FLINDERS QUARTET
Elizabeth Sellars • violin
Wilma Smith • violin
Helen Ireland • viola
Zoe Knighton • cello

with Paavali Jumppanen • cello

AGATHA YIM, POLYPHONIC PICTURES filming and editing
THOMAS GRUBB, MANO MUSICA sound engineering, editing and mastering

Filmed May 2025 in the Primrose Potter Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre, Wurundjeri Country/Southbank

This project was made possible through support from Creative Victoria, City of Melbourne and FQ’s Fifth String donors

GRAŻYNA BACEWICZ (1909-1969)
Piano Quintet No.1 (composed 1952)
I. Moderato molto espressivo - Allegro
II. Presto
III. Grave
IV. Con passione

Grażyna Bacewicz is a name we think more audiences should know. A composer, a violinist, and a serious trailblazer. In post-war Poland, under Socialist Realism, composers were expected to write music that was accessible and ideologically on-brand. Bacewicz somehow managed to stay true to her voice while navigating that tightrope.

Her Piano Quintet No. 1 is full of bold contrasts—vigour, lyricism, dance rhythms, and modernist edge. After a searching introduction,  there’s an unstoppable momentum in the first movement, where the piano and strings engage in fiery back-and-forths. The granite-like opening of the piano is full of pathos, descending into an elegiac, almost haunting calm. The finale dances again, but not lightly—this is music with bite.

This music is layered with meaning and there’s a palpable sense of craftsmanship in the way she builds tension and release. This is music that is intensely personal, but not self serving.