Krystian Zimerman, photo: East News
After the 2013 Lutosławski year opened with a concert at the Warsaw Philharmonic conducted by the Philharmonic's artistic director, Antoni Wit, with guest violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and composer Paweł Szymański, commemorations for the composer's centenary are underway across Europe, the U.S. and around the globe. Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman tours with the Piano Concerto, which he premiered with Lutosławski conducting in 1988.
After earlier performances by Zimerman in Paris and Singapore, on the 30th of January he joined with conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra for the London festival's opening concert at the Royal Festival Hall. The concert met with great reviews, with Andrew Clements writing for The Guardian that thanks to "Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia [...] Lutosławski's immaculately crafted, quietly original music will get the attention it deserves". Another 15 concerts and events representing Lutosławski's music will take place in coming months in the Southbank Centre and the Royal College of Music. On the 7th and 13th of March Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Violin Concerto, performed by Norwegian violinist Truls Mørk, also a soloist with the I, Culture Orchestra.
The press reveiws' quality met with their quantity. Critics picked up on the second part of the concert: the Piano Concerto, completed by Lutoslawski six years before his death and dedicated to Zimerman. At the Royal Festival Hall, Zimerman demonstrated "not only how the Concerto is so beautifully tailored to his playing, with its unique clarity and control of colour and texture," Clements writes, "but how imaginatively the work riffs on the traditional concerto model, and on the relationship between soloist and orchestra. They come to a confrontational climax in the slow third movement, after which they part ways in the passacaglia finale."
The concert also featured Musique Funèbre, composed in 1958 as a memorial to Bela Bartók and considered Lutosławski's first masterpiece. "The Philharmonia Orchestra is defying the grand narrative and pursuing its own vision." Ivan Hewett writes for The Telegraph, and comments on the piece, "Beginning with just two cellos intoning an angular melody, it built layer by layer into something stark and pitiless, the Philharmonia’s strings making a sound as immense and hard as a funeral stele." For Hewett, the Piano Concerto revealed Lutoslawki "could also be witty and impassioned."
Around the world, over one hundred events - concerts, workhops, meetings, lectures, film screenings, the publication of new CDs and books - take place during Lutosławski Year 2013. In coming months, the composer's work will be showcased in 18 countries, including Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, the United States, Japan and China.
Witold Lutosławski (1913-1994) was one of Poland's outstanding composers, and a leading figure in the music of the 20th century. He was a great authority, a patriot, an educator of generations of musicians and listeners. He was also a model of modesty, a highly cultured individual, someone who demanded much of himself and others. He was honoured on the 10th anniversary of his death with the 2004 Lutosławski Year declared by the Polish Senate, and the commemorations of his centennial in 2013 will hold even more star-studded international events.
For more information on the Lutosławski Year, see: lutoslawski.culture.pl
Sources: based on the Polish language article, culture.pl, the Telegraph, The Independent, The Guardian, The Art Desk
Editor: Marta Jazowska