Witold Lutosławski (1913 - 94); 22-26/1/18

[teamsaint]

Get rid of the ones that don't give the "i" - they're shi--bbish.

Y ?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Y ?

Because that isn't how he spelt his name, teamsaynt - and if they can't get that basic fact correct ... well, "nucular" springs to mind!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

[Beef Oven!]

Because that isn't how he spelt his name, teamsaynt ......

But it's how Seryal_Apologyst does.

[teamsaint]

But it's how Seryal_Apologyst does.

Aye.

[Serial_Apologist]

Yeah, but he's writing his name in POLISH! It's like, French people write London as LONDRES, innit?!

[Beef Oven!]

Yeah, but he's writing his name in POLISH!

Whether he writes it in POLISH, VARNISH or CREOSOTE, it's still with an 'i'

[jayne lee wilson]

The Best Of..
...a personal selection

Luto-Moderne:
Symphony 2
Jeux Vénitiens
Livre pour Orchestre
Cello Concerto
Paroles Tissés
Trois Poémes d'Henri Michaux
Preludes & Fugue

Retro-Luto:
Symphony 4
Chains 2 & 3
Partita
Piano Concerto
Chantefleures et Chantefables

Transitional Luto:
Symphony 3
Double Concerto
Mi-Parti
Les Espaces du Sommeil

....my own favourites:
Symphony 2
Trois Poémes d'Henri Michaux
Paroles Tissées
Preludes & Fugue;
...Chantefleurs et Chantefables
Partita;
...Double Concerto
Espaces du Sommeil

(As already mentioned the Gardner series on Chandos is excellent - along with the Opera Omnia/Accord Edition, reference points for performances but above all - marvellous sound. They rather obviously overshadow the fine but inconsistent earlier Wit/Naxos issues, and both series are generously represented on Qobuz).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yeah, but he's writing his name in POLISH! It's like, French people write London as LONDRES, innit?!

Not in the last one, he's not - he's written "Concerto for Orchestra", not "Koncert na orkiestrę".

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Whether he writes it in POLISH, VARNISH or CREOSOTE, it's still with an 'i'

Ieah!


(Makes yer wanna spit ... )

[Beef Oven!]

The Best Of..
...a personal selection

Luto-Moderne:
Symphony 2
Jeux Vénitiens
Livre pour Orchestre
Cello Concerto
Paroles Tissés
Trois Poémes d'Henri Michaux
Preludes & Fugue

Retro-Luto:
Symphony 4
Chains 2 & 3
Partita
Piano Concerto
Chantefleures et Chantefables

Transitional Luto:
Symphony 3
Double Concerto
Mi-Parti
Les Espaces du Sommeil

....my own favourites:
Symphony 2
Trois Poémes d'Henri Michaux
Paroles Tissées
Preludes & Fugue;
...Chantefleurs et Chantefables
Partita;
...Double Concerto
Espaces du Sommeil

(As already mentioned the Gardner series on Chandos is excellent - along with the Opera Omnia/Accord Edition, reference points for performances but above all - marvellous sound. They rather obviously overshadow the fine but inconsistent earlier Wit/Naxos issues, and both series are generously represented on Qobuz).

[antongould]

Ieah!


(Makes yer wanna spit ... )

...... and are we really sure it's not Birtwhistle ...... ?????

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

...... and are we really sure it's not Birtwhistle ...... ?????

[Serial_Apologist]

[jayne lee wilson]

REFLETS D'EAU LUTO....

I often feel Lutosławski is the less compelling, the more serious and symphonic he tries to be; so the word-settings and the abstractly-named or freely-structured works (Jeux V., Livre, Mi Parti, Concerto for Flute/Harp) seem to allow freer rein to the flow of his violently surreal coloristic imagination….
For me his most inspired and imaginative music was written in the 60s, with the above and the song cycles - Paroles and the Michaux Poems. Espaces too, a little later. French Surrealist Poetry released something extraordinary in him, or from him. An unfettered, dreamlike, motivic and textural imagination. The late, lovely Chantefleurs was some kind of lyrical, divertimentary rapprochement with that inspirational verbal fountain.

When the 3rd Symphony appeared he spoke of “a return to melody” …but it still sounds to me as a series of fascinating episodes hanging together on the cumulative gestures of short repeated rhythmic figures.

The 2nd and the Preludes and Fugue consistently compel your attention, but - do they finally add up to more than the sum of their parts? I’m not so sure…

***
Lutosławski has some very recognisable sound and structural signatures, most obviously the two-part hésitant/direct shape from the 2nd Symphony, seen also in Preludes & Fugue, MI-Parti and Symphony 3. As if holding a distorting mirror up to “statement and development”.

But “Symphonies" can cause a few composers - perhaps especially those who sing of dreams and nightmares - trouble can’t they? That need to “make a statement”….sometimes seems to stiffen their inventiveness. Trammel the imagination.
Would you rather hear D’Indy’s 3 Symphonies, or Istar, Chant Varié, Diptyque Méditerraneén?