Both
Grazyna Bacewicz and
Joachim Mendelson traveled from Warsaw to Paris between the world wars for study;
Bacewicz studied with the famed pedagogue
Nadia Boulanger. Their styles are entirely different despite this common root, however, testifying to the vitality of the Polish scene at this time. The big news here is the pair of works by the Jewish
Mendelson; he was killed by the Nazis in 1943 in Warsaw, and most of his music was destroyed in the invasion. Only five works, held in the office of a Paris publisher, were saved; two of those are recorded here, and they suggest that the disappearance of the rest of his work was a great loss and even that it might be worth hunting for them in likely places. These two recordings actually date from 2009 and 2015; kudos to
Chandos for pulling them off the scrap heap. Sample the
Quintet for violin, viola, cello, piano, and oboe, where the diverse instruments are held in an exquisite balance. The work essentially represents a development in Ravel's chamber style, but it effortlessly incorporates other influences, from folk inflections to dense Viennese counterpoint, and it is delightful. Needless to say, this work is all but unknown, and the music by the better-known
Bacewicz is also quite rare; the composer, for reasons unknown, refused to publish either of these string quartets. The earlier one pushes the counterpoint of her teacher,
Szymanowski, into near-atonal realms, while the later one includes novel string techniques. The
Silesian String Quartet and its collaborators here, notably oboist
Karolina Stalmachowska, give fine, edgy performances in this important Polish chamber music release. ~ James Manheim
