Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969)
Piano
Quintet No.1 (1952)
Piano Quintet No.2 (1965)
Aleksander Tansman (1897-1986)
Musica a cinque, for piano quintet (1955)
Julia Kociuban (piano)
Messages
Quartet
rec. 2021, Concert Hall of the Grazyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz
Academy of Music, Łódź
DUX 1792 [61]
Both Bacewicz and Tansman are well represented on disc but competing versions of works are valuable not merely in offering a choice – a choice of couplings, for example - but also for interpretative decision-making.
For example, the Silesian Quartet, on their Chandos recording of the Piano Quintets (see review), offer further works by Bacewicz – the Quartets for violins, and for cellos. On their new Dux recording the Messages Quartet and pianist Julia Kociuban have opted to include Tansman’s Musica a cinque, for piano quintet.
Interpretatively, there’s a give-and-take quality at work. The Silesians’ greater speed in the introduction to the First Quintet’s opening movement allows a more seamless transition to the ensuing tempo whereas the Messages prefer more of an audible gear change. I would also note that the Chandos team manages to preserve some of the misterioso unease here whereas the Dux team, largely because of their more blatant recording, can sound a touch hard-edged. However, the Presto is appealingly done, suavely dispatched, and the slow movement is beautiful, its refined eloquence never in doubt. Similarly, the finale is truly Con passione - bright, biting and brilliant.
By the time of the Second Quintet, thirteen years later, Bacewicz’s language had undergone a change to her late style, which is altogether more jagged than before. This quintet was composed around the same time as her last string quartet and her final violin concerto, and it shares with them those qualities of accommodation with the Polish avant-garde. Textures are free and whilst mood changes are clear there’s an abruptness and turbulence that remains unsettling. As so often at this time she encodes material from her Partita for Violin in the slow movement, almost as her motto theme. There’s very little between the two performances.
Tansman’s piano quintet was written in 1955. It’s cast in five movements and opens with a smoky Praeludium, continues with the syncopated bravura of a Toccata, adds the compelling stillness of a complex Elegia, and a firefly Divertimento, and then unleashes a fugal finale. In every way it’s a more approachable, less intimidating work than Bacewicz’s Second Quintet though whether it’s greater openheartedness is a match for her more questing technique is another matter. It’s certainly finely played here and makes for a fine programmatic contrast.
The booklet is attractive and colourful and if the recording is a touch less warm that is ideal, it doesn’t limit enjoyment of these performances which are as up-front as the performers’ clothing sense.
Jonathan Woolf
