Grazyna Bacewicz: Violin & Piano Works

While the prolific Grazyna Bacewicz composed several symphonies, concertos, ballets, and even film scores, most commercially available CDs are devoted to her chamber works; of these, the pieces for violin and piano have a special significance. As a virtuoso violinist and composer for the instrument, Bacewicz paid close attention to advanced string techniques fostered by such composers as Bartok and Stravinsky; yet she also kept her passionate neo-Romantic expressions within neo-Classical parameters, the dominant practice of the mid-twentieth century. The Sonata No. 4 for violin and piano (1949), the Partita (1955), and the Sonata da camera (also called Sonata No. 1, 1945) are the most substantial pieces of this program; they are balanced by a selection of shorter pieces, often of a Polish folk flavor: the Concertino (1945), Kaprys and Melodia (Capriccio and Melody, both 1946), Taniec mazowiecki (Mazovian Dance) and Oberek (1951), and Kolysanka (Lullaby, 1952) are concise character pieces that gave Bacewicz freedom to display much of her dazzling technique without formal restraints. Violinist Bartlomiej Niziol and pianist Pawel Mazurkiewicz deliver these fascinating pieces with energy and emotion, but the highly resonant acoustics of the Bydgoszcz Concert Hall give their sound an aural halo that seems too shimmering for the crispness of the music.