Witold Lutosławski Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
Robert Johnson surveys the life and work of seminal Polish 20th Century composer, Witold Lutosławski.
The eighty-one years of Lutosławski’s life coincided with some of the most brutal events of the twentieth century: The Russian Revolution, the German invasion of Poland, the Warsaw Uprising and the intellectual and artistic oppression of the Stalinist years after the Second World War.
Although the composer was a quiet-spoken, well-educated, reserved man who always insisted on the “purely musical, absolute dimension” of his works, it’s difficult not to read into some of the violent and explosive passages of his music, in which Robert Johnson finds a parallel between the world of reality and the world of his imagination.
Music Details:
Lutoslawski: Symphony No.3 – BBC Symphony Orchestra/Edward Gardner (Chandos)
Lutoslawski: Concerto for Orchestra – BBC Symphony Orchestra/Edward Gardner (Chandos)
Lutoslawski: Symphonic Variations – BBC Symphony Orchestra/Edward Gardner (Chandos)
Lutoslawski: Paganini Variations – Ann Martin-Davis & Susan Legg (pianos) (ASV)
Lutoslawski: Little Suite (Mala Suite) – BBC Symphony Orchestra/Edward Gardner (Chandos)
Lutoslawski: Musique funèbre –Polish National Radio Symphony/Antoni Wit (Naxos)
Lutoslawski: Postlude No.1 – Polish National Radio Symphony/Antoni Wit (Naxos)
Lutoslawski: Venetian Games – Polish National Radio Symphony/Antoni Wit (Naxos)
Lutoslawski: String Quartet – LaSalle Quartet (Brilliant Classics)
Lutoslawski: Livre pour orchestra – Polish National Radio Symphony/Antoni Wit (Naxos)
