Track Listing

1. Symphony No.4
2. Les espaces du sommeil, for baritone & orchestra
3. Symphony No.3

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #155094 in Music
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 1994-10-04
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds

Amazon.com essential recording
Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994) went through many changes in his career, but it was always in the service of his own style--which is, in the end, indescribable. This is an excellent disc that details some of the later transformations in Lutoslawski's thinking. The Symphony 4 (1992), which opens the disc, really highlights the composer's gift for melody, despite his atonal characterizations elsewhere. The work, while moving and dramatic, is extremely intense. Symphony 3 (1972-83) mixes tempos and interrupts moods constantly. Les Espaces du sommeil (1975) is a mixture of the concrete and abstract that creates an eerie, dreamlike scenario. This is one of Lutoslawski's masterpieces. --Paul Cook

Customer Reviews

A favorite
This is one of my favorite discs. I have known the symphonies since their early concert performances in the USA: I was present when Lutoslawski premiered the 4th Symphony with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1993), for which he composed the piece, and when he conducted the 3rd in San Francisco in 1986. (Both were huge local events: many famous musicians were present at both occasions; I recall talking to members of the Kronos Quartet in the Green room after the concert as we waited to meet the composer.) I've also heard Salonen conduct these pieces in concert, so I am pretty familiar with his way with them. Although I love these performances, no recording of the 3rd can equal my experience of Lutoslawski conducting the San Francisco: It almost felt that the orchestra was going to leap out and swallow the audience whole, so powerfully did he make it growl, rumble, shake, and sing. It was a thrilling experience to hear, as it was to watch his face while he conducted (I sat in the chorus seating area for one performance): he looked so at peace and in command. Salonen's performance is wonderful, recorded soon after he led it in Los Angeles in 1983 (his debut with the LAPO, and a performance that made quite an impression on locals, obviously, considering the association that followed in later years). Nevertheless, I think Barenboim (on Erato) comes closer to the propulsion and drama that Lutoslawski invested in his performances of the piece. (Barenboim has the advantage of leading the orchestra for whom Lutoslawski wrote the piece.) Of course, it is possible to hear Lutoslawski conduct the piece himself, on Philips, though the Berlin Phil is not the ideal ensemble for this piece, being a bit too refined, me thinks, to convey its muscular and sometimes ragged feel. For the 4th Salonen is clearly superior to the other available performances, the orchestra sounds simply lovely, and Salonen keeps the melodic lines in clear view. My one complaint about the recording of the 4th is that it is recorded at a rather low volume. Where Salonen clearly shines is in his performance of Les Espaces du Sommeil. This is a brilliant, richly textured, glowing performance, and the vocalist is nicely placed amid the aural firmament. Salonen's Les Espaces is a recording for the ages.

Greatest Symphonist since Mahler.
I have become convinced that Lutoslawski is the greatest symphonist since Mahler, with only Elliott Carter as an contempory equal in orchestral writing. Carter may even surpass Lutoslawski if his Symphonia is as great as press reports say (a recording should be released next year), but that doesn't take away from what Lut. has accomplished. Symphonies 2-4, along with Livre Pour Orchestre, Novelette, and the various Concerti, all repay multiple listenings. Symph.No.3 is probably the masterpiece, all-in-all, but No.2 is the most radical experimentally, while No.4 may be the most beautiful. In all of them, you get continual surprises, vibrant sounds and rhythms, and a wholely original means of organization, like nothing before it. While Lut. is entirely modern, he's not so dark and dreary as some modern composers, nor is he simplistic like the minimalists. He's just great.

Salonen's Third is better than the conductor's own version
The first recording I heard of Lutoslawski's Third Symphony was the first, with Lutoslawski himself conducting the Berlin Philharmonic in November, 1985. You can find it on THE ESSENTIAL LUTOSLAWSKI (see my review), an excellent 2-disc Philips set. The Third was widely acclaimed as one of Lutoslawski's masterpieces, but I just didn't hear it. About three years later, I finally heard Salonen's recording with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, from just one month later, December, 1985 -- it is a much stronger, more biting, more convincing interpretation and performance. A clear lesson that composers are not always their own best interpreters!

On the other hand, I am still not convinced that the Third is one of Lutoslawski's best works, nor that it is one of the best late 20th century symphonic works. It basically just meanders in a series of digressions, some at very low volume, and while it has several compelling passages, it never coheres into any sort of compelling structure. (The Second Symphony, also available from Sony with Salonen conducting, is even more shapeless and meandering!) So the 4 stars is for composition, not for conducting, performance or recording, all of which merit 5 stars.

The Fourth Symphony, one of Lutoslawski's last, was commissioned by Salonen and the LAP. It is a shorter work for smaller forces, sounding more like chamber music than a symphony. Though less ambitious than the Third, it is more coherent. I prefer the version on Naxos, though, with Antoni Wit conducting the Polish National Radio Symphony. By comparison, Salonen's version is more wispy, emphasizing details and texture that sound Debussian and Bartokian, while Wit's version is fuller-bodied, more Romantic.

I still recommend THE ESSENTIAL LUTOSLAWSKI as the best introduction for new listeners. It contains several works that I consider to be much better than these symphonies -- the "Concerto for Orchestra" (better than Bartok's work by the same name!), "Venetian Games," "Funeral Music," and the "Concerto for oboe, harp and chamber orchestra." Another great collection is an EMI 2-disc GEMINI set called Lutoslawski: Orchestral Works; Songs; String Quartet (see my review). Recorded in Poland in the mid-1970s, it features the composer conducting six works, some of which are more dissonant and avant-garde than most I've heard by him, including vocal and choral works. It also includes a fantastic 1995 performance of the "String Quartet" by the Alban Berg Quartet. These are definitely worth hearing, but I remain convinced that Lutoslawski was at his best when he didn't venture quite so far from the classical tradition.