A Portrait Kinga Augustyn & Alla Milchtein

• Grażyna Bacewicz (1909 - 1969): Sonata No. 1 for Solo Violin:
• 1 Bacewicz: Sonata No. 1 for Solo Violin: I. Allegro 05:31
• 2 Bacewicz: Sonata No. 1 for Solo Violin: II. Adagio 05:15
• 3 Bacewicz: Sonata No. 1 for Solo Violin: III. — 05:31
• 4 Bacewicz: Sonata No. 1 for Solo Violin: IV. Variazioni 08:23
• Polish Capriccio for Solo Violin:
• 5 Bacewicz: Polish Capriccio for Solo Violin 02:29
• Polish Capriccio No. 2 for Solo Violin:
• 6 Bacewicz: Polish Capriccio No. 2 for Solo Violin 03:02
• Violin Concertino in G Major:
• 7 Bacewicz: Violin Concertino in G Major: I. Allegro moderato 01:10
• 8 Bacewicz: Violin Concertino in G Major: II. Andante 02:04
• 9 Bacewicz: Violin Concertino in G Major: III. Vivace 01:23
• Melody for Violin & Piano:
• 10 Bacewicz: Melody for Violin & Piano 02:41
• Stained Glass for Violin & Piano:
• 11 Bacewicz: Stained Glass for Violin & Piano 02:51
• Partita for Solo Violin:
• 12 Bacewicz: Partita for Solo Violin: I. Allegro 02:03
• 13 Bacewicz: Partita for Solo Violin: II. Andante 02:28
• 14 Bacewicz: Partita for Solo Violin: III. Vivo 03:08
• Scherzo for Solo Violin:
• 15 Bacewicz: Scherzo for Solo Violin 03:49
• Capriccio for Violin & Piano:
• 16 Bacewicz: Capriccio for Violin & Piano 01:54
• Lullaby for Violin & Piano:
• 17 Bacewicz: Lullaby for Violin & Piano 03:20
• 4 Capriccios for Solo Violin:
• 18 Bacewicz: 4 Capriccios for Solo Violin: No. 1, — 02:28
• 19 Bacewicz: 4 Capriccios for Solo Violin: No. 2, — 02:26
• 20 Bacewicz: 4 Capriccios for Solo Violin: No. 3, — 02:27
• 21 Bacewicz: 4 Capriccios for Solo Violin: No. 4, — 02:43
• Total Runtime 01:07:06

Info for A Portrait

"A Portrait" collects several of Bacewicz's works for violin. Some are for solo violin, and the rest for violin and piano.

All are exceptionally well-crafted. Bacewicz knew her instrument. Her music pushes the boundaries of violin technique at almost every turn.

"[Kinga Augustyn] She is in superb form for this recital, playing with a rich, concentrated tone that never falters and dispensing the technical hurdles presented in the Caprices (and elsewhere) with breathtaking confidence and ease. The neoclassical works have a marvelous sense of proportion and impetus...a marvelous recital." (Fanfare)

Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969) was a prolific Polish composer and accomplished violinist in the inter-war, WWII, and postwar eras of the twentieth century. Often labeled neo-classical, her compositional style continued changing throughout her work, from early influences of Karol Szymanowski to her own distinctive atonalism. Polish-American Kinga Augustyn is a versatile New York City-based virtuoso concert violinist and recording artist. “Stylish and vibrant” (The Strad Magazine), and “beyond amazing, one hell of a violinist!” (The Fanfare Magazine), Ms. Augustyn has performed as a soloist with orchestras in the United States, Europe and Asia, and they include the Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin, Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra Leopoldinum, the Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra, Queens Symphony and the Riverside Symphonia.

Kinga Augustyn, violin
Alla Milchtein, piano

Kinga Augustyn
is a versatile New York City-based virtuoso concert violinist and recording artist. “Stylish and vibrant” (The Strad Magazine), and “beyond amazing, one hell of a violinist!” (The Fanfare Magazine), Ms. Augustyn has performed as a soloist with orchestras in North and South America, Europe and Asia, and they include the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, Queens Symphony Orchestra, the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin, Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra Leopoldinum, Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra, the MAV Symphony Orchestra of Budapest, and the Orquesta Sinfónica in Santiago, Chile. She has toured China and performed at China’s most prestigious venues such as Beijing Poly Theater and Shanghai Oriental Art Center. As a recitalist and chamber musician Kinga has appeared at the Stern Auditorium and the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Aspen Music Festival, the Chicago Cultural Center, Teatro Ristori (Verona, Italy), Teatro La Fenice (Venice, Italy), Teatro dal Verme (Milano, Italy), and Teatro Municipal de Las Condes (Santiago, Chile). In addition to concerti with orchestras and recitals with piano, Ms. Augustyn frequently performs unaccompanied solo violin recitals. She also plays baroque violin.

Kinga Augustyn is often praised for her musical interpretations, profundity, deft phrasing, beautiful tone, mastery of the bow, perfect intonation, and for her unique programming ideas. “With completely secure technical control, she couples a tapestry of tone color to her innate musicality” (The Fanfare Magazine). Music Web International describes her playing in the Bruch Violin Concerto with Janacek Philharmonic as “extremely moving and expressive,” characterized by “beauty, richness and smoothness of her tone,” and as “music she responds to on a deeply personal and emotional level.”

Ms. Augustyn’s repertoire includes music both standard and lesser–known, stylistically varied and spanning from early baroque to contemporary. Kinga is an advocate of new music and has performed and recorded multiple world premieres of works written especially for her. She researches and brings awareness to lesser-known composers, including those of her native Poland. “A mature, unconventional performing artist, undoubtedly deserving the title of ambassador of Polish culture” (Ruch Muzyczny), up to date Augustyn has recorded three albums of Polish music. Grażyna Bacewicz: A Portrait was released in 2022 on Centaur Records. The other two albums, released on Naxos, are world premieres by the contemporary Polish composer Romuald Twardowski (b. 1930), recorded with the Torun Symphony Orchestra and Mariusz Smolij, and the Polish Violin Music, a highly praised, “fascinating” (The Strad) album of lesser-known Polish works.

Augustyn’s virtuosity and her deep musicianship can also be heard on her other recordings including Turning in Time, a critically acclaimed album featuring 20th and 21st Century unaccompanied solo violin works by Krzysztof Penderecki (world premiere of Capriccio), Debra Kaye (world premiere of the Turning in Time composition), and other works by Elliott Carter, Luciano Berio, Isang Yun and Grażyna Bacewicz, which the Gramophone Magazine calls “remarkable” and praises Augustyn for “vibrant intensity, caressing the phrases and bringing bold focus to the electric unfolding of creativity”; The Paganini Caprices, which music critics consider as convincing as Perlman’s or Midori’s, and an “an enduring benchmark” (Classical Net); La Pasión, featuring 6 Tango-Etudes for Solo Violin by Astor Piazzolla; Telemann 12 Fantasias for Solo Violin (Centaur Records), in which “her interpretations are convincing in every piece here, and the Baroque spirit of the violin and Telemann’s mastery abiding throughout” (Music Web International); and Glen Roven’s Runaway Bunny Concerto performed with Catherine Zeta-Jones as a narrator and featuring Kinga Augustyn’s Solo Violin Cadenza (GPR Records).

Kinga Augustyn has won international awards, including first prizes at the Alexander & Buono International String Competition (USA), the Artist International Presentations (USA), and the J. S. Bach String Competition (Poland); other top prizes at the Johannes Brahms International Competition (Austria), the Kloster Schoental International Young Artist Competition (Germany), the Michael Hill International Violin Competition (New Zealand), and the Kosciuszko Foundation Wieniawski Violin Competition (USA); and many other honors such as “The Outstanding Pole in the USA” and “The Young Poland” Ministry of Culture prize. She holds the Bachelor and the Master degrees from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Cho-Liang Lin and Naoko Tanaka as a full tuition scholarship recipient; and a doctorate from the Stony Brook University, where she worked with Phil Setzer and Pamela Frank, also as a full-tuition and assistantship awardee. Prior to immigrating to the USA, Ms. Augustyn attended the Karol Szymanowski Music School in Wroclaw, Poland, completing all the requirements and graduating a year early. Home-schooled during her last year there, she was simultaneously a pre-college student at the Rostock University of Music and Drama, studying with the late professor Pertu Munteanu.

On a regular basis Kinga Augustyn plays a violin made by Joseph Gagliano in 1774, generously on loan to her from a private collector, and she uses two bows by Françoise Peccatte and by Françoise Xavier Tourte. When playing early music in a historically informed style, she plays Lukas Wroński’s uniquely designed violin named after and inspired by the famed statue Venus de Milo.

An educator for the next generation, Dr. Augustyn currently often gives masterclasses, especially when she is on tour. Most recently her masterclasses have taken places at the Amherst College, the Florida Gulf Coast University Bower School of Music, the Academy of Music in Wroclaw (Poland), and the Music Conservatory of Mayor University in Santiago (Chile). She also serves as Violin Faculty at Queens College Aaron Copland School of Music. Dr. Augustyn’s students are winners of national and international competition prizes and scholarships.

This album contains no booklet.