Bacewicz: Orchestral Works, Vol. 1

Chronique

These two symphonies by Grażyna Bacewicz appeared in 1952 and 1953 and are similar in style. The reflections of annotator Katarzyna Naliwajek, available to physical or online album buyers, are worth the investment, for they reflect in depth on the extramusical factors at work in these pieces. Bacewicz, like Shostakovich, faced increasing pressure from censors in the late '40s and early '50s, and the two symphonies avoid openly avant-garde aspects. Yet they are not exactly conservative, either; there is a good deal of Bartók in them, and there is an edge, nicely captured here by conductor Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, that places the music firmly in the modern era. Bacewicz writes lyrical slow movements and Scherzi that hew to the original humorous connotations of the "scherzo" ("joke") term; these movements especially must have helped Bacewicz gain official recognition, and they are as delightful now as they were when they were written. The album-ending Overture, strangely exuberant considering its composition date of 1943, is intriguing and not commonly heard. Bacewicz's music owes a good deal to French neoclassicism, absorbed prior to the war from Nadia Boulanger in France. Bacewicz is also an expert orchestrator -- her skills honed by a stint as a violinist with the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra -- and the BBC Symphony under Oramo, clean and crisp, makes an ideal interpreter of her work. Chandos' sound from the Fairfield Halls is also a plus, and with Bacewicz on the rise in concert programs, a good run for this release seems assured. It made classical best-seller lists at the end of 2023.

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