1. Movement 1
2. Movement 2
3. Movement 3

Stefan Kamasa – viola
Cracow Symphony Orchestra
Jacek Kasprzyk – conductor

Tadeusz Baird's Concerto Lugubre for viola and orchestra (1975) was commissioned by Nurnberger Filharmoniker and was first performed by that orchestra with Stefan Kamasa as the soloist and Hiroyuki Iwaki as the conductor in Nuremberg on 22nd May 1976. The Polish premiere took place in 22nd September the same year, during the 20th Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music, featuring Stefan Kamasa again and the Katowice Polish Radio and Television Orchestra under Jacek Kaspszyk.

Concerto Lugubre is a kind of a requiem in memory of Baird's mother who died in 1974, and the murky "lugubre" mood is present in it all the time. The form possesses a number of features of a classical concerto for a solo instrument and orchestra, and the structure of expression is clearly rooted in historical standards. A traditional three-movement construction can be discerned, the viola solo part displaying the "main theme" in the dramatic first movement through a series of two-sound and three-sound combinations played with robust bow strokes. A strong contrast is offered by the second movement, which is filled with plaintive lyricism. Finally the third movement brings the rushing anxiety of fast notes interrupted by the viola chord "theme" from the first movement. The music dies off in a subtle reverie the way it was born out of subtle sounds. The emotions of Concerto Lugubre have romantic roots, as does a lot of Baird music. However, far from being abused, they work on the listener's sensitivity with tenderness and care in order not to tire him with excessive tension.

Concerto Lugubre is a rare specimen of a viola concerto - the viola being almost always treated as an instrument of an orchestra or a chamber ensemble - and a highly attractive one to play, too, for the viola part is both a virtuoso and an emotional show. Baird's choice of the solo instrument was not a chance one, the viola's dark sound and colour fitting the subject and mood of the music. It is worth noting that the viola is supported in a special way by two instruments: a deep, mournful sounding kettledrum and a darkly coloured, gloomy alto flute.

Concerto Lugubre's direct yet subtle emotionality, its obvious references to tradition and, perhaps, its accessibility have earned it a place within the small group of works of contemporary music which are played at subscriber philharmonic concerts and are liked by the everyday music lover who is used to listening to Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. --- culture.pl

Utwór powstał na zamówienie Nürnberger Filharmoniker i przez ten zespół został po raz pierwszy wykonany 22 maja 1976 roku w Norymberdze. Solistą był Stefan Kamasa, dyrygował Hiroyuki Iwaki. W Polsce pierwsze wykonanie odbyło się 22 września tego samego roku podczas XX Międzynarodowego Festiwalu Muzyki Współczesnej „Warszawska Jesień”. Grał Stefan Kamasa z Orkiestrą Polskiego Radia i Telewizji w Krakowie pod dyrekcją Jacka Kaspszyka.

Concerto lugubre jest swego rodzaju requiem, poświęconym zmarłej w 1974 roku matce kompozytora. Mroczny nastrój „lugubre” przenika cały utwór. Jego forma ma wiele cech klasycznego koncertu na instrument solowy i orkiestrę, podobnie struktura wyrazowa nawiązuje wyraźnie do wzorców z przeszłości. W Concerto lugubre można dostrzec tradycyjny układ trzyczęściowy. Część pierwsza, o dramatycznym charakterze, eksponuje w solowej partii altówki „temat główny”, zbudowany z szeregu dwudźwięków i trójdźwięków atakowanych zdecydowanymi pociągnięciami smyczka. Silny kontrast z częścią pierwszą tworzy część druga, przesączona smutnym liryzmem. Wreszcie fragment finałowy przynosi pędzący niepokój szybkich nut, przerwanych akordowym „tematem” altówki z części pierwszej. Cały utwór zamiera zaś w subtelnej zadumie, tak jak z podobnie subtelnych brzmień wyłonił się jego początek. Emocja Concerto lugubre ma korzenie romantyczne, tak jak to jest zresztą w wielu utworach Bairda. Ale kompozytor nie nadużywa emocji, oddziaływuje na wrażliwość słuchacza bardzo subtelnie i z rozmysłem, aby nie znużyć nadmiernym napięciem.

Concerto lugubre jest rzadkim przykładem koncertowego utworu dla altówki. Ten instrument traktowany jest niemal wyłącznie jako składnik orkiestry lub zespołu kameralnego. Tadeusz Baird dał przy tym altowiolistom dzieło bardzo atrakcyjne wykonawczo. Partia altówki jest zarówno wirtuozowska, jak i bogata emocjonalnie. Wybór solowego instrumentu nie był jednak przypadkowy. Tematyce i nastrojowi całego utworu odpowiada barwa altówki, jej ciemne brzmienie. Warto zauważyć, że wspierają altówkę w Concerto lugubre w sposób szczególny dwa instrumenty: kotły o głębokim, żałobnym brzmieniu i altowy flet o barwie ciemnej, pochmurnej. Dzięki swojej bezpośredniej, ale subtelnej emocjonalności, za sprawą oczywistych nawiązań do tradycji i zapewne dla swoich wartości estradowych ten utwór Tadeusza Bairda znalazł się w niewielkiej grupie utworów współczesnych, które trafiają do programów abonamentowych koncertów filharmonicznych i podobają się zwykłem melomanom, nawykłym do słuchania Beethovena i Czajkowskiego. ---polmic.pl

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1. Sonnet 23
2. Sonnet 91
3. Sonnet 56
4. Sonnet 97

Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Jan Krenz – conductor
Andrzej Hiolski – baritone

The work was written in 1956 for baritone and symphony orchestra. A note in the PWM score edition informs that it was a concert version of selected fragments of stage music for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The concert piece was first performed on 30th October 1957 with the singer Andrzej Hiolski and the Polish Radio Grand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jan Krenz. In 1963, Baird’s Sonnets were used by Stefan Sutkowski as ballet music for the spectacle Love Sonnets played by Warsaw Chamber Opera. In 1969, the 2nd version - for baritone, harpsichord and strings - was created; its first performance by Jerzy Artysz and “Pro Musica” conducted by Jerzy Frieman took place in Warsaw in 1971. The composer arranged four selected Shakespeare sonnets - nos. XXIII, XCI, LVI i XCVII - in an order of his own, to suggest a certain dramatic progress. The consciously archaic character of the music is very distinct - Baird makes his own, personal 20th-century comment on traditional sound structures. He attains a very subtle mood, and the eroticism in his music is delicate and refined. Four Sonnets are representative of Tadeusz Baird’s vocal-lyrical art, which was the cornerstone of all his work.

The composer said about the Four Sonnets and other stage works: “These occasional pieces have enjoyed a more lasting life than many others, which I attached more importance to. My consolation is that I am not the first composer or artist to have experienced such treatment. I could mention here a number of venerable names - so in this adventure, I have the best possible company. These stage works are something more for me, though... Perhaps a moment of order, piece and purity of genre, much needed as a short-time relief and to recover my inner balance? Or a desire to indulge myself, to hide behind a theatrical costume? They were also, undoubtedly, an expression of my respect and love for the art of past ages, a proof of my invariably lively interest in literature, in the theatre - it was in them, perhaps, that this passion bore its fruit?" ---polmic.pl

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1. Elegia for Orchestra

Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Wojciech Michniewski – conductor

2. Epiphany for Orchestra

Polish National Symphony Orchestra
Witold Rowicki – conductor

3. Symphony No.3 – Evovation. Poco Andante
4. Symphony No.3 – Andante Moderato
5. Symphony No.3 – Non Troppo Allegro
6. Symphony No.3 – Epologue. Moderato e Grave

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra
Jan Krenz – conductor

Baird was a leader in the second wave of twentieth-century Polish composers prior to World War II: the first group starred Witold Lutoslawski (1913 - 1994), Grazyna Bacewicz (1913 - 1969), Witold Rudzinski (b. 1913), and Andrzej Panufnik (1914 - 1991). Baird was joined five years later by Krzysztof Penderecki and Henryk Górecki (both b. 1933), who -- despite their initial avant-gardism -- retrograded stylistically in the post-modern backlash: Penderecki into Reger mortis, Górecki into minimalism. Baird had three postwar epiphanies, but serialism came second, then neo-Romanticism in his late works (by way of Penderecki's "aleatoric glossolalia," in Slonimsky's words). Despite Communist domination, the Polish thaw began earlier than elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Movie-star handsome Tadeusz Baird became an early activist in 1949 when he formed Group 49 with two transitional countrymen, Kazimierz Sikorski (1922 - 1981) and Jan Krenz (b. 1926), although their purpose was not to break rules but to conform to socio-musical orthodoxy. By 1956, however, with the return to power of Wladislaw Gomulka (following Khrushchev's "secret" denunciation of Stalinism, Poland's artistic gates opened, letting serialism in.

After private studies during World War II, which Baird continued at the State Higher School in Warsaw along with piano instruction and three years of musicology, he wrote an orthodox Sinfonietta, Piano Concerto, and Piano Sonatina all dated 1949. His first symphony in 1950 won a National Prize. In 1951, he wrote Colas Breugnon: a suite in the old style for flute and strings; in 1952, Symphony No. 2, quasi una fantasia, and in 1953, a frequently played Concerto for Orchestra. The last of his "conformist" works in 1956 were Four Love Sonnets from Shakespeare, and Cassazione per orchestra. That same year, he and Sikorski founded Warsaw Autumn, a festival of contemporary music that quickly became one of Europe's most daring and enduring.

With it, Baird turned to serialism in his twelve-tone String Quartet of 1957 and Four Essays for orchestra in 1958, which won a UNESCO prize -- the first of three between 1959 and 1966. For voice and orchestra, he created Exhortation on Old Hebrew Texts (to be recited, 1960); Erotics for soprano (1966); Five Songs for mezzo-soprano (1970); Goethe Letters: Cantata for Baritone (with mixed choir, 1970), and at the end of his life Voices From Afar for baritone on Polish texts (1980). He also wrote an opera, Tomorrow, based on Joseph Conrad. From the mid-1960s till his death, Baird created noteworthy scores for orchestra, including Four Novelettes (1967), Sinfonia breve (1968), Symphony No. 3 (1969), Psychodrama (1972), Elegia (1973), Concerto lugubre (1976), and Canzona for large orchestra (1980, premiered posthumously in 1982). He also scored more than forty films and plays, yet while his music enjoyed a vogue in the 1960s and 1970s, most of it vanished from the international repertory. In later interviews Baird insisted on "knowledge and respect for tradition . . . seeking effects and attention [only] leads to a 'pretended' avant-garde. Musical opinion [in 1981] calls me a 'romantic' and I admit to [it]. I do not belong with people who like to ruin and destroy."

His technical expertise was second to none after 1956, irrespective of genre. Symphony No. 3, for example, ends with a crescendo of whirlwind density and dissonance from which tonality finally emerges -- a sound only his Japanese contemporary Takemitsu (1930 - 1996) created more terrifyingly in Asterism, likewise in 1969. Baird's music, however, lacked the personality and individuality that characterized the finest work of the two elder celebrities who survived him, Lutoslawski and Panufnik. ---arkivmusic.com

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