Was this woman composer patronised to death?
NewsFrom the Lebrecht Album of the Week:
Every time I relisten to Grażyna Bacewicz, I wonder whether prejudice does not have something to do with her lack of exposure. Her male colleague were always careful to praise her. But Lutoslawski, when he talks of “her integrity, honesty, compassion and her willingness to share and sacrifice for others”, is a man describing female qualities, not a composer assessing a co-equal….
Read on here.
And here.
En francais ici
In Czech here.
In The Critic here.
Reminds me of Peter Cook complimenting Jane Mansfield’s female qualities to Dudley Moore in “worst job I ever had”.
I don’t think you can speak of ‘lack of exposure’ in regard to Bacewicz. If you look on the Discogs site you will find 71 entries, most of them Polish recordings and very good. It was perhaps unfortunate that, owing to a motor accident, she had to give up playing, but we may well have had more compositions as a result. She was no more ‘unexposed’ in the West than, say, Vainberg / Weinberg, of whom the first Western LP appeared in 1968 (I know, because I alerted EMI to him and they issued his Violin Concerto and Fourth Symphony). I don’t read Lutoslawski’s comments about Bacewicz as patronising at all.
What’s a more important issue is that of patronage for composers and performers. Is it a thing of the past? Should it be or is it of vital necessity? What is the effect on the artist?
The good news is that her work is coming out of the shadows of a patronizing attitude.
Was she patronised to death? Absolutely not! What, for example, makes Luto’s remarks about “her integrity, honesty, compassion and her willingness to share and sacrifice for others” indicative of “a man describing female qualities, not a composer assessing a co-equal”? Are such qualities supposed only to be noteworthy in females? Luto’s admiration and respect for Bacewicz was perfectly genuine; nothing remotely “patronising” about them! A marvellous composer who only now seems to be beginning to get the recognition that she has always so well deserved.
“her integrity, honesty, compassion and her willingness to share and sacrifice for others”, is a man describing female qualities…”
Really? So men don’t have these qualities – right?
Also, ‘co-equal’ is a tautological neologism. ‘Equal’ says it all.
Why is it that when the music of a woman composer is neglected, it’s always sexual discrimination. What about all the male composers whose music also seems to be unfairly neglected?
Just to set the record straight, I like Baceiwicz’s music – it’s vibrant and packs a punch, in an idiom that straddles Bartokian radicalism and the more traditional style of, say, Szymanowski.
If her music is neglected in the concert halls, it is widely recorded, by companies whose directors are probably predominantly male.
Finally, I do hope that I don’t get any howls of derision for saying ‘her music packs a punch’ and thus being a male describing male qualities…
Lutosławski, Penderecki, and Górecki — all a few years Bacewicz’s junior — had nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for Bacewicz. Indeed, Lutosławski wrote the foreward to Judith Rosen’s biography “Grażyna Bacewicz, her life and works”. The patronizing tone in the quote used in the review is, I believe, merely a product of its time — it is a quote full of the deepest respect for Bacewicz’s music.