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WITOLD LUTOSŁAWSKI : Concerto for Orchestra
Friday 26 November, 1954 – Warsaw, Poland
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Witold Rowicki
J & W Chester / Edition Wilhelm Hansen London, 1972
( JWC55276)
“... It is the music of Béla Bartók that seems the obvious point of comparison to Lutosławski’s 'Concerto for Orchestra' — its title recalling Bartók’s famous composition of a decade earlier. Disciplined style, tight formal construction, and a clear sense of logic in the development of themes are already manifest in this relatively early piece, and they would remain hallmarks of Lutosławski’s style. But here we find the composer leaning to a notable extent on folk melodies. Lutosławski protested that his flirtations with folk sources were not forced on him by the government, but his protestation had a ring of ambivalent obscurity about it: "It didn’t interest me as profoundly as it interested Bartók, for instance. . . . I used this kind of material in the 'Concerto for Orchestra' because I was not ready yet to realize what I wanted. It had nothing to do with the regime or with pressure. It’s very often misunderstood. Some people write comments in program notes that I was compelled to use folk melodies. It’s not true at all."
Direct impetus for this work came via an invitation from the conductor Witold Rowicki, who in 1950 asked Lutosławski to write a piece based on folk material for performance by the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, which Rowicki founded that year. As Lutosławski grappled with the piece, it grew into a full three-movement composition. Lutosławski would often work on pieces over long periods of time; the four-year gestation period of the 'Concerto for Orchestra' was not unusual. What Rowicki received is a brilliant orchestral showpiece that, like Bartók’s 'Concerto for Orchestra', is a virtuoso vehicle for the ensemble as a whole.”
— James M. Keller
WITOLD LUTOSŁAWSKI : Concerto for Orchestra
Friday 26 November, 1954 – Warsaw, Poland
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Witold Rowicki
J & W Chester / Edition Wilhelm Hansen London, 1972
( JWC55276)
“... It is the music of Béla Bartók that seems the obvious point of comparison to Lutosławski’s 'Concerto for Orchestra' — its title recalling Bartók’s famous composition of a decade earlier. Disciplined style, tight formal construction, and a clear sense of logic in the development of themes are already manifest in this relatively early piece, and they would remain hallmarks of Lutosławski’s style. But here we find the composer leaning to a notable extent on folk melodies. Lutosławski protested that his flirtations with folk sources were not forced on him by the government, but his protestation had a ring of ambivalent obscurity about it: "It didn’t interest me as profoundly as it interested Bartók, for instance. . . . I used this kind of material in the 'Concerto for Orchestra' because I was not ready yet to realize what I wanted. It had nothing to do with the regime or with pressure. It’s very often misunderstood. Some people write comments in program notes that I was compelled to use folk melodies. It’s not true at all."
Direct impetus for this work came via an invitation from the conductor Witold Rowicki, who in 1950 asked Lutosławski to write a piece based on folk material for performance by the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, which Rowicki founded that year. As Lutosławski grappled with the piece, it grew into a full three-movement composition. Lutosławski would often work on pieces over long periods of time; the four-year gestation period of the 'Concerto for Orchestra' was not unusual. What Rowicki received is a brilliant orchestral showpiece that, like Bartók’s 'Concerto for Orchestra', is a virtuoso vehicle for the ensemble as a whole.”
— James M. Keller