Search - Witold Lutoslawski, Antoni Wit, Polish Radio Orchestra & Chorus Katowice :: Lutoslawski: Symphony No. 4; Partita for Violin & Orchestra

Generally minor Lutoslawski, but dependably performed.

Christopher Culver | 08/02/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This Naxos disc, the first of the label's seven-volume collection of Witold Lutoslawski's orchestral music, covers two very different phases of the composer's career, with one piece from the second half of the 1950s and the rest from the last decade of his life. As always, Antoni Wit leads the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Krzystof Bakowski appears as the soloist in the violin pieces.



While the "Jeux Venitiens" of 1961, bringing in limited aleatorism, is often heralded as the start of Lutoslawski's middle period, the chromatic language that marked these mature works was introduced with "Muzyka zalobna" for strings ("Funeral Music", 1958). In 1954 Lutoslawski had just finished his Concerto for Orchestra, and was commissioned to write a piece for the tenth anniversary of Bartok's death. The slight post-Stalinist thaw gave him the chance to entirely rethink his compositional technique, and four years later he presented this work where the socialist-realist or folk inspiration of the Concerto for Orchestra was strikingly replaced with dodecaphony. The twelve-tone method of the piece is too complicated to go into here, but what Lutoslawski was seeking to do was use chromaticism to give colour and personality, not just structure like the serialists. Many of the specific methods Lutoslawski uses here were not continued in later works, and Edward Cowie called the work a "diversion" from the composer's stylistic evolution, but it does signal a comfort with the full range of pitch and is moving listening.



We skip over a quarter century from "Muzyka zalobna" to the next piece. What happened in the meantime was exciting, limited aleatorism was an integral part of each piece, the selection of pitches was taken from twelve-note chords, and a bold concept of bipartite form ("hesitant" vs "direct" was introduced). Pieces like the splendid String Quartet of 1965 and the awesome Symphony No. 2 of 1968 are fine examples of this period. After his third symphony, however, Lutoslawski moved away from all this. While aleatorism remained, it began to contribute little to the music and in most places seems a mere formality. Total chromaticism disappeared, and instead the harmonies sound as restricted as neoclassicism or neoromanticism. This process of limitation took a while to come to fruition.



In "Chain 2" (1984), a "dialogue for violin and orchestra" one still feels that the form is boundlessly expanding, avoiding any stale constraints of classicism. The title refers to Lutoslawski's late technique of beginning new sections before the last is fully completed, given the work a certain momentum that propels the music forward. While emphatically not a violin concerto (he was at work on a piece earning such a name in his final weeks), Lutoslawski's love for the instrument is so great that the work tours all manner of violin technique and mood. I think "Chain 3" for chamber orchestra is a better exposition of this form, but this follows not far behind.



"Partita" (1988), an orchestration of a piece originally for violin and piano, immediately strikes the listener who has followed Lutoslawski's work chronologically as strait-jacketed. The occasionally interludes for solo violin and piano don't are interesting. But that doesn't change the fact that the main of the work finds inspiration in Baroque music, and even if there are no major or minor keys, the work still approximates a sort of stale tonality. The "Interlude" for orchestra (1989) is a brief work written to bridge the two violin pieces. Its soft, slowly shifting textures sound eerily like something from Arvo Part, which is at first a bit surprising, but after a few listens the piece ends up seeming generally unremarkable.



The "Symphony No. 4" (1992) was Lutoslawski's last great work. It begins with the soundworld of the Third Symphony, as everything arises from the note E in both. The Fourth, however, is much more lyrical, brooding, meditative. Harmonies here are based on thirds. While not one of Lutoslawski's greatest symphonies--I favour the Second and Third--there's so many rich dramatic shifts, from sweetness to a sense of catastrophe, and it's pleasant listening. It certainly shows that Lutoslawski still had it even after the "Partita" or the rather appalling "Piano Concerto".



Naxos is rather hit-and-miss with liner notes, but this release has a surprisingly specific analysis. This is probably a dreadful introduction to Lutoslawski, and for that I'd recommend the Sony disc with the Third and Fourth symphonies and "Les espaces du sommeil". Still, the Naxos series of his orchestral works give full coverage to this intriguing composer's career, the price is right, and the performances are generally competitive with the best major-label offerings."