Silesian War

For their very first recording on Chandos, the multi-award winning Silesian Quartet presents the complete string quartets by Grayna Bacewicz. These lesser-known chamber music treasures by the Polish composer are neatly packaged in a slimline jewel case: two discs here offered for the price of one.

The String Quartet that Weinberg completed in May 1937 bears no resemblance to the music that young Warsaw composers were fascinated with at that time. It is devoid of any clear echoes of Szymanowskis style or of neoclassicism, the latter being most appealing to the younger generation of composers at the time. It seems that Weinberg was writing from the perspective of a pianist. The result was a three-movement cycle with a slow central movement and a dance-like finale that brings back themes from the beginning of the piece. Weinberg wrote his String Quartet No. 16 (completed in January 1981) at the same time he was working on his Symphony No. 16. While the Symphony was penned in memory of his mother, the Quartet was composed with his sister in mind. He had parted with his loved ones forever in September 1939. His parents and sister were unable to get out of Warsaw in time and four years later they perished in Trawniki concentration camp. 'Many of my works refer to the war' explained Weinberg. 'But it wasnt me who chose that topic. It was dictated by fate, the tragic fate of those who were dear to me. I believe its my moral obligation to write about the war and the terrible suffering that our century brought upon people.'

Not merely the atmosphere, but also the various references suggest that Weinbergs music including his String Quartets Nos. 8, 9 and 10 comes from the mind of someone who suffered because of the tragic fate of his family and missed the lost homeland where he had spent 'the best and happiest years' of his life, as he confessed many years later to an interlocutor from Poland. These three works Opp. 66, 80 and 85 were composed in a period when he lived off memories, which is also evident in his choice of texts for his vocal works.

Not merely the atmosphere, but also the various references suggest that Weinberg’s music – including his String Quartets Nos. 8, 9 and 10 – comes from the mind of someone who suffered because of the tragic fate of his family and missed the lost homeland where he had spent 'the best and happiest years' of his life, as he confessed many years later to an interlocutor from Poland. These three works – Opp. 66, 80 and 85 – were composed in a period when he lived off memories, which is also evident in his choice of texts for his vocal works. His Symphony No. 6 Op. 79 sets Jewish and Russian poems about the war, while in The Diary of Love Op. 87 he uses texts by Stanislaw Wygodzki which lament the death of the poet’s daughter in Auschwitz.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra under Edward Gardner, music director of English National Opera and an exclusive Chandos artist, presents Volume 2 of their Polish Music series; a disc dedicated to vocal works by Witold Lutosawski. They are joined by the soloists Lucy Crowe, Toby Spence, and Christopher Purves in looking at some of the composers earlier works for voice and orchestra as well as three major works written after 1960: Paroles tissées, Les Espaces du sommeil and Chantefleurs et Chantefables.

Lotte Schöne is one of those singers whose personality shines through the shellac: joyful, expressive, and bubbly. She was loved by audiences in Vienna, Salzburg, Berlin, Paris, and London. Being Jewish, she left Berlin in 1933, but continued to sing in Vienna and Paris until 1938. At the outbreak of World War II, Schöne took refuge in a small village in the French Alps, where she stayed in hiding until 1945. After the war she gave occasional concerts and sang one performance in 1948 at the Berlin State Opera. She spent the remainder of her life living outside of Paris with her son and grandchildren. Lotte Schöne’s records are highly prized, especially her acoustic discs. This set contains all of her known recordings for Vox, Odeon, and the Gramophone Company, including six unpublished Odeon sides made just before the company’s conversion from the acoustic to the electric recording process, and four unpublished Gramophone Company sides of Hugo Wolf songs recorded in 1934. The set concludes with a delightful group of non-commercial discs made for her family, and a substantial offering of German and French songs recorded late in her career for French and German Radio in 1948 and 1950. This is the first time that Lotte Schöne’s complete extant recordings can be heard in one compilation. The booklet includes rare photos, an evaluation of Schöne’s recordings by Michael Aspinall, and a personal essay by the noted French author, André Tubeuf, written in English especially for this Marston Records release.