Witold Lutosławski - Orchestral Works Vol. 3 (Paul Watkins; Edward Gardner)

Information

Composer: Witold Lutosławski

• Mała suita (Little Suite)
• Concerto for Cello and Orchestra
• Grave (Metamorphoses for Cello and String Orchestra)
• Symphony No. 2

Paul Watkins, cello

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Edward Gardner, conductor

Date: 2012

Label: Chandos

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Review

On this latest Lutosawski release from Chandos there is a welcome disconnect between the first work and the rest of the programme. It opens with the Little Suite (1950), which predates even Lutosawski’s popular Concerto for Orchestra and shows the young composer already grappling with – and slightly circumventing – the demands of socialist realism. Based on folk melodies collected in south-east Poland, its bracing colours receive a performance of fresh vitality here from the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Edward Gardner.

This disc then fast forwards one and a half decades to the Second Symphony, by which time Lutosawski had become a leading figure of the avant-garde and was writing feverish, densely textured music. Gardner’s control of the work, not least its eventual disintegration, is highly compelling.

Recorded many times since it was premiered by Rostropovich in 1970, the Cello Concerto receives a superbly concentrated performance here from the soloist Paul Watkins. The 16 repeated, open-string D naturals (marked ‘indifferente’) that launch the work function as a reference point and a heartbeat. A shorter and searing summation of Lutosawski’s style can be heard in his Grave (1982) for cello and orchestra, which forms a fitting counterbalance to everything else on this disc.

— John Allison

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Witold Lutosławski (25 January 1913 – 7 February 1994) was a Polish composer and conductor. Educated in Warsaw, he initially drew inspiration from Polish folk music, gaining international recognition with works such as Concerto for Orchestra (1954). From the late 1950s, he developed innovative compositional techniques involving controlled aleatoricism, carefully structured musical materials and distinctive harmonic systems. Despite political pressure under postwar Stalinist rule, Lutosławski maintained his artistic independence. His major works include four symphonies, concertos and chamber compositions.

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Edward Gardner (born 22 November 1974) is an English conductor. Educated at the University of Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music, he began as a choral conductor and répétiteur before advancing to major roles. He served as music director of English National Opera (2007–15) and later held key positions with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Bergen Philharmonic (2015–24), where he became honorary conductor. Since 2021, he has been principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, with tenure extended to 2028. Gardner has recorded for EMI Classics and Chandos Records.

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