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Friday, August 28, 2020

Witold Lutosławski - The Essential Lutosławski


Information

Composer: Witold Lutosławski

CD1:
  • (01) Symphony No. 3
  • (02) Concerto for orchestra
  • (05) Venetian Games
  • (09) Variations on a theme by Paganini
CD2:
  • (01) Cello Concerto
  • (02) Dance Preludes
  • (07) Concerto for oboe, harp and chamber orchestra
  • (10) Les espaces du sommeil
  • (11) Funeral Music

Martha Argerich & Nelson Freire, pianos (1.9)
Heinrich Schiff, cello (2.1)
Eduard Brunner, clarinet (2.2-2.6)
Heinz Holliger, clarinet & Ursula Holliger, harp (2.7-2.9)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone (2.10)

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (1.1; 2.10)
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (2.1-2.9)
Witold Lutosławski, conductor

Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra (1.2-1.8; 2.11-2.14)
Witold Rowicki, conductor

Recorded: 1964-86
Compilation: 1997
Label: Philips
https://www.deccaclassics.com/en/catalogue/products/essential-lutoslawski-5685


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Review

In a famous diatribe, Stravinsky (or rather his ghost-writer Roland-Manuel) expressed hostility to Wagner on the grounds that his music sounded ''more improvised than constructed''. To many, I suspect, the appeal of Lutoslawski is that his music sounds both improvised and constructed: brilliantly spontaneous in its details yet satisfyingly substantial in form.

In none of Lutoslawski's later works is this quality more directly expressed than the Cello Concerto of 1970, with its long, self-communing solo cadenza at the start progressing through an increasingly aggressive confrontation between soloist and orchestra to a coda in which the two learn to live together. This new Philips issue is the work's third recording, and while we may regret the current absence of the first, also conducted by the composer, with the dedicatee, Rostropovich, as soloist (EMI ASD3145, 2/76—nla), Heinrich Schiff gives an admirably sensitive and, where required, full-blooded account. The live recording, naturally balanced yet clear in that multiplicity of textural details so essential to all Lutoslawski's scores, is first rate.

The origins of Lutoslawski's more recent melodic style, with its frequent repeated notes and supple rhythms, can be heard in the folk-like ideas of the earlier Dance Preludes, winning music to which Eduard Brunner's often reedy tone is well suited. I'm a less fervent admirer than some of the Concerto for Oboe and Harp (1980). The second movement always strikes me as too long, and the composer's use of one of his more familiar devices—orchestral mass set off by solo display—comes close to cliche in both the first and second movements. There is nevertheless an agreeable lightness of touch in the outer movements, especially in the way the Shostakovich-like march theme of the finale is not allowed to generate the kind of relentless apotheosis that the Russian composer so often favoured. Performance and recording are all that could be desired.

-- Arnold Whittall, Gramophone
reviewing PHILIPS 416 817-2 LUTOSLAWSKI: Cello Concerto; Double Concerto; Dance Preludes

More reviews:
http://www.classicalcdreview.com/lutoess.htm
https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Lutoslawski-Witold/dp/B00002DDWR

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Witold Lutosławski (25 January 1913 – 7 February 1994) was a Polish composer and orchestral conductor. He was one of the major European composers of the 20th century, and one of the preeminent Polish musicians during his last three decades. He earned many international awards and prizes. His compositions (of which he was a notable conductor) include four symphonies, a Concerto for Orchestra, a string quartet, instrumental works, concertos, and orchestral song cycles. Lutosławski's music incorporates his own methods of building harmonies and the use of aleatoric processes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Lutos%C5%82awski

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FLAC, tracks
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Enjoy!

5 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Lutoslawski is a composer I'm enjoying recently. Thank you so much!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Many thanks for sharing, although the links are not working, as expected from linkshrink.
    Any chance of a re-up? Many thanks for your dedication!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Choose one link, copy and paste it to your browser's address bar, wait a few seconds (you may need to click 'Continue' first), then click 'Skip Ad' (or 'Get link').
    If you are asked to download or install anything, IGNORE, only download from file hosting site (mega.nz).
    If MEGA shows 'Bandwidth Limit Exceeded' message, try to create a free account.

    CD1 http://raboninco.com/1vuQz
    CD2 http://raboninco.com/1vuR0
    or
    CD1 http://uii.io/MjIc
    CD2 http://uii.io/dQRl
    or
    CD1 http://exe.io/nlTIsU22
    CD2 http://exe.io/h9b1

    ReplyDelete