Nomination for BBC Music magazine Chamber Award 2019

“… Chandos captures all these works with a dynamic, resonant recording made in the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music. (Listen to the brilliant piano and the surging strings in the Presto and finale of Quintet 1). This is an important, exciting release."

“…Another Bacewicz winner.” – Jonathan Woolf – May 2018

“…These are gripping and exhilarating performances, which I cannot fault in any way. The Chandos engineers have done a stirling job in capturing the detail of each of the instruments. This is facilitated by the generous acoustic of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music concert hall in Katowice. Adrian Thomas’ scholarly notes are an added bonus.” – Stephen Greenbank – 18 July 2018

“… The performances of all four works are very fine. Tempos in the two Quintets fall in with the main consensus, Wojciech Switala is a sensitive pianist and the string players confirm the good impression they created in Bacewicz’s complete Quartets. The four-violin piece could hardly be better played, and the performance by the Polish Cello Quartet, who have been together since 2011, is absolutely spiffing. Although the Quintets have taken more than seven years to reach us – goodness knows why – they are well recorded, as are the two shorter works…” *****

Diapason d’Or

Technique: 4/5

“… a masterpiece”

**** Excellent Album

“Grazyna Bacewicz is one of the foremost female composers of the last century. Her piano quintets and the two quartets, one for violins, the other for cellos only, belong to the important part of her chamber music. The Polish musicians who made this recording, play the music with dedication and natural ability, thus giving a highly persuasive account of the entire program. “   ****

Chamber Choice

Performance *****          Recording *****

“… Bacewicz’s two piano quintets are works of real originality …”

“... this is the potent, instantly communicative music of a larger-than-life artistic personality... Bacewicz can generate irresistible symphonic momentum in the space of a four-minute movement and integrates eloquent bleakness with some of the sharpest, most light-footed musical wit since Haydn...”

Classical Album of the Week

“… She [Bacewicz] wrote for strings and piano as a singer might write for their own voice … the energised playing from all the musicians involved is consistently polished and engaging.” ****