# Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969)



## alojsy

Grażyna Bacewicz (February 5, 1909 in Łódź - January 17, 1969 in Warsaw, Poland) was a Polish composer and violinist. She is only the second Polish female composer to have achieved national and international recognition, the first being Maria Szymanowska in the early 19th century Her father and brother Vytautas identified as Lithuanian and used the last name Bacevičius, the other brother Kiejstut identified as Polish. Her father, Wincenty Bacewicz (lith. Vincas Bacevičius), gave Grażyna her first piano and violin lessons. In 1928 she began studying at the Warsaw Conservatory, where she initially took violin and piano classes, and graduated in 1932 as a violinist and composer. She continued her education in Paris, having been granted a stipend by Ignacy Jan Paderewski to attend the École Normale de Musique, and studied there in 1932-33 under the guidance of Nadia Boulanger. At the same time she took private violin lessons with Henri Touret. Later she also left France in order to learn from the Hungarian violinist Carl Flesch.

After completing her studies, Bacewicz took part in numerous events as a soloist, composer, and jury member. During the 1930s, she was the principal violinist of the Polish Radio orchestra, which was directed then by Grzegorz Fitelberg. This position gave her the chance of hearing a lot of her own music. During World War II, Grażyna Bacewicz lived in Warsaw, continued to compose, and gave underground secret concerts (premiering her Suite for Two Violins).

Bacewicz also dedicated time to family life. She was married in 1936, and gave birth to a daughter, Alina Biernacka, a recognized painter. After the war, she took up the position of professor at the State Conservatory of Music in Łódź. At this time she was shifting her musical activity towards composition, tempted by her many awards and commissions, and it finally became her only occupation in 1954 after serious injuries in a car accident.

Most of her compositions are for the violin. Among them are seven violin concertos, five sonatas for violin with piano including two for violin solo, seven string quartets, two piano quintets and four symphonies.


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## alojsy




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## alojsy




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## alojsy




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## alojsy




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## Neo Romanza

I've really been getting back into Bacewicz lately. Hopefully, I can give a better comment than this but I feel myself slowly being drawn into her sound-world with each successive listen. I'm really enjoying her concerti for violin right now. I wish Chandos would have continued their series of her music.


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## Delicious Manager

You forget to mention that her older brother Vytautas Bacevičius was also a notable composer, well worth looking into.

For my money, Bacewicz is one of the most criminally neglected composers of her generation (rather like her brother). Her impressive series of violin concertos is an important contribution to 20th-century violin concerto repertoire.


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## Head_case

I like her string quartets, especially the famous coupling of no. IV & no. VII and the piano quintets. 

Chamber musicwise, her contribution to Polish music was a landmark....I didn't realise she was neglected - her string quartets have been in print for the past 20 years and her piano quintets recorded often. The brilliant Wilanow Quartet reading is a wisp thin on recording but very accomplished, and maybe even second to the Amar Corde quartet who have completed the cycle of her string quartets and even parts of this cycle have already been sold out/out of print.

Can't say I care for what happens to the fate of most composers orchestral output


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## Neo Romanza

Delicious Manager said:


> For my money, Bacewicz is one of the most criminally neglected composers of her generation (rather like her brother). Her impressive series of violin concertos is an important contribution to 20th-century violin concerto repertoire.


I certainly agree that she continues to get neglected for no good reason. She's an incredibly accomplished composer. I'm still learning her musical language right now but I've loved everything I've heard over the years. I've been revisited the Chandos series of the violin concerti. Great music! Right now, I especially like _Violin Concerto No. 3_. This concerto has a unique sound. Some fascinating use of harmony throughout this work. I didn't enjoy _Violin Concerto No. 7_, but I think this is a work I'm going to have to spent more time with as it's just not immediately appealing. Of the other works I've heard, I liked the _Overture_, _Concerto for Strings_, and _Music for Strings, Trumpets, and Percussion_ (clearly a nod to Bartok's famous score _Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta_). I look forward to hearing her cello concerti. I bought the new Dux recording. I'm seriously surprised that CPO hasn't taken up the Bacewicz mantle yet as there's still a good bit of orchestral music that needs either better recordings or to actually be premiered.


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## Delicious Manager

Neo Romanza said:


> I certainly agree that she continues to get neglected for no good reason. She's an incredibly accomplished composer. I'm still learning her musical language right now but I've loved everything I've heard over the years. I've been revisited the Chandos series of the violin concerti. Great music! Right now, I especially like _Violin Concerto No. 3_. This concerto has a unique sound. Some fascinating use of harmony throughout this work. I didn't enjoy _Violin Concerto No. 7_, but I think this is a work I'm going to have to spent more time with as it's just not immediately appealing. Of the other works I've heard, I liked the _Overture_, _Concerto for Strings_, and _Music for Strings, Trumpets, and Percussion_ (clearly a nod to Bartok's famous score _Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta_). I look forward to hearing her cello concerti. I bought the new Dux recording. I'm seriously surprised that CPO hasn't taken up the Bacewicz mantle yet as there's still a good bit of orchestral music that needs either better recordings or to actually be premiered.


Bacewicz's style clearly evolved during her career from an overtly post-Romantic style early on to something more concentrated, terse and harmonically challenging later on. Do persevere with the later works as they yield great rewards with repeated listening. A similar evolution can be heard in her brother's music (must have been in the genes!). There is an excellent CD of his music (although little else, sadly) on the Toccata Classics label.


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## ptr

Delicious Manager said:


> There is an excellent CD of his music (although little else, sadly) on the Toccata Classics label.


I believe that there Martin Anderson has released two CD's with Baceiviciu's music, the orchestral one and one with Volume 1 of the piano works! The Lithuanian Music Centre Label has released a couple of discs with the Brothers music as well, but they may be a tad more difficult to obtain outside Lithuainia.. (But it might be these that Toccata are licensing?). I have one of the Vilnius Recording Studio with Lithuanian String Quartets where VB is included.

/ptr


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## Janspe

*Grażyna Bacewicz*

I was shocked to find out that there was no Composer Guestbooks thread for *Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969)*, one of Poland's most remarkable (and neglected, at least outside of Poland) composers. Her output is very varied, and although it concentrates occasionally on the violin - Bacewicz was a skilled violinist - there's a lot of other stuff to delve into as well. Concertos, symphonies, string quartets, chamber music...

I've listened to six of her seven violin concertos (the sixth remains unpublished, unfortunately) and her two piano quintets. At the moment I'm exploring her sonatas for piano and violin, of which there's a complete recording. Her 2nd piano sonata (recorded by Zimerman, for example) is a marvelous work. Sadly, quite a lot of her music remains unrecorded...

Any fans of Bacewicz here? I'm determined to fight for her music to be more well-known. It would be great fun to hear one of her violin concertos live in concerts, if only every now and then!

Here's a video of Bacewicz playing one of her short works for piano and violin, _Oberek_, with her brother Kiejstut Bacewicz:


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## Portamento

Great composer, and outstanding violinist! I am only familiar with the violin concertos, of which I like the Second and Third the best. Her late works are nice, but in my opinion lack the originality of earlier efforts.


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## Art Rock

She would easily make my top 5 composers from Poland. Chandos issued six of her violin concertos on 2 CD's, well worth while.


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## Janspe

Portamento said:


> Her late works are nice, but in my opinion lack the originality of earlier efforts.


Curiously enough, I find her later works more appealing than the earlier ones! Out of her violin concertos, the 7th is my favourite. Make sure to check out her two piano quintets, I think they are really interesting pieces of music.

Pianist Krystian Zimerman said of Bacewicz: _"I'd like to honour a composer to whom I and all the rest of us owe a great deal. I thought about recording the two quintets as long ago as 2002, when I presented Deutsche Grammophon with my recording plans for the next few years. I was still a student when I first got to know Grażyna Bacewicz's works in the 1970s. At that time my repertory included the Second Piano Sonata. This is a work I continue to perform at my recitals, and I should add that wherever I play it, it always goes down very well with audiences. After my recitals I am regularly asked: 'Who wrote this music? Where can I get hold of a copy of the score? Are there any recordings?'"_

Zimerman's wonderful reading of the 2nd piano sonata can be found from Spotify. There's also a live performance on YouTube: 1st movement / 2nd movement / 3rd movement


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## starthrower

I recommend the two volumes of string quartets on Naxos.


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## wrycker

Just listened to this sonata by Zimerman. Really nice! Thanks for let us discover her


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## David Phillips

The Concerto for String Orchestra is a charmer and would become popular if people played it more.


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## fluteman

A fine composer, whom I believe has been mentioned before, if not here, than in other classical music forums, but still underrated and underappreciated in my opinion. Thanks very much for mentioning her here.


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