Grażyna Bacewicz - a superb violinist and Poland’s first woman composer who reached the top ranks of composing mastery and fame, devoted a lion’s part of her compositions to string instruments.  Her decision to write a quintet for wind instruments turned out to be right as the piece was rewarded in 1933 by a French foundation honouring women of freelance professions.   The quintet is a witty travesty of various stylistic idioms – both Neo-Classical and innovatory.    We can only imagine how much the flabbergasted jury of this 1933 composers' competition enthused about the women-only line-up playing the awarded Quintet. Nowadays, ladies more and more often appear among top-tier musicians, also those playing instruments of big sizes. As is the case of bassoonist Alicja Kieruzalska, who with her four colleagues (flutist Jan Krzeszowiec, oboist Wojciech Merena, clarinettist Maciej Dobosz and hornist Mateusz Feliński) forms the LutosAir Quintet, successfully touring Poland and the world since 2013.

The concert on 12 March features one more piece for wind quintet: the colourful and replete with stylistic disguises Wind Quintet Op. 43 by Carl Nielsen, Danish composer so much appreciated by his compatriots that his face has landed on their 100 krone banknotes.    The middle part of the programme is Divertissement for wind trio by Erwin Schulhoff dated 1927. In the piece, hastily comic movements: Overture, Burlesque and Rondino are balanced by the dancingly buoyant syncopated Charleston and the waltz-like Florida.