Bacewicz / Berthome-Reynolds / Donchev - Complete Violin Sonatas [CD]

Born in Lódz (Poland) Grazyna Bacewicz is the most eminent inheritor of the 19th century violinist-composers in the lineage of her compatriot and predecessor Henryk Wieniawski. She was one of the most important composers of the mid-20th century, a remarkable concert artiste who left a catalogue of over 200 works, including five Sonatas and a Partita for violin and piano as well as two solo violin sonatas that feature in this boxset commemorating the 50th anniversary of her death. Her style is close to the French neoclassicism of the interwar period, though she increases it's vitality and clarity while infusing it with a blend of delicacy and highly individual rigor. All her works reveal rhythmic sophistication and a characteristic approach to metre, a juxtaposition of exuberance and lyricism. In short, music that is vivacious, sensitive and mischievous; the composer excelled in her treatment of a stringed instrument while in parallel drawing out the lines of a piano part bristling with life. The French violinist Annabelle Berthomé-Reynolds loves rare, powerful scores. She has imbued herself with this music and with her partner the Bulgarian pianist Ivan Donchev, they both fill this music with vitality and poetry to make this boxset a real discovery and already a classic interpretation.