If the name
Vytautas Bacevi¿ius
sounds slightly familiar, there is a reason for that; he was the brother of composer
Gra¿yna Bacewicz
but identified as Lithuanian and used the Lithuanian form of the surname. For all that, he was stuck outside Lithuania when the Nazis invaded his country and settled in the U.S., never to return home. His music does not sound much like that of his sister or of anyone else, for that matter. It falls into two periods; later in his life, he adopted an atonal style but rejected serialism. The three works here, composed between 1929 and 1944, are from the earlier part of his career and are tonal but in no way conservative. All three use vernacular materials but are not Bartókian or pastoral. The
Symphony No. 3, Op. 33
, of 1944, was written shortly after
Bacevi¿ius
' arrival in the U.S. and quotes
The Star-Spangled Banner
at the end (not, as the booklet states,
The Stars and Stripes Forever
). Probably the strongest works are the two piano concertos, executed with a good deal of snap by pianist
Gabrielius Alekna
and the
Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra
under conductor
Christopher Lyndon-Gee
. The notes state that the works "represent
' nostalgia for his native Lithuania" (they were written in Paris). At some level, this must be true, but the mood is not nostalgic. Instead, the composer weaves his folk melodies into propulsive, dense textures with chromatic harmonies. They certainly reflect
' French training, but they have a different, more monumental feel than in French neoclassicism as a rule. The
Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 17
, and the
Symphony No. 3
here receive their world premieres, and even the first concerto is unlikely to be known to many listeners. Here is an unusual composer worth getting to know. ~ James Manheim