The album, entitled Music for Chamber Orchestra vol. III, has been released by Poland’s DUX label. It features Bacewicz’s Sinfonietta (1935), Symphony (1946), Concerto (1948) and Divertimento (1965, all for string orchestra.
The works are performed under renowned conductor Agnieszka Duczmal, the founder and artistic director of the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, which this year celebrates its 55th anniversary.
Agnieszka Duczmal. Photo: Cezary Piwowarski/Polish Radio
The winners of the 18th annual BBC Music Magazine Awards have been announced at a ceremony at Kings Place in London.
The BBC Music Magazine Awards are the only classical music recording awards in which the main categories are voted for by the public.
Born in 1909 into a Polish-Lithuanian family, Bacewicz started her education at the Music Conservatory in Łódź at the age of 10 and continued at the Warsaw Conservatory, studying both composition and violin.
She graduated in 1932. Thanks to a grant from the École Normale de Musique in Paris, she continued her studies there, with Nadia Boulanger (composition) and André Touret and Carl Flesch (violin).
Her career as a violinist developed in a spectacular way. In 1935, she received an honourable mention at the 1st Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition. In later years, she served as leader of the Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw and pursued an intensive concert career in Poland and abroad.
After the war, she continued her solo career, with recitals in many European countries. From 1955 onward she devoted herself solely to composition.
Bacewicz died in 1969. Her output includes seven violin concertos, two cello concertos, one viola concerto, seven string quartets, four symphonies, one opera, a ballet, five sonatas for violin and piano, two sonatas for solo violin and numerous other chamber pieces.
(mk/gs)
