Orchestra Works (Incls Symphonies 1 & 2 & Concerto for Orchestra)

"This is a very generous and interesting set of nearly all of Lutosławski's orchestral music up to 1976. It charts his progress from classical composer to the time that he was really coming to terms with his use of avant-garde techniques. These would only be fully assimilated in such late works as the last two Symphonies, the Piano Concerto and the Double Concerto for oboe and harp. It's good to welcome these performances back into the catalogue for they are very fine indeed and the music shows the genesis of a composer who was to become a major figure on the contemporary music scene."
(MusicWeb May 2009)

Lutoslawski came from a wealthy family, who at the onset of the Prussian War, were forced to flee to Russia. In Moscow, they soon ran into trouble with the revolutionary forces, and his father was shot by a Red Army firing squad. He returned to Warsaw in the '20s, where he settled down to study with Szymanowski. Szymanowski's influence was to remain a strong force throughout his creative life. To help support himself, he played piano in cafes together with his friend and contemporary Andrej Panufnik.

The Second World War saw tragedy strike him again - this time his brother was killed in a Soviet labour camp, and he himself walked 250 miles to escape the invading Germans, returning to Russia for the second time. This time he remained, but it was only after the death of Stalin in 1953 that he could write freely, without the risk of 'official' criticism.

His style is rooted in the late romanticism of Szymanowski, but infused with Stravinsky, Bartók, Martinu, Roussel and Schoenberg. Add to this the terrible personal suffering he endured during his time in Moscow, and the 1940s and we hear one of the distinctive musical voices of our time.

These recordings, directed by the composer in 1976/7 contain all the orchestral music he had written up to that point, and are essential listening for all that are interested in 20th century music.

'It's my guess that posterity will judge Witold Lutowslaski among the supreme twentieth century musical colourists. All in all, this must surely count as the introduction to Lutoslawski's symphonic world.' Gramophone reviewing the original release