Fiona Maddocks 

Lutoslawski: Orchestral Works IV – review

Soloists Michael Collins and Tasmin Little join the BBCSO and Edward Gardner on the latest in a fine series, writes Fiona Maddocks
  
  


Witold Lutoslawski (1913-94) wrote much of his First Symphony during the second world war. The opening has an angular, witty quality mirrored in the last movement, with no hint at the turbulence of the times. In contrast, the inner sections have a strange melancholy – in the Adagio, a sorrowful string tune and mawkish oboe solo, in the Allegretto a subdued waltz. The BBCSO and Edward Gardner, in the latest of this excellent series, capture the range of moods eloquently. They're joined by clarinettist Michael Collins for the brief, cheerful Preludia taneczne (1955), and by Tasmin Little, a powerful soloist in Partita and Chain 2. The Polish composer, neglected of late, wholly deserves this attention in his centenary year.

 

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