Esteemed for his integrity and regarded as one of the most coherent of avant-garde composers, Witold Lutoslawski was a central figure of late twentieth century music and widely acknowledged as a modern master. This 2004 compilation from EMI Classics comes ten years after Lutoslawski's death, and may be regarded as a tribute to the man as composer and conductor, for the recordings by the Polish Chamber Orchestra and the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra were made under his astute direction. The examples of Lutoslawski ...
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Esteemed for his integrity and regarded as one of the most coherent of avant-garde composers, Witold Lutoslawski was a central figure of late twentieth century music and widely acknowledged as a modern master. This 2004 compilation from EMI Classics comes ten years after Lutoslawski's death, and may be regarded as a tribute to the man as composer and conductor, for the recordings by the Polish Chamber Orchestra and the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra were made under his astute direction. The examples of Lutoslawski's varied output include the tightly contrapuntal Preludes and Fugue for strings, intensely scored orchestral songs, the expressionistic Cello Concerto, and the lucidly structured but almost fractal String Quartet. The conflicts and resolutions that shape Lutoslawski's works are clearly laid out; though the music may be austere, dense, and sometimes fiercely dissonant and chaotic, one cannot doubt the authenticity of Lutoslawski's expression and the inevitability of his musical...
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