When recording labels were good, piano quintet recordings were illustrated by pictures of the entire ensemble, not only the pianist. It’s not a solo recital.
DG – and all the “major” labels – are passing through a long and painful process of moronification. Ensemble ostracism aside, this Bacewicz CD cover is in a way surprising: there is no foxy young asian performer in it.
It’s not quite true to say that this is the first ‘major-label’ recording of Bacewicz’s music – unless you discount Hyperion and Chandos as ‘major labels’. The CDs in question (the Hyperion concentrating on music for strings; the Chandos on 3 or her 7 very fine violin concertos) both offer a useful cross-section of this unjustly-neglected composer’s work. You will be pleased to learn, I’m sure, that both these issues have a fair stab at giving some useful biographical information on Bacewicz. Sadly, however, the cover of the Chandos CD is adorned with a picture not of Bacewicz herself, but a suitably posed and sexy-looking Joanna Kurkowicz (the soloist in the violin concertos)!
Information not given in either CD booklet is that Bacewicz was the sister of Lithuanian composer Vytautas Bacevičius (1905–70), the Polish-Lithuanian border having slithered eastwards after the First World War and between the times of Bacewicz’s and her older brother’s births.
NL replies: None of these labels would consider themselves major. Their market share is in the low single figures.
I’m slightly puzzled by this, though I agree entirely about the importance of the recording. But to describe Jan Popis’s notes as “a publicity puff for how Zimerman came to record it and little more” is a misrepresentation. Of the 3.5 pages of English notes, roughly one (p.3) is devoted to why Zimerman and his colleagues wanted to record this music (and it’s a stretch to call even that a “publicity puff”). The remainder includes a useful discussion of Bacewicz’s career in general (p.2) and the two piano quintets and second sonata (p.4), along with some useful remarks by the composer herself on her music. “Little more than a publicity puff”? I don’t think so. Mr Lebrecht would do well to read these things more carefully before rushing to judgement.
Actually, Nigel, not helpful at all. Nothing one couldn’t learn about the sonata and quintets on-line and nothing at all about her personal circumstances – how and why she came to write in such different styles in turbulent times. Useless to the intelligent or critical reader.
Well, I suppose it depends how we might define “useful”, Norman – I’ll grant you it’s very much an old-style East European discussion, but he does at least try to offer some sort of stylistic comment on the two quintets. I suppose I was expecting something a lot worse from your description (especially as DG has made a habit of pure artist puff in some notes, like the Mutter Brahms violin sonatas).
I’m sure you’ve seen this, but in case not, there are some quite interesting things here: http://www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/composer/bacewicz.html
(the spam-avoidance phrase I’ve got to type is “Tumor Shotherv” – sounds like a Bulgarian symphonist…)
Norman Lebrecht
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When recording labels were good, piano quintet recordings were illustrated by pictures of the entire ensemble, not only the pianist. It’s not a solo recital.
DG – and all the “major” labels – are passing through a long and painful process of moronification. Ensemble ostracism aside, this Bacewicz CD cover is in a way surprising: there is no foxy young asian performer in it.
It’s not quite true to say that this is the first ‘major-label’ recording of Bacewicz’s music – unless you discount Hyperion and Chandos as ‘major labels’. The CDs in question (the Hyperion concentrating on music for strings; the Chandos on 3 or her 7 very fine violin concertos) both offer a useful cross-section of this unjustly-neglected composer’s work. You will be pleased to learn, I’m sure, that both these issues have a fair stab at giving some useful biographical information on Bacewicz. Sadly, however, the cover of the Chandos CD is adorned with a picture not of Bacewicz herself, but a suitably posed and sexy-looking Joanna Kurkowicz (the soloist in the violin concertos)!
Information not given in either CD booklet is that Bacewicz was the sister of Lithuanian composer Vytautas Bacevičius (1905–70), the Polish-Lithuanian border having slithered eastwards after the First World War and between the times of Bacewicz’s and her older brother’s births.
NL replies: None of these labels would consider themselves major. Their market share is in the low single figures.
Chandos, Hyperion and Hanssler have all released discs of her music, and I’d call them fairly major labels (in this day and age, at least).
I’m slightly puzzled by this, though I agree entirely about the importance of the recording. But to describe Jan Popis’s notes as “a publicity puff for how Zimerman came to record it and little more” is a misrepresentation. Of the 3.5 pages of English notes, roughly one (p.3) is devoted to why Zimerman and his colleagues wanted to record this music (and it’s a stretch to call even that a “publicity puff”). The remainder includes a useful discussion of Bacewicz’s career in general (p.2) and the two piano quintets and second sonata (p.4), along with some useful remarks by the composer herself on her music. “Little more than a publicity puff”? I don’t think so. Mr Lebrecht would do well to read these things more carefully before rushing to judgement.
Actually, Nigel, not helpful at all. Nothing one couldn’t learn about the sonata and quintets on-line and nothing at all about her personal circumstances – how and why she came to write in such different styles in turbulent times. Useless to the intelligent or critical reader.
Well, I suppose it depends how we might define “useful”, Norman – I’ll grant you it’s very much an old-style East European discussion, but he does at least try to offer some sort of stylistic comment on the two quintets. I suppose I was expecting something a lot worse from your description (especially as DG has made a habit of pure artist puff in some notes, like the Mutter Brahms violin sonatas).
I’m sure you’ve seen this, but in case not, there are some quite interesting things here:
http://www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/composer/bacewicz.html
(the spam-avoidance phrase I’ve got to type is “Tumor Shotherv” – sounds like a Bulgarian symphonist…)