Grażyna Bacewicz - Quartets & Quintets (Silesian String Quartet)

Information

Composer: Grażyna Bacewicz

• Piano Quintets Nos. 1 & 2
• Quartet for Four Violins
• Quartet for Four Cellos

Silesian String Quartet

    Szymon Krzeszowiec, violin

    Arkadiusz Kubica, violin

    Łukasz Syrnicki, viola

    Piotr Janosik, cello

Polish Cello Quartet

    Tomasz Daroch, cello

    Wojciech Fudala, cello

    Krzysztof Karpeta, cello

    Adam Krzeszowiec, cello

Wojciech Świtała, piano

Krzysztof Lasoń, violin

Małgorzata Wasiucionek, violin

Date: 2018

Label: Chandos

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Review

One of the joys of reviewing is when a minor composer belatedly receives their due. This isn’t one of those cases, for the simple reason that Grażyna Bacewicz is emphatically not a minor composer. 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.

For proof, start with the Violin Quartet (1949) and notice how, even in music intended for students, Bacewicz instantly establishes a sense of character and musical purpose. Much of that is down to her command of string textures, and time and again Bacewicz uses that command to shape the emotional direction of her larger-scale works. A cello wails like a siren over the oppressive opening of the 1963 Cello Quartet; sul ponticello shivers crackle in the Second Piano Quintet (1965), while quiet violin glissandos fall like meteors against a darkening sky. The piano chimes softly, a warning bell amid the sombre mists that open the Second Quintet’s Larghetto; and elsewhere swoops from the top to the bottom of its register in grand, dazzling runs.

Again, then: a huge personality. Bacewicz can generate irresistible symphonic momentum in the space of a four-minute movement and integrates eloquent bleakness with some of the sharpest, most light-footed musical wit since Haydn. 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 Bratby

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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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The Silesian String Quartet, founded in 1978 by graduates of the Karol Szymanowski Academy in Katowice, is an ensemble renowned for championing Polish contemporary music. After studying with members of leading international quartets, the group gained recognition through competition prizes and performances during Poland's cultural liberalization in the 1980s. It has since developed an active international career, performing at major venues and collaborating with prominent musicians. The quartet has recorded extensively, particularly works by Polish composers including Górecki, Bacewicz, Penderecki and Weinberg.

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