Alexandre Tansman; Grażyna Bacewicz - Piano Quintets (Julia Kociuban; Messages Quartet)

Information

Composer: Alexandre Tansman; Grażyna Bacewicz

• Bacewicz - Piano Quintet No. 1
• Bacewicz - Piano Quintet No. 2
• Tansman - Musica a cinque

Julia Kociuban, piano

Messages Quartet

Małgorzata Wasiucionek-Potera & Oriana Masternak, violins

Maria Shetty, viola

Beata Urbanek-Kalinowska, cello

Date: 2022

Label: DUX
http://en.dux.pl/bacewicz-tansman-piano-quintets-kociuban-messages-quartet.html

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Review

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, MusicWeb International

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Alexandre Tansman (12 June 1897 – 15 November 1986) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of Jewish origin. He spent his early years in his native Poland, but lived in France for most of his life, being granted French citizenship in 1938. His music is often said to be primarily neoclassical, drawing on his Polish Jewish heritage as well as his French musical influences. Tansman wrote more than 300 works, including 7 operas, 11 ballets, 6 oratorios, 80 orchestral pages (with 9 symphonies), and numerous works of chamber and piano music. Almost all his works have been now recorded on CDs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Tansman

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Grażyna Bacewicz (5 February 1909 – 17 January 1969) was a Polish composer and violinist. She is only the second Polish female composer to have achieved national and international recognition after Maria Szymanowska in the early 19th century. Bacewicz studied with teachers such as Nadia Boulanger and Carl Flesch, among others. After completing her studies, Bacewicz took part in numerous events as a soloist, composer, and jury member. Many of her compositions feature the violin. Among them are 7 violin concertos, 5 sonatas for violin with piano, 3 for violin solo and 4 numbered symphonies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gra%C5%BCyna_Bacewicz

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Julia Kociuban (born January 18, 1992 in Kraków, Poland) graduated from the Fryderyk Chopin University in Warsaw and the Salzburg Mozarteum. The young artist has been invited to perform in renowned European concert halls, as well as international music festivals in America and Asia. Kociuban performs solo recitals, in chamber music and as soloist with renowned orchestras and conductors. She has recorded for many European radio and TV stations, and international labels such as Sony Classical, Gramola and DUX. Alongside her solo career, Kociuban teaches at the Bacewicz Academy in Łódź.
http://juliakociuban.com/

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The Messages Quartet was founded in Kraków in 2014.

http://messagesquartet.com/en/

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