Witold Lutoslawski – Concerto For Orchestra (Rowicki) [1962]

1. Concerto for Orchestra -I. Intrada: Allegro maestoso
2. Concerto for Orchestra -II. Capriccio notturno e arioso: Vivace
3. Concerto for Orchestra -III. Passacaglia, toccata e corale: Andante con moto

Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra
Witold Rowicki - conductor

Lutoslawski began this work in 1950 and completed it in 1954. The first performance was given on November 26, 1954, in Warsaw.

Witold Lutoslawski's was the first important concerto for orchestra composed in the shadow of Bartók's great work, but that appears to have inspired rather than intimidated him—Bartók served as a touchstone, a reminder of what could be done within a certain style and with a specific aim. For Lutoslawski, as for Bartók, the concerto for orchestra was a characteristic twentieth-century idea, a reflection of the unprecedented virtuosity of the modern orchestra and, at the same time, of the desire to pour new wine into old bottles.

The Concerto for Orchestra was the climax of this nationalistic, folk-based music—a work that not only spoke to a politically defeated people, but that continues to touch musicians of many lands today. Shortly after writing the concerto, Lutoslawski's sound language changed again. In 1960 he heard part of a radio broadcast of John Cage's Piano Concerto, a work that leaves much to chance, and is, therefore, different at every performance. Lutoslawski remembers that “those few minutes were to change my life decisively. It was a strange moment . . . I suddenly realized that I could compose music differently from that of my past. . . .” ---Phillip Huscher, cso.org

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