 Si l’instrument de Grazyna Bacewicz fut le violon – ses Concertos sont géniaux, trouvez-les ! – elle fut également une pianiste de première force et lui consacra une part assez étendue de son œuvre où son irrépressible suractivité hérissait le clavier de rythmes ardus et l’éclatait à force de polytonalité. Le « Little Triptych » est d’une insolence qui frôle l’hystérie, la « Children’s Suite » gifle plus qu’elle ne sourit, les Etudes de concert sont des vacheries où elle semble narguer Bartók, alors qu’elle fait un sort à la grande tradition pianistique polonaise avec sa Concert Krakowiak qui mêle le rire au grand apparat. Quel univers désopilant, virtuose autant pour les doigts – et Morta Grigaliunaité relève tous les défis – que pour l’intellect : Bacewicz est un caméléon, son piano change de couleur en une fraction de seconde. La vraie merveille du disque à côté d’une Deuxième Sonate impressionnante de densité, un des chefs d’œuvres du piano du XXe siècle que Morta Grigaliunaité joue avec des respirations orchestrales, reste les Trois pièces caractéristiques, bref triptyque panthéiste où des motifs folkloriques des Tatras viennent dorer le clavier, le pimentant avec tout l’art des diffractions harmoniques dont elle avait le secret. C’est toute une part de son univers qui s’offre ici, il faut espérer un second volume sous les doigts de cette pianiste inspirée. (Discophilia - Artalinna.com) (Jean-Charles Hoffelé) Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969) is one of the most significant composers of the mid-20th century, and yet her music remains largely unknown. In the period be- tween the two world wars, she studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, like so many American, British, and Polish composers, but during her lifetime her reputation rarely translated itself into frequent performances outside her native Poland. Bacewicz had a distinctive creative personality and an intuitive approach to form that rewards close study. Her experience as an orchestral leader and concert violinist informed and enriched the string writing in the string quartets, violin concerts and sonatas which have received some attention on record. However, distinguished pianists such as Krystian Zimerman have recently begun to make a persuasive case for Bacewicz’s piano writing, which may be appreciated at its freest and most demanding in the Second Piano Sonata which brings Morta Grigaliunaite’s recital to a thrilling close. Bacewicz declared that she did not see herself as an innovator but as a progressive composer: ‘Each work completed today becomes the past yesterday.’ Her two sets of etudes tackle different techniques of pianism within clear, often ternary forms, but the imaginative ideas within them hint at her larger works in a similar way to the etudes and mazurkas of her compatriots Chopin and Szymanowski, highlighting her seemingly endless capacity for reinvention. Morta Grigaliunaite also includes in her survey a series of lighter works: the Little Triptych, the Concert Krakowiak, a Children’s Suite and Trois pièces caractéristiques – most of them hardly more than a minute or two in length, yet all bursting with individual ideas which reveal Bacewicz’s own considerable talents as a pianist. This album marks the debut on Piano Classics of a young Lithuanian pianist who has appeared throughout her own country and across Europe as a soloist since graduating from the Royal Academy of Music in London and completing her studies in Cologne and Madrid. Her recording makes a major contribution to the ever-growing appreciation of Bacewicz’s music.
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