Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969)

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

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Maciek

I'm getting the Acte Préalable box set of her complete string quartet works any month now (June at the latest). :D Though I'm a bit concerned if that is a good choice in terms of performance (anyone ever heard of the Amar Corde String Quartet??). I've had some serious duds from that label in the past - and their sound quality is very variable too. >:(

Robert

Quote from: MrOsa on April 21, 2007, 01:20:54 PM
I'm getting the Acte Préalable box set of her complete string quartet works any month now (June at the latest). :D Though I'm a bit concerned if that is a good choice in terms of performance (anyone ever heard of the Amar Corde String Quartet??). I've had some serious duds from that label in the past - and their sound quality is very variable too. >:(
Please let me know how they are. I do not have them all. I have 3 4 6 7... I never knew they were available complete...

Maciek


johnQpublic

My favs:

Divertimento for Strings - short & sweet but not a note wasted. Just the right touch of lightness too.

Music for Strings, Trumpets and Percussion - bold and fervent.

S709

Quote from: Robert on April 21, 2007, 12:22:25 PM
I also own a few of her concertos on vinyl...Im just to lazy to go look for them....As My friend Maciek asked violin concerto are yours on vinyl or disc? I do not believe that many were put on disc, if so, I am very interested....I am also lazy or I would have gotten the equipment to put some of my vinyl on disc...BTW What do  you think of her chamber works??? Look above at my post about this great disc I have of her violin sonatas....

Well, mine are on CD-Rs, made from radio recordings (I don't know the dates of broadcast or anything more).

No. 7 is on an Olympia CD.

As for the chamber music, I have a disc of music for violin & piano, plus a lot of string quartets etc -- I haven't listened to any of it in detail yet!

Lilas Pastia

Hänssler has recorded some of Grazyna Bacewicz piano works (10 Etudes, Kleines Tryptichon, 3 Burleskes, Children's Suite, Sonatina, Sonata 2 etc.) . Any comments?

Maciek

Quote from: Maciek on April 22, 2007, 12:18:04 AM
I will on this thread! 8)

Actually, it went out of print as a box set and that meant buying the issues separately, for more, so I decided to put it off. So no reviews forthcoming, at least not from me. But Jens is preparing a text for the Bacewicz 100th anniversary (he's mentioned it on the WAYLT thread). I'm looking forward to that.

Anyway, the other day he asked me about interesting Bacewicz recordings. One thing led to another and what happened in the end is that I've put together a Bacewicz discography. If anyone is interested, it can be found here. And a follow-up for recordings on vinyl here.

Ugh!

Well done, I'll certainly refer back to that list.

Just a note:
Philips 839260 (containing Music for strings,trumpet and percussion), was also issued as "Contemporary Polish Music" (Phillips 835 261 AY)

Maciek

Thanks! I'll add that right away. :D I'm sure there are also lots of mistakes in the catalog numbers etc. :-\ But I guess in this case a slightly faulty list is better than no list at all. ;D

Ugh!

absolutely, I applaud your work  ;)

Now, do you find the mentioned work for strings, trumpet and percussion as Bartokish as I do?  8)

Maciek

#30
Thanks. :D

Quote from: Ugh! on January 26, 2009, 01:40:34 AM
Now, do you find the mentioned work for strings, trumpet and percussion as Bartokish as I do?  8)

Definitely! At a certain time, she was the "most Bartokish" Polish composer I can think of (though she always had her own voice, there's no question about it, but "with a shade of Bartók" - to quote the title of another great Polish composer's piece :-X). Not to mention the explicit nod, in this title, to Music for strings, percussion and celesta. (Also, it was written in the same year as Lutoslawski's Funeral Music.)

[EDIT: did this post come out muddled? I didn't think it muddled but written out it seems muddled... :-\]

Maciek


bhodges

Quote from: Maciek on February 05, 2009, 03:04:06 AM
100th-birthday-bump.

Thanks, Maciek!  Amid some other more prominent centenaries, this one will no doubt receive little attention.  Glad it did, here. 

--Bruce

Maciek

Quote from: bhodges on February 05, 2009, 06:30:12 AM
Thanks, Maciek!  Amid some other more prominent centenaries, this one will no doubt receive little attention.  Glad it did, here. 

--Bruce

Well, over here the rivalry is only between Bacewicz and Karlowicz. Krystian Zimerman has embarked on a Bacewicz tour (playing, again, after many years, her 2nd Piano Sonata) and there are lots of other Bacewicz concerts. (And Karlowicz concerts too but I digress...)

jlaurson

#34
Grażyna Bacewicz - 100th Anniversary

Grażina Bacewicz was born 100 years ago today in Łódź, to a Polish mother and a Lithuanian father from whom she received her first musical training. Her prodigious talent became soon obvious and she gave her fist public performances at the age of seven. Her first composition followed at thirteen. At 19 she began to study philosophy at the University of Warsaw, but after just over a year she decided to focus more on music and enrolled in the Warsaw Conservatoire where she studied violin with Józef Jarzębski, piano with Jan Turczyński, and composition with Kazimierz Sikorski.
... .

(Tomorrow: Torelli & Karlowicz's [death] anniversaries. I wrote little appreciations for WETA which will appear on the website at 6am CET and noon CET, respectively)


Re: String Quartets:

Quote from: Maciek on January 25, 2009, 03:33:49 AM
Actually, it went out of print as a box set and that meant buying the issues separately, for more, so I decided to put it off. So no reviews forthcoming, at least not from me. But Jens is preparing a text for the Bacewicz 100th anniversary (he's mentioned it on the WAYLT thread). I'm looking forward to that.

I've received the Bacewicz recordings from that label one day to late. I might yet update the text, though, because I'm impressed by the works and (surprisingly?) by the performances/recording. The Piano Quintet, in particular, is a piece I have taken to quite a bit, even upon first (and so far only) hearing. If there is interest, I'll post my impressions either here or as an addendum to the WETA article.

Maciek

#35
A heads-up for fans of new discoveries. ;D

[EDIT: Sorry, I didn't have time to type an explanation: the link leads to a post on my blog with information about an upcoming concert that will feature world premieres of two recently discovered Grażyna Bacewicz pieces - the concert can also be caught live via a webcast]

Maciek

Quote from: jlaurson on February 07, 2009, 02:58:19 PM
If there is interest, I'll post my impressions either here or as an addendum to the WETA article.

Oops, sorry, I somehow missed the conditional part of the sentence and just kept checking here and your blog every other day. ;D Please, please do!

jlaurson

Quote from: Maciek on February 15, 2009, 01:54:00 PM
Oops, sorry, I somehow missed the conditional part of the sentence and just kept checking here and your blog every other day. ;D Please, please do!

Hah... I should do that more often... Hidden conditionals to uppen the clicks. :-)

Dundonnell

Chandos will be issuing this new recording of the Violin Concertos Nos. 1, 3 and 7 towards the end of this month-

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Chandos/CHAN10533

Maciek

Wow! Thanks! Will be looking forward to that. I do have recordings of all three, and the 1st and 7th have already been released on CD (the 7th twice) but for the 3rd this will be a premiere CD release! (AFAIK)

(I'm not the greatest fan of the conductor but whatever...)