Grazyna Bacewicz: Complete String Quartets (2016)

A virtuoso violinist in her own right, Grazyna Bacewicz composed an impressive body of works for strings, which included her seven string quartets, composed between 1938 and 1965. This 2016 Chandos release by the Silesian Quartet presents these cogent works in transparent performances, and offers a comprehensive vision of Bacewicz's artistic development over three decades, from her early style, which was influenced by Béla Bartók's folk music explorations and Igor Stravinsky's neoclassicism, to her mature works, which bear ... Read More

A virtuoso violinist in her own right, Grazyna Bacewicz composed an impressive body of works for strings, which included her seven string quartets, composed between 1938 and 1965. This 2016 Chandos release by the Silesian Quartet presents these cogent works in transparent performances, and offers a comprehensive vision of Bacewicz's artistic development over three decades, from her early style, which was influenced by Béla Bartók's folk music explorations and Igor Stravinsky's neoclassicism, to her mature works, which bear her own individual stamp. The Silesian Quartet plays with abundant energy and rhythmic precision, mastering Bacewicz's involved counterpoint and complex metric changes. Yet the dominant feature of her music is its poignant and long-breathed lyricism, which is plainly evident in her early quartets and persists in the later pieces, despite their sometimes acerbic tone. Chandos recorded these performances from February, 2010 to January, 2011 in the Concert Hall of the Karol Szymanowski... Read Less