Vytautas Bacevičius, composer
[credit: J. Abresch, N.Y.]

Aidas Puodžiukas, piano

Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, orchestra
[credit: Dmitrijus Matvejevas]

Vytautas Lukočius, conductor

Martynas Staškus, conductor

The first disc devoted to the music of Lithuania’s forgotten musical pioneer

Vytautas Bacevicius was born into a Polish-Lithuanian family in Lódz, Poland, in 1905, but emigrated to the then Lithuanian capital, Kaunas, in 1926. He studied in Paris with Tcherepnin (1927-31) and was much influenced by Scriabin and, later, Varèse and Jolivet. A fine pianist, Bacevicius thought of himself foremost as an orchestral composer.

The four sections of the single-span first of four piano concertos (1929) mirrors a traditional sonata-style layout in which folk material forms the motivic basis set in Scriabinesque harmonies. The concluding Allegro moderato, however, is almost jazzlike in its rhythmic élan – an echo, perhaps, of his Parisian sojourn. More impressive still is Poème électrique (1932), a highly coloured contribution to the short-lived machinist fad of the times. Closer to The Steel Stride than Pacific 231 or Iron Foundry, it is a most effective concert opener.

When the Second World War overtook Lithuania and Poland in 1939, Bacevicius was on tour in South America and he remained an exile (mostly in the US) until his death in 1970. The programmatic Second Symphony (1940) records his feelings at the invasion of his homelands in a simplified musical language, conceived (unsuccessfully) for America, that failed to secure attention. In the late 1950s he returned to a more advanced style, a “cosmic music” (of the inner cosmos of Man rather than Space), represented here by the turbulent Sixth Symphony (1960) and brilliant Graphique (1964) – the latter in particular showing what a fine composer Bacevicius was at his best. These fine performances and recordings (from 2003‑05) give this colourful music the best possible platform.

Guy Rickards Gramophone

Review

Tim Ashley The Guardian