Łódź-born Bacewicz (1909-69) may at one stage have been thought a ground-breaking composer, but as evinced by these three pieces, all of which require Zimerman’s services, she left us engaging music that is more Romantic than Modernist. It’s all very listenable stuff, which might at times be thought from a French pen if listening blind. Piano Quintet No.1 is from 1952, lyrical, volatile and folksy, always engaging, and with echoes of Shostakovich, mostly notably in the deeply felt slow movement. The finale (with a noticeable edit at 0’18”) has its scurry and beauty judiciously structures as a culmination to the whole. Its successor, from 1965, is more explorative (its effects woven into the musical argument) and proves the more rewarding piece, as combative as it is expressive, and written with passion.

Zimerman’s account of the Piano Sonata is driven by conviction. It is a big-boned creation with a heartfelt and shadowy slow movement; yet, for all Bacewicz’s vivid communication (the barnstorming finale though seems a little ‘empty’), the ultimate in composer identity is lacking in her music, that special something to hang your receptive hat on.

But the music here is certainly engaging and benefits immeasurably from this high-profile release with performers that seem to cherish every note and vibrate each one with conviction. The recording copes manfully with the thunder unleashed by Zimerman in the Sonata but the quintets are captured within a smidgen too much of reverberation, if with no lack of clarity and with well-judged balance between piano and strings. Recorded early-on in the year that marked fifty years since Bacewicz’s death, and allowing for any long-gestated post-production touching-up on Zimerman’s part, one wonders why it has taken two years to issue these recordings when an appearance during the half-century year itself would surely have been possible.

— Colin Anderson

-----------------------------------------------------------

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.

***

Krystian Zimerman (born 5 December 1956) is a Polish concert pianist and conductor. Born in Zabrze, Southern Poland, he studied at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. His international career was launched when he won the 1975 Warsaw International Chopin Piano Competition. He then toured widely and made a number of recordings. Since 1996, he has taught piano at the Music Academy in Basel, Switzerland. Zimerman is best known for his interpretations of Romantic music, but has performed a wide variety of classical pieces and is a supporter of contemporary music.

-----------------------------------------------------------