Bacewicz - Chamber Music

The Guardian 80

Diana Ambache, etc
(Ambache)

Polish composer/violinist Grażyna Bacewicz summed up her music as “aggressive and at the same time lyrical”. She was right – try the 1949 Quartet for Four Violins, with its fearless dashes from bruising dance to sparse elegy and back again. The piece is tactile and gritty; it was meant for teaching, but never in a dry way. A handful of decent recordings in recent years have bolstered an interest in Bacewicz’s feisty compositions, and this disc led by pianist Diana Ambache fills in more chamber music gaps.