Orchestral Award Agnieszka Duczmal
‘Bacewicz’s Concerto for String Orchestra is a great showcase’
Bacewicz
Music for Chamber Orchestra, Vol. 3 Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio/agnieszka Duczmal DUX DUX 1828
Polish conductor Agnieszka Duczmal has spent much of her career promoting the music of her compatriot Grażyna Bacewicz. So to have her album of Bacewicz orchestral works recognised by our reviewers and readers is a fine feeling indeed. ‘I feel very proud – knowing that this CD was chosen by BBC Music Magazine and by many people around the world is a great feeling,’ she says. ‘It’s wonderful knowing that so many people have appreciated this music, which I have spent many years recording.’
The award-winning disc, featuring Duczmal conducting the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio, features two shorter orchestral pieces from opposing ends of the composer’s career: the Sinfonietta dates from 1935, when Bacewicz was just past her student years in Paris, while the pungent, six-minute Divertimento was written 30 years later.
The disc’s two major works are the Symphony for String Orchestra and the Concerto for String Orchestra, both, as our reviewer Geoff Brown notes, ‘kaleidoscopic and vital post-war pieces from the 1940s, and among her most impressive. Agnieszka Duczmal and her Amadeus Chamber Orchestra plunge into every work with tremendous fire and flair: if the movements are marked “vivo”, they really move fast, though not at the expense of ensemble precision.’
‘I am also incredibly happy and proud to showcase this music by a Polish female composer,’ Duczmal continues. ‘Bacewicz is maybe not yet as well known as she should be – but now her name will be everywhere!’
As the conductor notes, Bacewicz’s music has been much admired for decades in her native Poland. The recordings that make up this disc were made across a number of years: the 1935 Sinfonietta was not performed at all until the manuscript was discovered more than 70 years after its composition. The Concerto for String Orchestra, by contrast, is a more established piece and, as Duczmal notes, the Amadeus Orchestra have more than 35 years’ experience with the work: ‘The Concerto is such a brilliant work and, with its motoric rhythms and vivid orchestral colours, it’s a great showcase.’