Grażyna Bacewicz: Complete Symphonic Works Vol 2

Grażyna Bacewicz: Complete Symphonic Works Vol 2

555 660-2 (cpo, CD)

DDD
FIRST RELEASE (2 February 2024)

Playing time: 53'05"
Tracks: 9
Booklet pages: 24
℗ 2023 Classic Produktion Osnabrück
© 2023 Classic Produktion Osnabrück
Main country of recording: Germany
Country of manufacture: Germany
Reviewer: Geoff Pearce
Review of Grażyna Bacewicz: Complete Symphonic Works Vol 2 published on 13 February 2024

WDR Sinfonieorchester
Łukasz Borowicz, conductor

Grażyna Bacewicz:

1 Overture

Symphony No 2
2 Con passione
3 Lento tranquillo
4 Scherzo. Vivo
5 Finale. Allegro moderato

6 Variations for Orchestra

Musica sinfonica in tre movimenti
7 Tesi
8 Dialogo. Molto tranquillo
9 Gioco

In her own words, Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969) had been gifted by nature with a 'small, invisible engine' that allowed her to do in ten minutes what others needed an hour for. This inner drive can be demonstrated in all areas of this Polish artist's life. She was an excellent violinist from an early age, had success as a writer and already wrote her first compositions as a teenager - all at a dizzying pace. Even so, the quality of her works are not superficial in the least. This is the second in a series of her complete symphonic works. After presenting her Symphonies Nos 3 and 4, works from the early 1950s, Borowicz and the WDR SO perform more examples of Bacewicz's wealth of expression. These include the neoclassical outbursts of the Overture (1943) and the Second Symphony (1951), the sophisticated, already strongly timbre-oriented Variations for Orchestra (1957) and Musica sinfonica in tre movimenti, by which time Bacewicz had achieved her 'late' style - the so-called 'sonorism', in which the colour of sound plays an essential structural role. After these 'three movements', the 'small engine' ran for almost another four years - this phenomenal musician had completed everything faster than the others.

Recorded 27-30 March 2023 at the Kölner Philharmonie, Cologne, Germany.