Grażyna Bacewicz - Piano Quintet No. 2

Grażyna Bacewicz (1909 - 1969) - Piano Quintet No. 2 (1965)
I. Moderato [0:00]
II. Larghetto [7:12]
III. Allegro giocoso [14:48]
Kaja Danczowska, violin I
Agata Szymczewska, violin II
Rtszard Groblewski, viola
Rafał Kwiatkowski, cello
Krystian Zimerman, piano (2009)
Grażyna Bacewicz's second piano quintet is a work in three movements typically lasting around 19 minutes. The piece was not published in her lifetime, and some of the material was reused in Bacewicz's later works.
"This is a strong, uncompromising, and propulsive quintet that represents the composer's coming to terms with many of the modernist trends of the mid-twentieth century. An element of new music is the prominence given to very small motivic interval cells here, small groups of a rising perfect fifth that falls a half-step to the dissonant tritone. Sometimes, to contrast the tonality-weakening effect of this motive, the second becomes major, so the interval defines the tonic, dominant, the sub-dominant, the three strongest notes in a key. The sound-world of this quintet is grittier and less joyful than some of Bacewicz's other works and it is less melodic in character. But the arresting rhythms that are her trademark are present from the beginning.
The opening is deceptively still: high chords stress the fifth and second motive. Bacewicz develops her own ideas of tonality here. One senses the presence of a key center, but it is impossible to be certain where it leads; even analysis of the individual chords fails to reveal the function of the chords in terms of being parts of chord progressions. Sound effects are abundant, especially portamento (glissando) effects. It is Bacewicz's unerring rhythmic sense that makes this movement work. The centerpiece of this three-movement work (lasting about 18 minutes) is a Larghetto in which the seconds (of both flavors) become more important than the fifths. This is music with a bleak, hopeless outlook, interrupted by moments of angry struggle against pessimism. The rondo-like conclusion is still uncompromising in its chromatic harmonies, but the mood shifts to a spirited, life-affirming mood. Bacewicz now changes the texture of the music: before, the piano was beautifully integrated with the rest of the ensemble, but now almost becomes a solo voice in its own right against the quartet."
(source: AllMusic)

[@user-on6db4rf4s]

Oh i love Bacewicz!!!!

[@Nabalus]

Fascinating music! Quite a unique sound. Thanks!

[@es_ist_unmoeglich]

Wow... I love this.