Bacewicz: Music for String Orchestra Primuz Chamber Orchestra & Łukasz Błaszczyk

• Grażyna Bacewicz (1909 - 1969): Concerto for String Orchestra:
• 1 Bacewicz: Concerto for String Orchestra: I. Allegro 04:30
• 2 Bacewicz: Concerto for String Orchestra: II. Andante 04:54
• 3 Bacewicz: Concerto for String Orchestra: III. Vivo 04:57
• Symphony for Strings:
• 4 Bacewicz: Symphony for Strings: I. Allegro ma non troppo 04:49
• 5 Bacewicz: Symphony for Strings: II. Adagio 05:59
• 6 Bacewicz: Symphony for Strings: III. Allegretto 05:04
• 7 Bacewicz: Symphony for Strings: IV. Theme with Variations 07:27
• Sinfonietta for String Orchestra:
• 8 Bacewicz: Sinfonietta for String Orchestra: I. Allegro 03:41
• 9 Bacewicz: Sinfonietta for String Orchestra: II. Andante 03:55
• 10 Bacewicz: Sinfonietta for String Orchestra: III. Vivace 02:41
• Divertimento for String Orchestra:
• 11 Bacewicz: Divertimento for String Orchestra: I. Allegro 02:06
• 12 Bacewicz: Divertimento for String Orchestra: II. Adagio 02:50
• 13 Bacewicz: Divertimento for String Orchestra: III. Giocoso 01:57
• Total Runtime 54:50

Info for Bacewicz: Music for String Orchestra

Grażyna BACEWICZ was born on 5 February 1909 in Łódź. In 1919, she joined the Helena Kijeńska-Dobkiewiczowa Music Conservatory in Łódź, where she took violin and piano lessons. After her family had moved to Warsaw, she continued her education at the local conservatory under the supervision of Kazimierz Sikorski (composition), Józef Jarzębski (violin), and Józef Turczyński (piano). In 1932 – thanks to a scholarship funded by Ignacy Jan Paderewski – she began a two-year study at the École Normale de Musique in Paris under Nadia Boulanger. In 1934, she returned to the French capital, this time to complete her education with respected violinist Carl Flesch. A year later, she was awarded the first honorable mention in the 1st International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition. Since then, for 18 years, she had also been active as a concert violinist. In 1953, Bacewicz abandoned stage activities, focusing almost exclusively on composing and teaching. In 1966, she took the composition class at the Higher State School of Music in Warsaw. The artist died on 17 January 1969. The present release is a showcase of her music for string orchestra.

Primuz Chamber Orchestra
Łukasz Błaszczyk, conductor

Łukasz Błaszczyk
is an outstanding violin soloist, chamber musician and teacher. He was a student of Iwona Wojciechowska, Zakhar Bron, Aleksander Kramarov and Marina Yashvili, among others. He graduated with distinction from the Music Academy in Łódź and the Conservatory in Enschede. He is a laureate of numerous national and international violin and chamber competitions. Thanks to successes at the European Radio Union Contest and the Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition, he gives concerts all over the world and places special emphasis on popularising Polish music. In 1999, as one of the concertmasters of the Polish Festival Orchestra, he took part in Krystian Zimerman's major world tour and has performed in the most famous concert halls in Europe and the United States. As a soloist he has played with most of the Polish Philharmonic Orchestras under the baton of the most outstanding Polish conductors.

In 2005-2014 he was concertmaster of the Teatr Wielki Orchestra- the Polish National Opera in Warsaw. He is very intensively active as an adjudicator of international and national competitions as well as a teacher in numerous courses and violin workshops.

Łukasz Błaszczyk is the founder and artistic director of the string orchestra PRIMUZ, with which he gives concerts in Poland and abroad. In 2018 he won 1st prize with the band at the 1st National String Orchestra Competition in Bydgoszcz. As a conductor he has worked with many outstanding soloists: Adam Makowicz, Kevin Kenner, Krzesimir Dębski, Jack Rabbit, Rafal Kwiatkowski, Zbigniew Raubo and successfully combines his activity both in the field of classical music and entertainment. In 2016, Łukasz Błaszczyk's album of Krzesimir Dębski's Violin Concerto No. 2 was released by Polish Radio and nominated for the "Fryderyk" award.

For his rich artistic and pedagogical activity, the artist was awarded the Prize of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Bronze and Silver Cross of Merit and the Prize of the President of the City of Lodz.

He is currently a professor at the Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz College of Music in Łódź, where he heads the chair of string instruments. His students and graduates form a large group of prize winners of international and national violin and chamber competitions. Since 2018, he has been a member of the Council for Artistic Education at the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, appointed for a three-year term.

Booklet for Bacewicz: Music for String Orchestra