Joachim Mendelson & Grażyna Bacewicz: Chamber Works

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the Quintet of 1939 for violin, viola, cello, oboe and piano is more striking [than the String Quartet] – and the highlight of this recording. The oboe and piano add piquancy, and Mendelson packs... — BBC Music Magazine, September 2023, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 7th Jul 2023
Catalogue No: CHAN20181
Label: Chandos
Length: 55 minutes

Presto Editor's Choice

July 2023
International Classical Music Awards

2024

Nominated - Chamber Music

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Mendelson: String Quartet No. 1

Work length16:21

$3.15

$3.90

Silesian Quartet

I. Moderato con spirito

Track length5:45

$1.05

$1.30

II. Largo

Track length6:41

$1.05

$1.30

III. Allegro con brio molto vivace

Track length3:55

$1.05

$1.30

Mendelson: Oboe Quintet

Work length13:27

$3.15

$3.90

Silesian Quartet, Karolina Stalmachowska, Piotr Salajczyk

I. Allegro

Track length4:56

$1.05

$1.30

II. Molto lento espressivo

Track length3:31

$1.05

$1.30

III. Allegro con brio

Track length5:00

$1.05

$1.30

Bacewicz: String Quartet (Youthful Work)

Work length7:53

$3.15

$3.90

Silesian Quartet

I. Allegro Moderato

Track length3:22

$1.05

$1.30

II. Molto adagio

Track length1:37

$1.05

$1.30

III. Fuga

Track length2:54

$1.05

$1.30

Bacewicz: Quatuor (à cordes)

Work length18:12

$4.20

$5.20

Silesian Quartet

I. Allegro

Track length5:21

$1.05

$1.30

II. Grave

Track length4:29

$1.05

$1.30

III. Capriccioso

Track length3:30

$1.05

$1.30

IV. Maestoso

Track length4:52

$1.05

$1.30

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About

The award-winning Silesian quartet present a new album featuring two composers from Warsaw – Joachim Mendelson and Grażnya Bacewicz. After completing his music studies in Warsaw and Berlin, Joachim Mendelson moved to Paris in 1929, where he joined the Association des Jeunes Musiciens Polonais, a society founded in 1926 to facilitate the study, publication, and promotion of the works of young Polish composers. Bacewicz also received support from the Association, and from Paderewski, and studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. The associations’ aims included re-establishing a national musical life at the highest level back in Poland (after more than a century of joint occupation by Russia, Prussia, and Austria), and both composers returned to Warsaw and worked there until 1939. Mendelson taught at the Institute of Music, and Bacewicz became leader of the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra and continued her career and a composer and soloist. Mendelson was imprisoned in the Warsaw ghetto until 1943 when he was murdered by the Gestapo. Five of his works survive, thanks to the French publisher Max Eschig, including the quartet and quintet recorded here. Both Bacewicz works on this recording were rejected by the composer, and never included in her catalogue of works. It is extremely lucky that the manuscripts have survived, preserved at the National Library in Warsaw. Half a century after her death the Royal String Quartet prepared performing scores and gave the first performances.

Reviews

September 2023

the Quintet of 1939 for violin, viola, cello, oboe and piano is more striking [than the String Quartet] – and the highlight of this recording. The oboe and piano add piquancy, and Mendelson packs a lot of attractive ideas (the work leans more towards neoclassicism) into its compact 13 minutes.

July 2023

The Warsaw-born Mendelson spent much of his early career in Paris, and it shows - particularly in the delightful String Quartet No. 1 (one of only five surviving scores by a composer murdered in the Warsaw ghetto), where the harmonic language and textures sound like they could have sprung from the pen of Ravel. Two unpublished works by his compatriot Grażyna Bacewicz (both withdrawn by the composer) spring plenty of surprises.

20th August 2023

Exploring the works of two Polish composers who studied in Paris between the wars, the Silesian String Quartet’s latest disc is richly rewarding…[Bacewicz] rejected both works; the Silesian does a fine job of proving her wrong.

20th July 2023

The [Mendelson] Quartet wears the influence of Debussy and Ravel proudly but on its own terms, with a beautifully balanced, almost mischievous combination of gossamer lightness and purposeful melodic sweep...Both [Bacewicz works] are rewarding – why she didn’t consider them worthy of publication is baffling.

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