“A progressive composer would not agree to repeat even himself.” Or, indeed herself: the speaker was Grażyna Bacewicz, who died aged 59 in 1969. One of Poland’s most remarkable and prolific composers, she was also a distinguished violinist, and her writing in these works shows a joy in string-instrument sonorities. Especially in the earlier works here, the First and Third Quartets, she uses folk music and dance rhythms, inevitably bringing Bartók to mind; in No 3, the somersaulting violins and the way all four instruments course up or down in parallel motion recall Tippett. This vibrant energy continues into Nos 6 and 7, which find her progressing into a modernist idiom; even the slow movements, with their sliding, bending harmonies, have a restlessness in keeping with Bacewicz’s earlier style. The Lutosławski Quartet give wholehearted, stylish performances. This is the first of their two CDs covering Bacewicz’s seven quartets. Bring on the next …
