Bacewicz: Orchestral Works

The three works on this album were all composed between 1943 and 1953. Despite the extreme experiences and difficulties she faced during this undoubtedly most tragic time in Poland’s history, Grażyna Bacewicz managed to compose outstanding works which constitute splendid testimony to the vibrant creative potency for which she was renowned.

This second volume of Sakari Oramo's Bacewicz series features three rarely recorded works, played with conviction by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and featuring Peter Donohoe as the soloist in the Piano Concerto. Grazyna Bacewicz was a pioneering twentieth-century Polish composer, known for her vibrant and dynamic musical language.

This second volume of Sakari Oramo's Bacewicz series features three rarely recorded works, played with conviction by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and featuring Peter Donohoe as the soloist in the Piano Concerto. Grazyna Bacewicz was a pioneering twentieth-century Polish composer, known for her vibrant and dynamic musical language. Her music bridges the gap between neoclassicism and modernism, and is extremely well crafted. The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra was written in 1949 in response to the Frederic Chopin Composers' Competition announced by the Polish Composers' Union to commemorate the centenary of Chopin's death. In the category of works for piano and orchestra it received the second prize - no first prize was awarded at all! The Second Symphony, finished in January 1951, was performed for the first time at the opening of the First Festival of Polish Music later that year. It is in fact the composer's third symphony, Bacewicz having discarded the first one.

The music of Eugene Zádor is both warmly expressive and colorful. The composer took great delight in writing for overlooked solo instruments, as his Trombone Concerto, garnished with elements of Hungarian folklore, clearly shows. The easy-going, gypsy-influenced Music for Clarinet and Strings is a beautifully proportioned quasi-concerto.

Mieczyslaw Karlowicz (1876-1909) was born in Lithuania, and raised by his father Jan, who was a great humanist. He was perfectly educated abroad especially in Berlin, as well as in Warsaw. Closely connected with Warsaw thanks to his place of residence and education, in Zakopane he found a second home. He wrote a bit more than twenty songs, five symphonic poems, one unfinished symphony, and a violin concerto before his life was taken by an avalanche. This release showcases his Violin Concerto in A major, his Lithuanian Rhapsody Op. 11, and The Sorrowful Tale Op. 13. Violinist Bartlomiej Niziol was born in 1974 in Szczecin. Since the start of his artistic career he has been closely connected with the Szczecin Philharmonic, where he had his concert debut at age 12.

Mieczyslaw Karlowicz (1876-1909) was born in Lithuania, and raised by his father Jan, who was a great humanist. He was perfectly educated abroad especially in Berlin, as well as in Warsaw. Closely connected with Warsaw thanks to his place of residence and education, in Zakopane he found a second home. He wrote a bit more than twenty songs, five symphonic poems, one unfinished symphony, and a violin concerto before his life was taken by an avalanche.

This is the third volume in the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio’s survey of the orchestral works of Grazyna Bacewicz. Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio was founded in 1968 by conductor Agnieszka Duczmal and originally appeared under the auspices of “Jeunesses Musicales” and Poznan Music Society. Aside from an active international touring schedule, the orchestra regularly takes part in recordings for Polish Radio with repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music.

For their fourth recording on Alpha Classics, Paavo Järvi and the Estonian Festival Orchestra - who bring together the best Estonian talent and leading musicians from around the world each year in Pärnu - celebrate composers from Estonia and Poland, two nations closely connected by their history. Eduard Tubin (1905-1982) is a composer whose ten symphonies tower at the top of Estonian orchestral music.