Little known but excellent Polish composer
William J. Coburn | Basking Ridge, NJ USA | 04/08/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I first heard a piece of Grazyna Bacewicz's music at Avery Fisher Hall back in the '70's. It was the first piece on this recording, the Concerto for String Orchestra, and I was impressed. The last of the four compositions on this CD is the Music for Strings, Trumpets and Percussion. It may be the best thing she ever wrote. Bacewicz has two powerful influences in her music, Bartok and Stravinsky, specifically Stravinsky's neoclassicism. Influences can be very beneficial. They can help give a composer structure and a sure sense of what works and what does not. For example, Ahmet Adnan Saygun, the best of the Turkish composers, became a much greater composer after having worked with Bartok in collecting folk music. Similarly, Bacewicz developed from the two older composers a feeling for writing strong rhythmic and melodic ideas. She is the best Polish composer after Szymanowski and before Lutoslawski."