Lutoslawski - Concerto for Orchestra (4/4) Toccata e Corale

Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994)

3. Passacaglia, Toccata e Corale — in three sections: the Passacaglia being a set of variations on a brooding theme played by the double-basses; followed by a vivacious and dynamic Toccata; and the (instrumental) Corale.
The Corale's second appearance produces a solemn finale for the monumental construction, the material for which is borrowed from a nineteenth-century collection compiled by an outstanding Polish ethnologist, Oskar Kolberg. The concerto finishes with a dramatic flourish and climax from the whole orchestra.

Polish composer Witold Lutosławski's Concerto for Orchestra was written in the years 1950-54, on the initiative of the artistic director of the Warsaw Philharmonic, Witold Rowicki, to whom it is dedicated. It is written in three movements, lasts about 30 minutes, and constitutes the last stage and a crowning achievement of the folkloristic style in Lutosławski's work. That style, inspired by the music of the Kurpie region, went back in him to the pre-1939 years. Having written a series of small folkoristic pieces for various instruments and their combinations (piano, clarinet with piano, chamber ensemble, orchestra, human voice with orchestra), Lutosławski decided to use his experience of stylisation of Polish folklore in a bigger work. However, the Concerto for Orchestra differs from Lutosławski's earlier folkloristic pieces not only in that it's more extended, but also that what is retained from folklore is only melodic themes. The composer moulds them into a different reality, lending them new harmony, adding atonal counterpoints, turning them into neo-baroque forms.

The Oregon Symphony conducted by James De Preist

Category:

Music

Tags:

• lutoslawski
• concerto
• for
• orchestra

[sandrute09]

the best part

[jewgienij100]

choral is the best

[athb4hu]

I've heard of this piece but never listened to it before. I like it! So, thanks!

[fredericfranc]

"Appalachian Spring" all over again, right? Try dancing to this. Compare it to the last movement of the Bartok. This is dismissed in some quarters as Commissar music, as in the People's Commissar of Soviet Hell, but is much betterthan that. Behind all these Polish peasants dancing like a bunch of maniacs, your basic Lutoslawski shines thru.

[bobotcha]

cool!

[tomenicus]

Good one. But I recomend you Lutoslawski's piano concerto and my favourite - third symphony.

[maestro1286]

Yay for the Oregon Symphony! I wish I could see them play this some day.

[krazykylewithak]

this is a pretty ballzy recording!