Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969)

[snyprrr]

The CD is out; I have a copy in my hands... what seems to be the issue?

oh, I see it,... perhaps Toucan lives in another country...

so, what do you think? (plus, pretty neat seeing it in the Post)

[not edward]

oh, I see it,... perhaps Toucan lives in another country...

No, he posted his post last year.

I personally like the disc a lot. The music covers her middle and late periods, and is all very well done.

[Mirror Image]

I find it very hard to find good Polish music.  A lot of the stuff just isn't available to buy anywhere that I can find...

You find it hard to find good Polish music? Are you kidding me? There are many great Polish composers: Szymanowski, Lutoslawski, Karlowicz, Panufnik, and, yes, Bacewicz! Do your research!!!!

[Mirror Image]

Bought these tonight:

[asin]B002BZET5O[/asin]
[asin]B0053HAXZW[/asin]
[asin]B002O2MC2Q[/asin]

[Mirror Image]

I think, overall, that Polish composers, besides Chopin, are so underrated. Their music is so distinctive, colorful, imaginative, and emotional. I can't wait to dig into these Bacewicz recordings.

[Scion7]

Marvelous composer - easily the greatest female composer in classical music - perhaps if Fanny and Clara had written more music, they'd be more competition in the 'overall' sweepstakes.  I'm not impressed by any of the later modern plethora of women composers - heard it all before and done much better.

I also feel she is Poland's second-greatest composer after Chopin (even if Szymanowski is more 'important' - mainly because Bacewicz is more 'out there' and not as widely heard on radio, or the concert hall.)

A couple of things -

The ProActe disc of Wind Quintets has two of her pieces - someone's already mentioned the Incrustations piece  - but her first major composition is on there, too - the Quintet for Winds (1932) - and while it is a neo-classical work, it is very enjoyable, especially the last movement.  It won an award for some musical academic contest.
For those who are wanting more "melody" from her, like Scapula, they would find satisfaction here.

The complete works for Oboe have been released on ProActe - performances by Pedzialek, Grodecki, Stuhr, Zajac, Sikorzak-Olec, Pilch -
Trios, Sonata, and a Sonatine - for Oboe and strings, harp, piano ... very nice work!  From 1937 to 1965.  She composed a fair amount of chamber pieces, none of which I have disliked that I've heard.  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bacewicz-Complete-Oboe-Works-Pedzialek/dp/B000HLDCWA

I found a CD of her supposedly "lost" radio broadcasts - http://www.amazon.com/Wanda-Wilkomirska-Maestra-Johannes-Brahms/dp/B005WPT02C -

CD 2 Grazyna Bacewicz - Concerts for violin and orchestra
1. Concerto no. 5 for violin and orchestra: Allegro
2. Concerto no. 5 for violin and orchestra: Andante sostenuto
3. Concerto no. 5 for violin and orchestra: Finale. Vivace
4. Concerto No. 7 for violin and orchestra: Tempo mutabile
5. Concerto No. 7 for violin and orchestra: Largo
6. Concerto No. 7 for violin and orchestra: Allegro

Wanda Wilkomirska - violin [excellent Polish violinist, badly represented currently on record-now a univ. prof in Sydney, Australia]
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra ((tracks 1-6)
Witold Rowicki - conductor (tracks 1-3)
Andrzej Markowski (tracks 4-6)

Recorded in 1955 (track 1-3), 1979 (tracks 4-9).

---- Bacewicz was in a bad car wreck in 1954 that ended her professional performance career, damage to some tendons in one hand I think - the 1955 recording is the premiere of Concerto No.5, I believe with Bacewicz's direct input to the performers?

Her later work is not in the same vein as Saint-Saen, etc.; she is approaching music from a very different mind set - the abstractions of a mood that we are in when we read Rod Serling or watch a film like Deep Red.  This experimental area of Hindemith, Bartok, Schoenberg is not everyone's cup of tea.  I love her music.

[Dundonnell]

Still waiting for some sign of the three unrecorded symphonies(Nos. 1, 2 and 4)

[Scion7]

Dundonnell - absolutely!

My main hope would be for Symphony #4 (1953) - this has had only one performance as far as I can find - the Polish radio broadcast 'premiere' - and it was awarded some prize that I don't recall offhand.   But this would be awesome to have!  It would be just before her more abstract/late phase - and I have no doubt it would be significantly "better" than the third.  I've looked all over the web for some archival file of this to no avail.  I've emailed various record companies about any plans for it in the future - unanswered. 

This would be a wonderful opportunity for a city or very-good university ensemble to tackle.  Of course, it would require a skilled group of musicians to be able to play it.  Public tv or radio would be a nice outlet for this if no commercial release is forthcoming.

The use of colouristic resources such as, for instance, layers of tremolandos and trills or quick ostinatos acting as dramatic factors is much more frequent in the Fourth Symphony than in the preceding one. The above tendency seems to indicate new directions in the composer's explorations which will soon result in a new quality in the works to come. But the real flavour of the symphony is to be found somewhere else. Being immersed, like its predecessor, in the rhetoric of bombastic, symphonic gestures (powerful climaxes), the symphony at the same time ''gives the listener a wink'': ''Look, I am making light of the traditional 'straitjacket' imposed on me''.

I cannot speak or read/write any slavic language, but if I could, I'd try to contact some fans in Poland via blogs or what-not and try to see if any of them could track down some bootleg Polish LP or tape of this over there . . .

[not edward]

I spent a while going back over the recordings of her music that I have a week or two ago, and emerged with a few comments:

I don't think the selection of recordings that are easily available in the West at present have necessarily done her orchestral music the best service. In particular, the performances Hyperion disc of string orchestral works strike me as a bit flabby; hearing Krzysztof Penderecki's recording of Music for Strings, Trumpets and Percussion was a revelation by comparison--such drive and intensity that I didn't hear in the Hyperion recording and which brought out the colouristic imagination, forward momentum and structure of the work so much better. The performances on the Chandos violin concerto series are better, but I'm not convinced (perhaps with the exception of #3 and #7) they're her best works--certainly the violin writing is extremely idiomatic, as one would expect from a fine violinist, but perhaps that's part of the problem: too often compositional questions (at least in the outer movements) seem to me to be solved by some rather routine passagework. The slow movements of the earlier works certainly left me much more satisfied; if nothing else the melodic interest seems much higher in them.

I'm more impressed by the chamber discs (Zimerman's collection on DG with fine performances of some of her best works) and Kurkowicz's fine Chandos chamber disc (though I'm not convinced the overall compositional quality is as quite as high there). It's a shame that some of the Polish recordings weren't more easily available here--there were also a bunch of excellent discs once licenced to Olympia, including such gems as the viola concerto and concerto for orchestra, Władysław Szpilman (aka 'The Pianist') in the piano quintets, the first of Krystian Zimerman's recordings of the second sonata, and so on.

It's probably a vain hope, but maybe we can hope for Brilliant Classics to pick up these since they've raided quite a few Olympia-licenced discs already.

[bhodges]

Hi Scion7, and welcome. Impressed that for your first posts, you chose Bacewicz (whom I greatly admire as well).

--Bruce

[jlaurson]

Dundonnell - absolutely!

My main hope would be for Symphony #4 (1953) - this has had only one performance as far as I can find - the Polish radio broadcast 'premiere' - and it was awarded some prize that I don't recall offhand.   But this would be awesome to have!  It would be just before her more abstract/late phase - and I have no doubt it would be significantly "better" than the third.  I've looked all over the web for some archival file of this to no avail.  I've emailed various record companies about any plans for it in the future - unanswered. 

This would be a wonderful opportunity for a city or very-good university ensemble to tackle.  Of course, it would require a skilled group of musicians to be able to play it.  Public tv or radio would be a nice outlet for this if no commercial release is forthcoming.

The use of colouristic resources such as, for instance, layers of tremolandos and trills or quick ostinatos acting as dramatic factors is much more frequent in the Fourth Symphony than in the preceding one. The above tendency seems to indicate new directions in the composer's explorations which will soon result in a new quality in the works to come. But the real flavour of the symphony is to be found somewhere else. Being immersed, like its predecessor, in the rhetoric of bombastic, symphonic gestures (powerful climaxes), the symphony at the same time ''gives the listener a wink'': ''Look, I am making light of the traditional 'straitjacket' imposed on me''.

I cannot speak or read/write any slavic language, but if I could, I'd try to contact some fans in Poland via blogs or what-not and try to see if any of them could track down some bootleg Polish LP or tape of this over there . . .

Tempered enthusiasm for Bacewicz seconded! In the series of anniversary pieces I wrote in '09, she was my favorite. I'd known of her and heard a few things (like the Second Piano Sonata in recital with K.Z.), but I really only 'discovered' her for myself then and there.  Grażyna Bacewicz – 100th Anniversary

[Dundonnell]

You may be interested to know that her Piano Concerto(1949) and the two Cello Concertos, No.1 from 1951 and No.2 from 1963 can be downloaded from 'Unsung Composers'.

[Scion7]

Yeah, I'm not even sure of the status of the work--I know it's unpublished but with a copy in the Polish National Library.

Yes, the 6th V.C. is still unpublished.  From what I understand, she just quit working on it for a while to move to other things, and I suppose her untimely death prevented its completion.
It would be great if a photocopy of the manuscript could be taken, worked over, copied in clean script, and a conductor take it up for performance.  I doubt it happens any time soon.
Real shame - there are other unpublished works in her collection that should also be looked at by some serious current musicians.

[Scion7]

... assuming it's more than just a sketch, of course ....

[Scion7]

..... Piano Concerto(1949) and the two Cello Concertos, No.1 from 1951 and No.2 from 1963 can be downloaded from 'Unsung Composers'.

HOLY SMOKES!  Thank you so much!  Well, there are three major pieces that I can add to the library of her music.  Wish there weren't those dang drop-outs in Cello Concerto Nr.2 - argh.  But sure beats nothing!  Both of these should be polished up and released on CD via the Polish Radio label.  The piano concerto has a very good sound for 1955??

[Scion7]

http://en.chopin.nifc.pl/=files/foto/1/7453/o/4817199.jpg

Age? 19-22, maybe?

[Scion7]

Grażyna Bacewicz

from The New Grove:

(b Łódź, 5 Feb 1909; d Warsaw, 17 Jan 1969). Polish composer, violinist and pianist. After early instrumental and theory studies in Łódź, she attended the Warsaw Conservatory, where she studied composition with Kazimierz Sikorski, the violin with Józef Jarzębski and the piano with Józef Turczyński (she also studied philosophy at Warsaw University). She graduated in composition and the violin in 1932, furthering her studies in Paris in 1932 and 1933 with Boulanger and the violinist André Touret. After a brief period spent teaching in Łódź, she returned to Paris to study with Carl Flesch in 1934. At the request of the conductor Grzegorz Fitelberg, Bacewicz was principal violinist of the Polish RO (1936–8) and she performed as a soloist in several European countries before returning to Poland two months before World War II. She continued as a concert violinist after the war until the mid-1950s. Her prowess as a pianist should not be ignored: she was, for example, a notable interpreter of her own Second Piano Sonata.
Among her other activities, Bacewicz was an accomplished writer of short stories, novels and autobiographical anecdotes. Among the awards she received for her music were the top prize at the International Chopin Competition for Composers in Warsaw (1949) for her Piano Concerto, first prize at the International Composers' Competition in Liège (1951) for her String Quartet no.4, first prize in the orchestral section at UNESCO's International Rostrum of Composers in Paris (1960) for her Music for Strings, Trumpets and Percussion and the Gold Medal at the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Brussels (1965) for her Violin Concerto no.7, as well as various State awards from 1949 onwards.
Bacewicz made her most lasting mark on 20th-century music as a composer rather than as a performer or teacher (she taught composition rarely, but notably at the Warsaw Conservatory during the last three years of her life). She had an uncommonly vibrant yet modest personality and was much admired and loved by her fellow Poles during her lifetime.
Her career as a composer may be seen to divide into three broad spans, of which the first (1932–44) is largely preparatory to the second (1945–59), with the third (1960–69) a more distinct entity. The first period shows the development and refinement of Bacewicz's neo-classical persona. Although only a few of these early works have been published, her music's salient characteristics of clarity, wit and brevity are already evident in the Wind Quintet, a piece in which she seems to be following Szymanowski's example in the incorporation of folk elements. Her works from the time of World War II show a greater muscularity and unrelenting activity, with a daring disregard for traditional classical structures, as in the Sonata no.1 for solo violin. The Overture exemplifies Bacewicz's unerring ability to propel her music towards a final goal.
After the war, Bacewicz's music became increasingly personal, casting off any remaining Parisian chic and becoming distinctively resilient. Occasionally she indulged in pastiche (the Sonata da camera), but her stronger music is reminiscent of Szymanowski (the Violin Concerto no.3 and, later, the Piano Sonata no.2 and Violin Concerto no.5). These and other outstanding works such as the String Quartet no.3 and the Concerto for String Orchestra have mostly maintained their place in the international repertory. As with many of her contemporaries, she used folk materials (both directly and indirectly) during the period of intense socialist realism (1949–54), in large forms (the Piano Concerto) and in encore pieces for her recitals. Her output during the height of Stalinist cultural dogma is, however, remarkably free of mass songs or other pieces with a 'message'. The three symphonies are the most grandiose works, though their scoring is at times refreshingly restrained. The chamber music reveals a tougher, more challenging musical idiom, most notably in the fourth and fifth quartets: the former is structurally loose-limbed, while the latter is highly integrated in its motivic design and adventurous for the time in its non-diatonic harmonic language. This innovatory streak in Bacewicz's musical personality is carried through into the Partita, especially in its intermezzo. By the mid-1950s Bacewicz had already moved far from conventional notions of neo-classicism.
In the late 1950s Bacewicz, like her contemporaries, had to recognize the emergence of a new generation of younger composers and an influx of avant-garde influences from abroad. Unlike some of her contemporaries, she grasped the nettle, even though it was not always with absolute conviction. In some works, such as the String Quartet no.6, there are passages of outright 12-note writing. But she soon settled down to her own brand of chromaticism and dynamic gestures that veer from the routine (Cello Concerto no.2) to the highly imaginative (Pensieri notturni). At times, Bacewicz appears to have experienced some difficulty in putting pen to paper, although in 1965 she composed no fewer than seven large-scale works. The extensive self-borrowings which became evident when discarded works from 1965–7 were published posthumously seem to indicate a degree of uncertainty about the new directions she was taking. Her evident attachment to the Intermezzo from the Partita gave rise to citations from that movement's opening bars in later works (e.g. the Viola Concerto); such quotations form part of a highly successful patchworking technique that Bacewicz developed during the 1960s. There is even the suggestion in the Viola Concerto that Bacewicz, like some of her younger compatriots, was returning to folk material.
Bacewicz's position in Polish postwar music is undeniable: hers was an individual and independent voice; she was more innovative than is generally acknowledged and she carried the torch for the many Polish women composers who followed her example. Even though she may have lost her sure-footedness in the mid-1960s, this should not detract from a musical achievement that is being recognized outside Poland as one of the most remarkable of the mid-20th century.

           Well, I don't think she lost anything in the mid-Sixties, but they are entitled to their viewpoint.  I think she's the foremost female classical composer - and by a considerable margin.  Ms. Schumann might have been in the running if Robert hadn't said 'nein!' early in her composing career - of course, she would never have crossed the territories Grazyna did.
           A good chunk of her work is out on recordings, but much of it is still frustratingly not available.  Let's hope Polish radio didn't destroy the performance of her Fourth symphony; apparently that's the only one in existence.

So, you lovers of Chopin and Szymanowski - let's hear you jump on the bandwagon!

[Mirror Image]

I can't say I'm that impressed with Bacewicz. To me, her music just doesn't hit me the way Bartok's or Janacek's or Shostakovich's music does. I own both Chandos recordings of her VCs and the one Hyperion recording with various works for string orchestra. The music just didn't do much for me, but I blame myself and not the composer. If people connect with then that's great, but I'll file Bacewicz under the "composers I don't get yet" file which includes Holmboe.

[not edward]

I can't say I'm that impressed with Bacewicz. To me, her music just doesn't hit me the way Bartok's or Janacek's or Shostakovich's music does. I own both Chandos recordings of her VCs and the one Hyperion recording with various works for string orchestra. The music just didn't do much for me, but I blame myself and not the composer. If people connect with then that's great, but I'll file Bacewicz under the "composers I don't get yet" file which includes Holmboe.

I think I've posted this before, but unfortunately those three CDs probably aren't the best case out there for Bacewicz's music. With the exception of Music for Strings, Trumpets and Percussion, I don't think the works on there are her best, and that work is better served by the Polish recording I've heard under Krzyzstof Penderecki (yes, that Penderecki).

If you try again with her music, I'd probably suggest the DG recording of the two piano quintets and second sonata with Krystian Zimerman and an all-star Polish cast. The first piano quartet would definitely be my favourite of Bacewicz's pre-modernist period, and the second is a good example of that later period. (YMMV, though, as I know you really hated the 7th violin concerto, which is roughly contemporary with the second quintet.)

@Scion7: handy post from Grove, thanks: I do tend to share some concern with the article author about her heavy use of that theme from Partita; it's a great and extremely atmospheric one but there's a bit of a sense for me of "oh not that theme again," like with Denisov's motto theme in later works. That kind of recycling is a dangerous game to play, but it's a shame that she didn't live long enough to see how she would resolve her compositional crisis.

(Actually, it's interesting to imagine how history would have ranked Lutoslawski--perhaps her closest relative compositionally, and someone who was also having his own compositional crisis at the time--if he'd died at the same age. No Mi-Parti, no 3rd and 4th symphony, no piano concerto, no Partita, no Chains, and so on.)

[Mirror Image]

I think I've posted this before, but unfortunately those three CDs probably aren't the best case out there for Bacewicz's music. With the exception of Music for Strings, Trumpets and Percussion, I don't think the works on there are her best, and that work is better served by the Polish recording I've heard under Krzyzstof Penderecki (yes, that Penderecki).

If you try again with her music, I'd probably suggest the DG recording of the two piano quintets and second sonata with Krystian Zimerman and an all-star Polish cast. The first piano quartet would definitely be my favourite of Bacewicz's pre-modernist period, and the second is a good example of that later period. (YMMV, though, as I know you really hated the 7th violin concerto, which is roughly contemporary with the second quintet.)

Thanks Edward, but I'll just save my money and buy more Shostakovich or Prokofiev.