Łańc Chain 15
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11.02.2018 — 27.01. Warsaw ITOLD LUTOSŁAWSKI FESTIVAL LUTOSŁAWSKI ITOLD W 15 CHAIN CHAIN 15 XV ŁAŃCUCH ŁAŃCUCH ŁAŃCUCH XV FESTIWAL WITOLDA LUTOSŁAWSKIEGO Warszawa 27.01. — 11.02.2018 THE WITOLD LUTOSŁAWSKI FESTIVAL CHAIN 15 WARSAW JANUARY 27 – FEBRUARY 11 2018 Organizers: President of the Witold Lutosławski Society: The Witold Lutosławski Society Elżbieta Markowska Polish Radio 2 Festival co-ordinators: Thematic concept: Magdalena Dobrowolska CHAIN 15 Elżbieta Markowska Aleksandra Braumańska Marcin Krajewski Grażyna Teodorowicz Program book editors: Concert programming: Marcin Krajewski 27.01 Alexander Liebreich Maria Burchard Marcin Krajewski English translation and editing: 28.01 Andrzej Bauer Maksymilian Kapelański 03.02 Lutosławski Quartet Program notes: Marcin Krajewski Grażyna Teodorowicz 04.02 Michał Klauza Marcin Krajewski Marcin Krajewski 07.02 Jakub Jakowicz Design and layout: Bartosz Bednarczyk LAVENTURA Maciej Sawicki 11.02 Andrzej Boreyko Printed by SINDRUK Printers Cover photo: www.lutoslawski.org.pl Bolesław Lutosławski Projekt współfinansuje m.st. Warszawa Financed by the Fundacja PZU The Witold Lutosławski Festival is financed in part by funds from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, as well as the City of Warsaw CHAIN 15 The 15th ‘Chain’ Festival occurs on A concert program thus conceived the 100th-year anniversary of Polish is a work owing its shape largely Independence. In the program — not to the invited performers — solo- without influence from these celebra- ists, ensembles, and conductors with tions — a showcase of Polish music an affinity to Polish music of the last that weaves out counterpoints to Lu- hundred years. It is worthwhile to re- tosławski’s masterworks. ceive it while conscious of the difficult times in which it was created and its The Polish composer’s style, rooted in original intentions. Witold Lutosławski Impressionism, Neo-Classicism, and said once: “(…) I hope that all which sometimes drawing from folklore, orig- we now experience in our country, can- inates in conjunction with many other not be without effect on what issues styles and can be better understood from my pen (…). My bit of optimism as such. Hence, the festival presence (…) stems from the reality that some- of Karol Szymanowski and the com- one might sense in the music that its posers of Lutosławski’s generation: author (…) is a member of society, Grażyna Bacewicz, as well as the less who feels a strong and deep solidari- often remembered Zbigniew Turski, ty with it”. Thoughts in the same vein Artur Malawski, Stefan Kisielewski, were surely common among his peers. and Jerzy Fitelberg. Composers of this Their music was a voice of communi- time were shaped and began their ar- ty expressing the aspirations of a free tistic activity in Independent Poland. individual. The 15th ‘Chain’ Festival The program’s inclusion of recently reveals this music in a modest pres- composed works by Zygmunt Krauze entation — but with the hope that it and Krzysztof Meyer symbolizes a con- will resound similarly today. tinuity of Polish artistic traditions, re- calling also the anniversaries of those The Organizers great masters, rightfully associated in our minds with the person and music of Lutosławski. Saturday, January 27, 2018 7 PM Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio of the Polish Radio 59 J. Kaczmarskiego Street (formerly: 59 Z. Modzelewskiego Street) Witold Lutosławski (1913–1994) Chain III for orchestra (1986) 12’ Karol Szymanowski (1882–1937) Symphony No. 4 “Symphonie concertante” for piano and orchestra op. 60 (1932) 25’ Moderato (Tempo commodo) Andante molto sostenuto Allegro non troppo, ma agitato e ansioso [Intermission] Claude Debussy (1862–1918) Nocturnes. Symphonic Triptych for Orchestra and Women’s Chorus (1899) 25’ Nuages Fêtes Sirènes Witold Lutosławski Mi-parti for orchestra (1976) 15’ Peter Jablonski – piano Camerata Silesia – The Katowice City Singers’ Ensemble National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra Alexander Liebreich – conductor Anna Szostak – choirmaster Supported by 27. I 5 The nature of Witold Lutosławski’s music nevertheless, the Symphony no. 4 initially is constant searching — its successive disappointed him. He received the opening stages mark out explorations in harmony, passage in F major, with a beautiful melo- rhythm, form, and texture. In the 1980s, dy, as an outright betrayal of his own ide- when he decided to have exhausted als. But later, he saw the timeless value of the possibilities that a grand bi-partite this masterwork, and considered the lack form gave him, he found another compo- of innovation as something unimportant. sitional solution: the chain form. He had been using it for a long time, employing Karol Szymanowski’s composition whose a dovetailed succession of phrases or sec- final shape is the Symphony no. 4 was tions (first use of such a method happens initially conceived as a piano concerto. already in the Passacaglia from Concerto The composer played some of its parts to for Orchestra). However, “because there’s his acquaintances as early as in the 1920s, more of it here, I called the work Chain”, but the work was ultimately abandoned. explained the composer in the commen- He returned to it in 1932, after several tary to Chain I. difficult years that followed his resignation from the post of dean at the Warsaw Con- Yet, something of bi-partite form was left servatory. New circumstances and a wors- in Chain III: the idea of a music that is ening of his financial situation changed initially “hesitant”, suspended, and only his approach to the envisaged concerto: then advancing straight to its goal. We he now wrote it with himself as soloist can set out three stages of development in mind (which he kept secret, not being in this instance. The first is a succession a virtuoso soloist). The decision entailed of colourful episodes, performed by small a simplification of the piano part, and groups of instruments. The second is com- compensatory expansion of the orchestra’s prised of sections in alternation conducted role. While working on the Symphony, and ad libitum; it leads to the third, which Szymanowski wrote to Zofia Kochańska: features a cantilena-like treatment of “(…) just as from the conservatory, I seem brass instruments. And after the climax, to have broken out of my shackles and I’m the music ends, surprisingly, with a waning writing this concerto with much ease and glissando of the cellos. eagerness (I again implore you to ‘keep mum’ that it’s a concerto — we can say The premiere of Chain III was given on it’s the Fourth Symphony) and N.B. I have December 10, 1986, by the San Francisco the sense that it’s going to be a first-class Symphony Orchestra under Witold Lu- trick (…)”. The compositional work lasted tosławski’s direction. from March to June. Witold Lutosławski said in conversation Symphony no. 4, “Symphonie concer- with Elżbieta Markowska that Szy- tante” op. 60 was created at a time when manowski stood as an idol for him and the composer sought to give his music his entire generation. Lutosławski lis- a national and also universal character, tened passionately to all his works, but yet without employment of folk melodies, 6 CHAIN 15 overused by his contemporaries. There reminisced Stefan Jarociński: “In my per- reigns in this work a largely conceived sonal life, Debussy also played a prominent primal atmosphere; Szymanowski thought role (…) If we are speaking about Jaro- that its “general character is very Le- ciński’s creative work, and especially that chitic” (i.e. relating to Poland, its people connected with Debussy, I must say that and culture). While no quotations from I was also its avid reader”. folk music are made, references to it are present, such as modal turns and Three Nocturnes is one of Debussy’s most the oberek-kujawiak (dance) rhythm unique works and perhaps the most revo- of the finale. What is most memora- lutionary. Its first version was destined for ble is the striking opening: a quasi-folk violin solo with orchestra; the composer theme, perhaps slightly orientalized, wrote it for the Belgian virtuoso Eugène played by the piano in double octaves on Ysaÿe, but never finished it. He could have the background of pianissimo pizzicatos used the original sketches in the new in the strings, coloured by timpani strikes. version, but this might remain uncertain. The first movement is in free sonata al- The Nocturnes, composed in the years legro form, the second in recapitulatory 1897-1899 for orchestra and women’s form, while the finale approaches a rondo. chorus (thus with the omission of the solo violin part), were most probably inspired The work’s premiere took place on October by James Whistler’s namesake series of 9, 1932, in Poznań (Poland), under the di- paintings made in the 1870s. Creating rection of Grzegorz Fitelberg. At the piano, nightly visions of River Thames, Whistler none other than Szymanowski. The brilliant used one dominant hue and its many sub- finale went into an encore, also at other tle shades that effaced the contours, which concerts, both at home and abroad. made a great impression of Debussy and influenced his search for similar effects Claude Debussy was among the artists for in music. whom Witold Lutosławski had a special affinity. Their views on many composi- In the concert notes to the Nocturnes’ tional problems, such as the search for first performance, the composer explained new harmony, form, and timbre, despite the idea behind the title, betelling a paint- the composers’ temporal distance, have erly way of thinking: “The title Nocturnes many important similarities. Lutosławski is to be interpreted here in a general said that “From two traditions that and, more particularly, decorative sense. ushered in twentieth-century music, i.e. Therefore, it is not meant to designate the Schoenbergian and Debussian, the lat- the usual form of the Nocturne, but rather ter is the one whose preponderance I feel all the various impressions and the special in my own compositional work”.