Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994)

[Mirror Image]

Okay, I just saw Luto's 2nd symphony and was ready to not like it. I thought that the first movement ("Hesitant") was kind of dull, but I actually admit that I enjoyed the second movement ("Direct"). It was exciting!

I'll freely admit to not being particularly fond of Symphony No. 2. Symphonies 1, 3, & 4 are excellent and more to my liking. Have you heard the Piano Concerto or the Concerto For Orchestra? Lutoslawski took some time to grow on me, but he's definitely one of my favorite post-war composers.

[Mirror Image]

I know Karlo and I have watched this series, but would be interested to know if anyone else has seen this series? If you haven't, here's your chance:

http://www.youtube.com/v/FE-MDGn7piU

http://www.youtube.com/v/zk3rNitzZkM

http://www.youtube.com/v/t01vDsOO0Dw

http://www.youtube.com/v/JnM7jljMazU

Very informative and entertaining.

[snyprrr]

Okay, I just saw Luto's 2nd symphony and was ready to not like it. I thought that the first movement ("Hesitant") was kind of dull, but I actually admit that I enjoyed the second movement ("Direct"). It was exciting!

my favorour

[snyprrr]

Piano Concerto

I just pulled out Andsnes, with Most, but, it wasn't too far in that I started feeling that this was an old-fashioned piece. It just started to sound like Rachmaninov to me, 1940s, maybe WL going back to his roots, even with a Modernist bent? Anyhow, after everything else I've been into lately, this piece came off as a bit tepid. I seriously feel like crossing it off my list, as 'Done'. I was really quite taken aback, wondering how I got this reaction. But, the music itself isn't very essential, and there are a lot of typical Lutoslawski-isms going on, making it seem more like an exercise to me.

shugs

What can you tell me today?

[Mirror Image]

Piano Concerto

I just pulled out Andsnes, with Most, but, it wasn't too far in that I started feeling that this was an old-fashioned piece. It just started to sound like Rachmaninov to me, 1940s, maybe WL going back to his roots, even with a Modernist bent? Anyhow, after everything else I've been into lately, this piece came off as a bit tepid. I seriously feel like crossing it off my list, as 'Done'. I was really quite taken aback, wondering how I got this reaction. But, the music itself isn't very essential, and there are a lot of typical Lutoslawski-isms going on, making it seem more like an exercise to me.

shugs

What can you tell me today?

For me, Lutoslawski's strength lies in his works for voice and orchestra. Such incredible orchestration in these works. I can take or leave a lot of Lutoslawski but these vocal works are outstanding. FYI, I"m a fan of the Piano Concerto, but prefer Lortie's with Gardner on Chandos. That is a performance that just feels right to me. Every nuance is carefully brought to the foreground and Gardner is a sensitive accompanist.

[lescamil]

Andsnes's recording of the Lutoslawski piano concerto is a very romanticized interpretation, make no mistake about it. However, it is probably my favorite interpretation of the work. The work, upon further study of the score, really feels, to me at least, like Lutoslawski was taking a sort of indirect approach to a neo-romantic style, keeping the idiom thoroughly his own, but much of the piano writing is very romantically bent in terms of how it's written. The cadenza in the second movement to me just screams it. I am sure that Lutoslawski did this intentionally, seeing that he wrote the piece for Krystian Zimerman, a pianist who was known for his Chopin and other romantics. A more romantic interpreter such as Andsnes is what the piece needs. Zimerman's two recordings of the work are a bit more subtle and pulled back, and I really enjoy those, as well, but Andsnes and Welser-Möst are tops. That's just my two cents.

[snyprrr]

I hear what you're both saying - yes and yes

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

I've never heard his name spoken....is it pronounced Lut-oss-wuhv-ski?

[Joaquimhock]

I've never heard his name spoken....is it pronounced Lut-oss-wuhv-ski?

http://fr.forvo.com/word/witold_lutos%C5%82awski/#pl

[Scion7]

... but he was "Lutto" to his friends!   

[SymphonicAddict]

I have been bewitched by this gentleman. For me, his style is bittersweet (and I liked it), it has scary moments, which is trapped in strange situations mixed with random thoughts. Recently I listened to the awesome Cello concerto, it was an astounding masterwork! It's like a nightmare, a fear story where the cello is the character of the tale and the orchestra his awful thoughts that torture him. The concerto doesn't finish happily or with serenity because the cello suffers until the last second. This experience have me touched!

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

I have been bewitched by this gentleman. For me, his style is bittersweet (and I liked it), it has scary moments, which is trapped in strange situations mixed with random thoughts. Recently I listened to the awesome Cello concerto, it was an astounding masterwork! It's like a nightmare, a fear story where the cello is the character of the tale and the orchestra his awful thoughts that torture him. The concerto don't finish happily or with serenity because the cello suffers until the last second. This experience have me touched!

I really love your extramusical interpretation! Very unique; it is like nothing I have heard before. I suppose people could say the same thing about many of his mature works.

I'm similarly captivated by his Piano Concerto, which I think is an absolute masterwork. Do you have any thoughts about it?

[Maestro267]

I happen to be listening to Lutoslawski right now. The "violin concerto" triptych comprising Chain II, Interlude and Partita.

[SymphonicAddict]

I really love your extramusical interpretation! Very unique; it is like nothing I have heard before. I suppose people could say the same thing about many of his mature works.

I'm similarly captivated by his Piano Concerto, which I think is an absolute masterwork. Do you have any thoughts about it?

Actually, I must revisit it for refreshing my memory. Lutoslawski's style is really unique, he creates weird atmospheres and I can perceive certain psychologic fear (it's the sensation that him give me).

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Was going to mention Livre pour orchestre when you mentioned similarities between him and Xenakis, but you already mentioned that piece.

https://www.youtube.com/v/xtexspg9Yyc

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

He is my favorite composer of the present, as to say a composer in particular who is like a mentor figure to me at this point in time. I am very thankful for his music 

I hope Daddy Xenakis is still with you though

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Without Stockhausen I feel that popular culture would still be in the dark ages, technology-wise. What you say about resources is true as well. I would love to read his analyses of serial compositions.

Boulez kinda hates the dry academicism associated with 'analysis,' and I tend to have the same views as him when it comes to people's obsession over the question 'what was the original series?' and 'where can the different permutations be found in this piece?'

Stockhausen took a fascinating approach to serialism which I am currently looking into...........


Not sure if Lutosławski has anything that can be regarded as serial? I do love his controlled indeterminacy, something I have taken on in my own compositions.

[snyprrr]

My three favorite Lutoslawski works have got to be:

Symphony no 2
String Quartet
Cello Concerto

and 'Livre'... and 'Jeux venetians'...

But I do like the grandiose Symphony 3,... sometimes the more Romantic 'Preludes&Fugues'...



have trouble liking the "normal" Piano Concerto, and the Mutter disc doesn't send me too much...



might have to take the Cello Concerto out for a spin (Slava/EMI)... it's still a very odd duck in my book, very odd structure and content,... as is the SQ... pieces that make me listen through the introduction...



Maybe it's that Luto LOOKS the most like Stravinsky that makes me think of him as more conservative, or, grandfatherly,... when in actuality, he's not really (except towards the end of course)


Hearing much Igor in IX's Lutoslawski fanfare/elegy...

[Mahlerian]

I love Boulez's quote in Beyond the Score, where he says about new materials (likened to architecture) and serialism being a solution to reach a particular aesthetic goal.

Lutoslawski was just like Xenakis, Kagel, Maderna and Berio in this regard, all being people from the Darmstadt school in the middle of all the innovations who didn't take on serialism.

Berio did use serial techniques, actually, including rows.

[CRCulver]

I've never head Berio and Serialism in the same sentence before so this is surprising to me 

Berio's purely instrumental works of the 1950s (such as his first string quartet) are as stereotypical Darmstadt serialism as they come. Even many later works are serialist (Points on the Curve to Find... is based on a tone row, albeit not a 12-tone one, for example).