Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969)

Started by Maciek, April 18, 2007, 01:13:25 PM

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Maciek

And DUX has released a new recording of the 3rd Concerto as well! Don't know the exact release dates (who one-upped whom?) but while I really like Kurkowicz, Jakowicz is the one whose recording I would buy blindly (based on what I've heard from him both live and on CD - his Lutoslawski Partita, e.g., is every bit as good as Mutter's).

jlaurson

Quote from: Maciek on July 05, 2009, 03:14:00 AM
And DUX has released a new recording of the 3rd Concerto as well! Don't know the exact release dates (who one-upped whom?) but while I really like Kurkowicz, Jakowicz is the one whose recording I would buy blindly (based on what I've heard from him both live and on CD - his Lutoslawski Partita, e.g., is every bit as good as Mutter's).

Very good to know. Thanks!

The new erato



I've just finished listening to this, my first Bacewicz and I'm pretty amazed at the quality of the music. Containing concertoes 1, 3 & 7 the stylistic range is  wide and it's not easy to generalize. I'm pretty stumped as to why they have placed the concertoes i the sequence 7, 3, 1 though. Makes no sense at all to me.

bhodges

That looks like a very enticing CD, and part of the attraction for me would be the sound on Chandos.  I don't think I've ever heard a bad-sounding recording from that company.

Her music *is* quite a find, isn't it!  I recall my first encounter--an OK-sounding CD on Olympia, of string works--and wondered why her music isn't performed more often.

--Bruce

Maciek

Damn, I wish I could get my hands on those discs some time soon. But it doesn't look like it... ::) Maybe the DUX, sometime near the end of the year...

Maciek

The blog I've discovered yesterday (a short lived affair that only had 5 musical entries) offers a fascinating download of a Bacewicz chamber concert with the Silesian String Quartet I (with Marek Mos, when they were really good). I even think I actually went to that concert, but memories are rather hazy. The recording of one of the quintets was later released on CD, but the rest you can't get anywhere else.

The program is: 4th String Quartet - 1st Piano Quintet - 7th String Quartet - 2nd Piano Quintet
Played by: Silesian String Quartet (with Marek Moś), Vyacheslav Novikov - piano

Here's the link: http://sandflyer-titb.blogspot.com/2009/03/grazyna-bacewicz-two-string-quartets.html

This is not to be missed! $:)

snyprrr

Quote from: Maciek on December 31, 2009, 12:48:09 PM
The blog I've discovered yesterday (a short lived affair that only had 5 musical entries) offers a fascinating download of a Bacewicz chamber concert with the Silesian String Quartet I (with Marek Mos, when they were really good). I even think I actually went to that concert, but memories are rather hazy. The recording of one of the quintets was later released on CD, but the rest you can't get anywhere else.

The program is: 4th String Quartet - 1st Piano Quintet - 7th String Quartet - 2nd Piano Quintet
Played by: Silesian String Quartet (with Marek Moś), Vyacheslav Novikov - piano

Here's the link: http://sandflyer-titb.blogspot.com/2009/03/grazyna-bacewicz-two-string-quartets.html

This is not to be missed! $:)

Do I have to join? I clink the link on the site, but it doesn't seem to engage the link. It looks like something is going to happen, but then it just returns to the same opening page.

The new erato

They have a DUX sale on prestoclassical, but no recordings of her string quartets seems to be on the list.....Pity.

Maciek

Quote from: snyprrr on January 03, 2010, 07:48:05 PM
Do I have to join? I clink the link on the site, but it doesn't seem to engage the link. It looks like something is going to happen, but then it just returns to the same opening page.

Odd. Are you sure you're clicking the right link? (This one: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VGVQEZHU.) Everything worked for me, despite the minor complications (to be frank, it doesn't work as a link, you have to paste it into your address bar... and then on the megaupload site, after the verification, you have to wait through the 45 second countdown for the "real" link to appear)... ???

Maciek

The Polish Radio is releasing an album (single disc) with her "radio-opera" King Arthur's Adventure. It was recorded last October. The Polish Radio page gives 2009 as the release year but I haven't seen this one around yet, and none of the internet stores seem to have it, so I'm guessing that date is more of a rough estimate... ::)

Performers: Ryszard Minkiewicz, Daniel Borowski, Przemysław Rezner, Agnieszka Makówka, Katarzyna Tylnik, Jadwiga Rappe, Anna Karasińska, Aleksander Kunach, Zbigniew Zamachowski et al. Polish Radio Choir in Cracow/Maria Orawska, Polish Radio Orchestra/Łukasz Borowicz

jlaurson

Quote from: Maciek on January 10, 2010, 09:45:46 PM
The Polish Radio is releasing an album (single disc) with her "radio-opera" King Arthur's Adventure. It was recorded last October. The Polish Radio page gives 2009 as the release year but I haven't seen this one around yet, and none of the internet stores seem to have it, so I'm guessing that date is more of a rough estimate... ::)

Performers: Ryszard Minkiewicz, Daniel Borowski, Przemysław Rezner, Agnieszka Makówka, Katarzyna Tylnik, Jadwiga Rappe, Anna Karasińska, Aleksander Kunach, Zbigniew Zamachowski et al. Polish Radio Choir in Cracow/Maria Orawska, Polish Radio Orchestra/Łukasz Borowicz

Have you heard the broadcast? If so, can you tell me anything about it?
I like the few radio operas I know (most prominently those of Egk), but I find them to be tied to the understanding of the language even more so than regular operas. Same here?

Maciek

Haven't heard it, sorry. I'm not even sure if this specific performance has ever been broadcast (though I suppose they should also have an older "original" recording somewhere in their archives).

Scarpia

I have this recording, which I did not find to be particularly outstanding, with respect to the performance or the music itself.


snyprrr

It took about a week for my friend to figure it out, haha, but I finally heard that radio broadcast!

So, I've finally heard the famous No.4. Wow, it's quite the most cosmopolitan sounding SQ I think, very Ravelian in it's sophistication, plus a bit of that gray suburban colouring of, say, Pijper, plus, the formal qualities of Hindemith, perhaps. And, don't forget Bartok. Yes, the whole of post-war Europe seems distilled here. It's abstract, yet friendly. Perhaps Ravel's string Duo is what I'm hearing, with Bartok and Hindemith. It's like I've heard this before, but Bacewicz certainly has put it together like no one before her. The mysterious first mvmt. certainly is in league with other 20th century SQ masterpieces.

SQ No.7, her last, right?, really perked up my ears, though. Bacewicz's mastery of string sound is much in evidence here. She is certainly "keeping up with the Jonses" here, in the '60s, Penderecki/Lutoslawski-type way. Much fun, and quite a leap from No.4.

The same holds true between the Two Piano Quintets. No.1's slow mvmt. was instantaneously popular to me, sounding a bit like a tortured Shosty passacaglia. I hear a lot of the mysterious piano configurations like I hear at the beginning of Bridge's Piano Trio No.2. She does favor the sort of soundworld that sounds to me like an aural equivalent to O'Keefe's(?) vagina flowers. I like it! :-*



I suppose the performances are close to bible. The group has a silky, homogenous sound that sounds like a luxury car. Just watch out for thoseaudio spiking coughs in between the performances!

Thee definition of "mid-century", or, "post-war". A definative missing link. Thanks!

Maciek

Ha, ha! The guy who keeps that blog says he likes to keep in all the coughing for the "atmosphere of a live concert" or something... ;D

Yeah, the 7th is her last and I think it's my favorite (of the ones I've heard - but I'm actually really planning to finally get all of them next month! cross your fingers), a really fun piece. I was almost blown away when I first heard it (about a year ago, on the older Olympia recording) - I didn't really expect anything of that kind, and so coherent at the same time! :o :D

And the Silesians, in their first incarnation, really were the best. Without Marek Mos, they're still really great, but I personally feel something is missing. I don't know, I'm not much of an sq expert, but that silkiness and "oneness" seems to be gone. Or at least there's a bit less of it. On the one hand, they sound a bit harsher, on the other (ironically) - interpretatively, they've lost their "edge", the sort of aggressive authoritativeness (wow, what a phrase!) that they had. It's just that with Mos they were so perfect!!! :'(

snyprrr

Quote from: Maciek on January 11, 2010, 12:50:21 PM
Ha, ha! The guy who keeps that blog says he likes to keep in all the coughing for the "atmosphere of a live concert" or something... ;D

Yeah, the 7th is her last and I think it's my favorite (of the ones I've heard - but I'm actually really planning to finally get all of them next month! cross your fingers), a really fun piece. I was almost blown away when I first heard it (about a year ago, on the older Olympia recording) - I didn't really expect anything of that kind, and so coherent at the same time! :o :D

And the Silesians, in their first incarnation, really were the best. Without Marek Mos, they're still really great, but I personally feel something is missing. I don't know, I'm not much of an sq expert, but that silkiness and "oneness" seems to be gone. Or at least there's a bit less of it. On the one hand, they sound a bit harsher, on the other (ironically) - interpretatively, they've lost their "edge", the sort of aggressive authoritativeness (wow, what a phrase!) that they had. It's just that with Mos they were so perfect!!! :'(

ok,...so that was the Silesians!,... right, I wasn't paying attention. But, yea, I already thought this was a pretty unique string quartet sound, so, I can only imagine them with their "main man".  I was just listening again last night (No.4),...really impressed. The actual playing itself is like a co-star with the music.

btw- this duplicates two Olympia cds, no? how do the two performances compare (I'm assuming you have them of course ::))?

Maciek

#56
I regret to say that this is the Silesian Quartet with their "main man". ;D (Sorry, reading my previous post now, I realize I wasn't exactly clear about that... 0:)) On that same blog you can also find another recording, Penderecki SQs this time, played by the "new" Silesians. (FYI, Silesians I were: Marek Moś - Arkadiusz Kubica - Łukasz Syrnicki - Piotr Janosik; Silesians II are Szymon Krzeszowiec - Arkadiusz Kubica - Łukasz Syrnicki - Piotr Janosik; Their website covers both eras - it's funny, though, how they completely gloss over the change of line-up - in fact, Marek Mos isn't mentioned anywhere that I can see! :o) Haven't listened to the Penderecki concert yet, don't know if it will confirm my overall impression of (ever so slight) decline. Maybe they'll surprise me. :)

I have heard one of the two Olympia chamber Bacewicz CDs (the one with SQs 4 & 7 + PQnt 1 - pretty much the same line-up as here ;D) but I don't own it (it's proving rather elusive on e-bay, and Amazon Marketplace only ships to one or two selected countries in the world - needless to say, Poland is not one of them). I have to say that now that I have this download, I don't really feel compelled to hunt down the Olympia discs anymore. I'm completely satisfied. 8)

snyprrr

Quote from: Maciek on January 12, 2010, 11:50:20 AM
I regret to say that this is the Silesian Quartet with their "main man". ;D (Sorry, reading my previous post now, I realize I wasn't exactly clear about that... 0:)) On that same blog you can also find another recording, Penderecki SQs this time, played by the "new" Silesians. (FYI, Silesians I were: Marek Moś - Arkadiusz Kubica - Łukasz Syrnicki - Piotr Janosik; Silesians II are Szymon Krzeszowiec - Arkadiusz Kubica - Łukasz Syrnicki - Piotr Janosik; Their website covers both eras - it's funny, though, how they completely gloss over the change of line-up - in fact, Marek Mos isn't mentioned anywhere that I can see! :o) Haven't listened to the Penderecki concert yet, don't know if it will confirm my overall impression of (ever so slight) decline. Maybe they'll surprise me. :)

I have heard one of the two Olympia chamber Bacewicz CDs (the one with SQs 4 & 7 + PQnt 1 - pretty much the same line-up as here ;D) but I don't own it (it's proving rather elusive on e-bay, and Amazon Marketplace only ships to one or two selected countries in the world - needless to say, Poland is not one of them). I have to say that now that I have this download, I don't really feel compelled to hunt down the Olympia discs anymore. I'm completely satisfied. 8)

ok, so this is your favorite line-up,... ok, well, then they certainly do have "the" sound, yes.

And, yes, I don't feel compelled either. This makes for the most possibly single best Bacewicz calling card (maybe next to Olympia 311). Completely satisfied.

zorzynek

I loved her Incrustations for horn and chamber ensemble
Pretty decent version of it is on this - unfortunately uneven - record:
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=219127

snyprrr

btw- I forgot

How do you pronounce Bacewicz?? haha

I say - Batch-e-witch, haha...