Reviews for The music of Lutoslawski

The average rating for The music of Lutoslawski based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2007-07-18 00:00:00 Andrew Free Charles Bodman Rae's THE MUSIC OF LUTOSLAWSKI appears here in a third edition published by Omnibus Press. The book was first completed shortly before the great Polish composer's death, and the second edition was available only in Polish translation, but here we finally get a full view of Lutoslawski's entire career. Rae knew Lutoslawski personally, and his book makes great use of interviews. There is a great deal of information here on Lutoslawski's personal life that gives context to the works. We learn about the trials of his family after World War I, his daring escape from captivity in World War II, his ways of evading Stalinist dangers in the '50s, and his constant travels to conduct his music and pick up honorary degrees later in life. Rae also tells of general historical events in Poland and how they might have affected Lutoslawski's music, such as the Cello Concerto and the Symphony No. 3. But it's not all biography. There is plenty of discussion of the music, and score examples abound. Lutoslawski's method of basing harmonies on twelve-note chords is explained fairly well, and the discussions of the String Quartet and Symphony No. 2 are useful to understand the structure of these great applications of limited aleatorism. I paid less attention to the coverage of Lutoslawski's late works, since I find music like the Piano Concerto and "Partita" dreadfully banal, but Rae does indeed manage to cover the composer's entire oeuvre, up to the sketches of the never-to-be-completed violin concerto. My complaints about the work are few. One is that, while the book was generally updated to reflect Lutoslawski's depth, there are still many phrasings that oddly suggest that he is still with us and composing. This is especially true in the notes, but found also in the body of the text as well. Also, Rae doesn't pay much attention at all to Lutoslawski's occasional pieces. One could understand that they lack the inventiveness of the orchestral works and thus don't merit serious analysis, but it would still be helpful to say something about them for the benefit of fans. Full-length books on Lutoslawski are few, whether in English or in other languages. If you enjoy this one, be sure to also seek out Steven Sucky's LUTOSLAWSKI AND HIS MUSIC (Oxford University Press, 1981), as well as the collection LUTOSLAWSKI STUDIES, ed. Zbigniew Skowron (Oxford University Press, 2001). The former has a more rigorous discussion of harmony than Rae's book, though biographical details aren't so many, while the collection of papers examines all sorts of specialized matters.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-12-16 00:00:00 Elesvan Flores Another view of a fascinating subject that I cant stop reading about - music in the Concentration Camps.