Bacewicz, Grazyna (1909 - 1969)

[Serial_Apologist]

Just wanted to draw attention to today's performance of her fourth string quartet, on the Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert. It provides a rare listening opportunity in this country.

In my view Bacewicz, who died in 1969 aged only 59, was one of Poland's finest modern composers of the Lutoslawsky generation, and to my knowledge one of the few distinguished women composers from that country. In common with Witold and others of her generation and the one coming after, she took the brave step of breaking with the Stalinist doctrine of "socialist realism" that had preordained Polish and other composers under the yolk of the Eastern Bloc from 1945 to the late 1950s to tow the aesthetic line of "music comprehensible to the masses", and she began turning to serial methods of composition. It is in that light that I have hitherto encountered the few works I have heard on R 3, such as the now vigorous, now enchanting Concerto for trumpet, strings and percussion of 1959, and the atmospheric Night Music of the following year; the fourth quartet dates from 1951, however, and it will be interesting to hear her own creative responses to the strictures of the time. It appears to last not much over 10 minutes, if YouTube is an indication, by the way.

[Roehre]

A couple of her compositions appear quite regularly in TtN.

[teamsaint]

Just wanted to draw attention to today's performance of her fourth string quartet, on the Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert. It provides a rare listening opportunity in this country.

In my view Bacewicz, who died in 1969 aged only 59, was one of Poland's finest modern composers of the Lutoslawsky generation, and to my knowledge one of the few distinguished women composers from that country. In common with Witold and others of her generation and the one coming after, she took the brave step of breaking with the Stalinist doctrine of "socialist realism" that had preordained Polish and other composers under the yolk of the Eastern Bloc from 1945 to the late 1950s to tow the aesthetic line of "music comprehensible to the masses", and she began turning to serial methods of composition. It is in that light that I have hitherto encountered the few works I have heard on R 3, such as the now vigorous, now enchanting Concerto for trumpet, strings and percussion of 1959, and the atmospheric Night Music of the following year; the fourth quartet dates from 1951, however, and it will be interesting to hear her own creative responses to the strictures of the time. It appears to last not much over 10 minutes, if YouTube is an indication, by the way.

Thanks for the excellent background S-A. Very similar to how KD introduced it on the radio.

Its well worth a listen.
I caught it on the radio, certainly lasts a good bit longer than ten minutes, more like 20 plus but the time flew by anyway !
Not knowing any of her other work,I'd say this seems a good piece to begin to investigate her music. There is a very confident feel to the piece.

[Serial_Apologist]

Much appreciated, TS. Somebody has to be around to dish the lowdown on our heroes, lest they and what they gave us be forgot. The first piece was likewise minimallistically introduced, to coin a phrase: a matter of Suk it and see.

The Bacewicz sounded superficially completely at odds with what I'd anticipated, only the final movement reminding me of Lennox Berkeley, which is what one could have expected from pupils coached to cover multitudes of sins by Nadia Boulanger in the still-fashionable Neo-Classicism of that era. I'll have to give it a proper go later.

Thanks for the excellent background S-A. Very similar to how KD introduced it on the radio.

Its well worth a listen.
I caught it on the radio, certainly lasts a good bit longer than ten minutes, more like 20 plus but the time flew by anyway !
Not knowing any of her other work,I'd say this seems a good piece to begin to investigate her music. There is a very confident feel to the piece.

[Roehre]

Just wanted to draw attention to today's performance of her fourth string quartet, on the Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert. It provides a rare listening opportunity in this country.

In my view Bacewicz, who died in 1969 aged only 59, was one of Poland's finest modern composers of the Lutoslawsky generation, and to my knowledge one of the few distinguished women composers from that country. In common with Witold and others of her generation and the one coming after, she took the brave step of breaking with the Stalinist doctrine of "socialist realism" that had preordained Polish and other composers under the yolk of the Eastern Bloc from 1945 to the late 1950s to tow the aesthetic line of "music comprehensible to the masses", and she began turning to serial methods of composition. It is in that light that I have hitherto encountered the few works I have heard on R 3, such as the now vigorous, now enchanting Concerto for trumpet, strings and percussion of 1959, and the atmospheric Night Music of the following year; the fourth quartet dates from 1951, however, and it will be interesting to hear her own creative responses to the strictures of the time. It appears to last not much over 10 minutes, if YouTube is an indication, by the way.

the body of 7 violin concertos is worth investigating, especially the contrasting nos.4 (1951) and 7 (1966).
Of the late(r) works I am impressed by the Concerto for orchestra (1962), the Musica sinfonica in tre movimenti (1965), the double concerto for 2 pianos and orchestra (1966) and one of her very last works, the viola concerto (1968).
Of the chamber music I feel the 1952 Pianoquintet deserves a mention next to the (like DSCH's personal) string quartets.
If one likes to know where she came from, the Symphony for strings (1946) as well as the early Sinfonietta for strings (1935) are works to be explored. Her four symphonies (1943, 1950, 1952, 1953) are more "public" works and show the influence of stalinist art politics rather blatantly (and IMO are -apart from no.1- hardly representative of Bacewicz's developing style)

[Serial_Apologist]

the body of violin concertos is worth investigating, especially the contrasting nos.4 (1951) and 7 (1966).
Of the late(r) works I am impressed by the Concerto for orchestra (1962), the double concerto for 2 pianos and orchestra (1966) and one of her very last works, the viola concerto (1968).
Of the chamber music I feel the 1952 Pianoquintet deserves a mention next to the (like DSCH's personal) string quartets.
If one likes to know where she came from, the Symphony for strings (1946) as well as the early Sinfonietta for strings (1935) are works to be explored.

Thanks for these pointers Roehr - I shall investigate.

[HighlandDougie]

I bought this CD a couple of years ago on something of a whim:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bacewicz-Piano-Sonata-Quintets-Nos-1/dp/B002L5IKHW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424789992&sr=8-1&keywords=ASIN%3A+B002L5IKHW

Having gone through a phase during the 1970s of listening to Polish composers of her generation (I started with the usual suspects of Panufnik and Lutoslawski then added others, including Bacewicz), I hadn't listened to any of her music for years. The quintets were written 13 years apart (early 50s to mid-60s), with the latter sounding more, well, "modern" - very much of its time. The Piano Sonata is something of a virtuosic tour-de-force in Zimerman's hands. Well worth a punt.

[Serial_Apologist]

I bought this CD a couple of years ago on something of a whim:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bacewicz-Piano-Sonata-Quintets-Nos-1/dp/B002L5IKHW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424789992&sr=8-1&keywords=ASIN%3A+B002L5IKHW

Having gone through a phase during the 1970s of listening to Polish composers of her generation (I started with the usual suspects of Panufnik and Lutoslawski then added others, including Bacewicz), I hadn't listened to any of her music for years. The quintets were written 13 years apart (early 50s to mid-60s), with the latter sounding more, well, "modern" - very much of its time. The Piano Sonata is something of a virtuosic tour-de-force in Zimerman's hands. Well worth a punt.

Again, many thanks!

This I find to be a most illuminating write-up, of the kind much needed nowadays:

http://www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/composer/bacewicz.html

The India anecdote is wonderful!

I can't help but remark on her striking looks - and she seems to have aged remarkably little. How tragic to have lost her so prematurely.

[teamsaint]

Much appreciated, TS. Somebody has to be around to dish the lowdown on our heroes, lest they and what they gave us be forgot. The first piece was likewise minimallistically introduced, to coin a phrase: a matter of Suk it and see.

The Bacewicz sounded superficially completely at odds with what I'd anticipated, only the final movement reminding me of Lennox Berkeley, which is what one could have expected from pupils coached to cover multitudes of sins by Nadia Boulanger in the still-fashionable Neo-Classicism of that era. I'll have to give it a proper go later.

THe comment about losing the music that they created is something that does rather bother me. Even in this age of digitsation and mass storage media, it's a real danger IMO.

The Polish Music centre page is one of the best things I have seen on the internet in quite a while.

[richardfinegold]

I have one work of hers in my collection. I forgot the title but it is on the Norwegian 2 L Label, the Orchestra is called the Trondheim Soloists, and it is a Blu Ray Audio disc that I believe is also available in SACD and as a High REs download. I haven't listened to it for a while but I remember being very impressed by it.

[Ian Thumwood]

SA

I had never heard of Grazyna Bacewizc until about 6 weeks ago but i stumbled upon here name in an article on line as I wanted to follow up on other Polish composers after being obsessed by Karol Syzmanowski. I bought a new recording of her by Peter Jablonki on the ondine label knowing nothing about her music. It feature an Oveture, a paino concerto, a concerto for 2 pianos and a composition for strings, trumpets and percussion. In my opinion it is staggering that someone this good is so obscure. I would imagine that the fact she seemed heavily influenced by Bartok probably counts against her as being an original yet this disc is a cracking recording. Her sryle became more strident as she aged. Not difficult to appreciate why the reviews of this record have been so glowing.

There is so much unheard music from the 20th century and the music on this disc was worth rescuing. These sound like major compositions to my ears. Perhaps not an innovator but superior to a number of more celebrated contemporaries.