January 21, 2015.Lutoslawski and Dutilleux.Two wonderful composers, both born in the 1910s, have their birthdays this week.The Polish Witold Lutoslawski was born on January 25th of 1913.As we wrote two years ago, Lutoslawksi’s life was exceptionally difficult, even by tough east-European standards of the 20th century.An aspiring composer in the pre-War years, a student of Nadia Boulanger in Paris, he returned to Poland on the eve of WWII.As the Germans invaded the country, he was conscripted and shortly after captured by the Germans.He escaped eight days later and made it to Warsaw (his younger brother was captured by the Red Army and died in the Gulag a year later).During the occupation, he earned his living by playing piano in bars together with his best friend, Andrzej Panufnik.Just before the heroic and ill fated Warsaw Uprising was to begin, his mother took him to a small town of Komorów, just outside of the city.Things didn’t get much better after the Soviet Union installed a communist regime in Poland.After several relatively liberal years, in 1949 Lutoslawki became the first composer to be officially banned by the Composer’s Union.The ban lasted for almost 10 years, even after Stalin’s death.During those difficult years Lutoslawki survived by writing children songs, and music for theater and radio plays.As he couldn’t use his own name, he wrote under the pseudonym of "Derwid."It’s worth noting that he didn’t write a single piece in the Socialist Realism style, as was expected from him and as so many of his contemporaries in Easter Europe were forced to do (or chose to).Another difficult period came in the 1980s: Lutoslawki actively supported the Solidarity movement, and suffered when its leadership was suppressed by the Communist regime.In defiance, Lutoslawki started what he termed “the boycott of the State,” refusing to conduct, to meet with officials and rebuffing all entreaties from the State.
As most composers, Lutoslawki went through many creative stages. His composing style was changing and evolving his whole life.During some periods it was more modernistic, atonal and even aleatoric, with chance playing a role in note selection, in others? – more tonality-based, almost romantic.Here, from his twelve-tone period, is String Quartet, written in 1954, it’s performed by the New Budapest Quartet.A much "warmer" but still atonal is Lutoslawski’ orchestral piece called Mi-Parti from 1976.It was recorded the same year by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra with the composer conducting.You can listen to it here.
Lutoslawski died in Warsaw on February 9th of 1994.Henri Dutilleux, three year younger than Lutoslawski (he was born on January 22nd of 1916), had a longer life: he died in 2013 at the ripe age of 97.And even though he, like Lutoslawski, lived through the war (and also earned money playing piano in his respective occupied capital), overall his career was a happier one.Throughout his life his achievements were acknowledged by his peers and his country, from the Grand Prix du Rome which he won in 1938 to the highest honor a Frenchmen can receive – the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, which he received in 2004.He received commissions from many orchestras and musicians, and taught in several important conservatories.Dutilleux’s place in French music is quite unique: on the one hand, he was influenced, even if indirectly, by Debussy and Ravel, and also by Stravinsky and Bartok; on the other, he never belonged to any musical school, even frowned at them and maintained independence all his life.You can hear some of these influences – the beauty of the orchestral writing combined with a contemporary, almost jazzy edge – in the orchestral piece called Metaboles, as a simple musical structure moves though the different sections of the orchestra, gaining complexity in the process.Metaboles was commissioned in 1965 by George Szell for the Cleveland Orchestra; here it’s performed by the Boston Symphony under the direction of Alan Gilbert.
Lutoslawski and Dutilleux, 2015
January 21, 2015. Lutoslawski and Dutilleux. Two wonderful composers, both born in the 1910s, have their birthdays this week. The Polish Witold Lutoslawski was born on January 25th of 1913. As we wrote two years
ago, Lutoslawksi’s life was exceptionally difficult, even by tough east-European standards of the 20th century. An aspiring composer in the pre-War years, a student of Nadia Boulanger in Paris, he returned to Poland on the eve of WWII. As the Germans invaded the country, he was conscripted and shortly after captured by the Germans. He escaped eight days later and made it to Warsaw (his younger brother was captured by the Red Army and died in the Gulag a year later). During the occupation, he earned his living by playing piano in bars together with his best friend, Andrzej Panufnik. Just before the heroic and ill fated Warsaw Uprising was to begin, his mother took him to a small town of Komorów, just outside of the city. Things didn’t get much better after the Soviet Union installed a communist regime in Poland. After several relatively liberal years, in 1949 Lutoslawki became the first composer to be officially banned by the Composer’s Union. The ban lasted for almost 10 years, even after Stalin’s death. During those difficult years Lutoslawki survived by writing children songs, and music for theater and radio plays. As he couldn’t use his own name, he wrote under the pseudonym of "Derwid." It’s worth noting that he didn’t write a single piece in the Socialist Realism style, as was expected from him and as so many of his contemporaries in Easter Europe were forced to do (or chose to). Another difficult period came in the 1980s: Lutoslawki actively supported the Solidarity movement, and suffered when its leadership was suppressed by the Communist regime. In defiance, Lutoslawki started what he termed “the boycott of the State,” refusing to conduct, to meet with officials and rebuffing all entreaties from the State.
As most composers, Lutoslawki went through many creative stages. His composing style was changing and evolving his whole life. During some periods it was more modernistic, atonal and even aleatoric, with chance playing a role in note selection, in others? – more tonality-based, almost romantic. Here, from his twelve-tone period, is String Quartet, written in 1954, it’s performed by the New Budapest Quartet. A much "warmer" but still atonal is Lutoslawski’ orchestral piece called Mi-Parti from 1976. It was recorded the same year by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra with the composer conducting. You can listen to it here.
Lutoslawski died in Warsaw on February 9th of 1994. Henri Dutilleux, three year younger than Lutoslawski (he was born on January 22nd of 1916), had a longer life: he died in 2013 at the ripe age of 97. And even though he, like Lutoslawski, lived through the war (and also earned money playing piano in his respective occupied capital), overall his career was a happier one. Throughout his life his achievements were acknowledged by his peers and his country, from the Grand Prix du Rome which he won in 1938 to the highest honor a Frenchmen can receive – the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, which he received in 2004. He received commissions from many orchestras and musicians, and taught in several important conservatories. Dutilleux’s place in French music is quite unique: on the one hand, he was influenced, even if indirectly, by Debussy and Ravel, and also by Stravinsky and Bartok; on the other, he never belonged to any musical school, even frowned at them and maintained independence all his life. You can hear some of these influences – the beauty of the orchestral writing combined with a contemporary, almost jazzy edge – in the orchestral piece called Metaboles, as a simple musical structure moves though the different sections of the orchestra, gaining complexity in the process. Metaboles was commissioned in 1965 by George Szell for the Cleveland Orchestra; here it’s performed by the Boston Symphony under the direction of Alan Gilbert.