Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-69) deserves better than the label of an Interesting Historical Figure who provides some sort of bridge in Polish music between Szymanowski and Lutoslawski. The compositions on this disc suggest a searching rather than a bridging role, and in terms which are significant primarily with reference to Bacewicz herself.
The Third Quartet (1947) wears its School of Boulanger attributes uneasily. Neo-classical bustle is nicely offset by Gallic lyricism, but as emotions intensify, harmonic coherence dissolves. By 1955, in the Fifth Quartet, Bacewicz had learned to control a wider range of moods and formal processes: scherzo and finale work particularly well, not least because tonality no longer looms like an addiction that must be satisfied. This is a big work, lasting almost half an hour, and the slow movement has its stagnant phases, reinforced by the close, dry sound of the analogue recording, made in 1978.
The Piano Quintet (1965) was recorded even earlier, in 1971, and with even less atmosphere, but the music compensates. The battle between order and disorder here is a real one, and although Bacewicz's thinking occasionally verges on the simplistic, the feelings are powerful, the drive to a strong conclusion exhilarating. The neoclassical roots have not been rejected, but absorbed into a personal synthesis of older and newer elements—a synthesis very well projected in this performance.'