Witold Lutosławski

"Lutosławski" redirects here. For the surname, seeLutosławski (surname).

Witold Lutosławski
Lutosławski in 1992
Born	Witold Roman Lutosławski (1913-01-25)25 January 1913 Warsaw,Congress Poland, Russian Empire
Died	7 February 1994(1994-02-07)(aged 81) Warsaw, Poland
Education	University of Warsaw
Occupations	Composer conductor
Works	List of compositions
Awards	Full list

Witold Roman Lutosławski(Polish:[ˈvitɔldlutɔˈswafski];25 January 1913 – 7 February 1994) was a Polish composer and conductor. Among the major composers of20th-century classical music,he is "generally regarded as the most significant Polish composer sinceSzymanowski,and possibly the greatest Polish composer sinceChopin".His compositions—of which he was a notable conductor—include representatives of most traditional genres, aside from opera:symphonies,concertos, orchestralsong cycles,other orchestral works, andchamber works.Among his best known works are his four symphonies, theVariations on a Theme by Paganini(1941), theConcerto for Orchestra(1954), and hiscello concerto(1970).

During his youth, Lutosławski studied piano and composition inWarsaw.His early works were influenced byPolish folk musicand demonstrated a wide range of rich atmospherictextures.His folk-inspired music includes the Concerto for Orchestra (1954)—which first brought him international renown—andDance Preludes(1955), which he described as a "farewell to folklore". From the late 1950s he began developing new, characteristic composition techniques. He introduced limitedaleatoricelements, while retaining tight control of his music's material, architecture, and performance. He also evolved his practice of buildingharmoniesfrom small groups ofmusical intervals.

DuringWorld War II,after narrowly escaping German capture, Lutosławski made a living playing the piano in Warsaw bars. After the war,Stalinistauthorities banned hisFirst Symphonyfor being "formalist":accessible only to an elite. Rejecting anti-formalism as an unjustified retrograde step, Lutosławski resolutely strove to maintain his artistic integrity, providing artistic support to theSolidaritymovement throughout the 1980s. He received numerousawards and honours,including theGrawemeyer Awardand aRoyal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal.In 1994, Lutosławski was awarded Poland's highest honour, theOrder of the White Eagle.

Life and career

Early years (1913–1938)

Witold Roman Lutosławski was born on 25 January 1913, inWarsaw,Poland.His parents were both born into the Polish landed nobility;they owned estates in the area ofDrozdowo.His father Józef was involved in the PolishNational Democratic Party("Endecja"), and the Lutosławski family became intimate with its founder,Roman Dmowski(Witold Lutosławski's middle name was Roman). Józef Lutosławski studied inZürich,where in 1904 he met and married a fellow student, Maria Olszewska, who later became Lutosławski's mother. Józef pursued his studies in London, where he acted as correspondent for theNational-Democraticnewspaper,Goniec.He continued to be involved in National Democracy politics after returning to Warsaw in 1905, and took over the management of the family estates in 1908. Witold Roman Lutosławski, the youngest of three brothers, was born in Warsaw shortly before the outbreak ofWorld War I.

In 1915, with Russia at war with Germany,Prussianforces drove towards Warsaw. The Lutosławskis travelled east to Moscow, where Józef remained politically active, organisingPolish Legionsready for any action that might liberate Poland (which hadbeen dividedover a century earlier—Warsawwas part ofTsarist Russia). Dmowski's strategy was for Russia to guarantee security for a new Polish state. In 1917, theFebruary Revolutionforced theTsarto abdicate, and theOctober Revolutionstarted a new Soviet government that made peace with Germany. Józef's activities were now in conflict with theBolsheviks,who arrested him and his brother Marian. Thus, although fighting stopped on the Eastern Front in 1917, the Lutosławskis were prevented from returning home. The brothers were interned inButyrskaya prisonin central Moscow, where Witold—by then aged five—visited his father. Józef and Marian were executed by a firing squad in September 1918, some days before their scheduled trial.

After the war, the family returned tothe newly independent Poland,only to find their estates ruined. After his father's death, other members of the family played an important part in Witold's early life, especially Józef's half-brotherKazimierz Lutosławski,a priest and politician.

At age six, Lutosławski started two years of piano lessons in Warsaw. After thePolish-Soviet Warthe family left Warsaw to return to Drozdowo, but after a few years of running the estates with limited success, his mother returned to Warsaw. She worked as a physician, and translated books for children from English.In 1924, Lutosławski entered secondary school (Stefan Batory Gymnasium) while continuing piano lessons. A performance ofKarol Szymanowski's Third Symphony deeply affected him. In 1925, he started violin lessons at the Warsaw Music School.In 1931, he enrolled atWarsaw Universityto study mathematics, and in 1932 he formally joined the composition classes at the Conservatory. His only composition teacher wasWitold Maliszewski,a renowned Polish composer who had been a pupil ofNikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.Lutosławski was given a strong grounding in musical structures, particularlymovementsinsonata form.In 1932, he gave up the violin, and in 1933 he discontinued his mathematics studies to concentrate on the piano and composition.As a student ofJerzy Lefeld,he gained a diploma for piano performance from the Conservatory in 1936, after presenting a virtuoso program includingSchumann'sToccataandBeethoven'sfourth piano concerto.His diploma for composition was awarded by the same institution in 1937.

World War II (1939–1945)

Lutosławski (right) greets his old friendAndrzej Panufnik(left) in 1990.

Military service followed; Lutosławski was trained in signalling and radio operating in Zegrze near Warsaw.He completed hisSymphonic Variationsin 1939. The work was premiered by the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted byGrzegorz Fitelberg,with the performance broadcast on radio on 9 March 1939.Like most young Polish composers, Lutosławski wanted to continue his education in Paris. His plans for further musical study were dashed in September 1939, whenGermany invaded western PolandandRussia invaded eastern Poland.Lutosławski was mobilised with the radio unit for theKraków Army.He was soon captured by German soldiers,but escaped while being marched to prison camp, walking 250 miles (400 km) back to Warsaw.Lutosławski's brother was captured by Russian soldiers and later died in aSiberianlabour camp.

To earn a living, Lutosławski joined "Dana Ensemble", the first Polish revellers, as an arranger-pianist, singing in "Ziemiańska Cafe".He then formed a piano duo with friend and fellow composerAndrzej Panufnik,performing together in Warsaw cafés.Their repertoire consisted of a wide range of music in their own arrangements, including the first incarnation of Lutosławski's Variations on a Theme by Paganini, a transcription of the24th Capricefor solo violin byNiccolò Paganini.Defiantly, they sometimes played Polish music (the Nazis banned Polish music in Poland—including that ofFrédéric Chopin), and composed Resistance songs.Listening in cafés was the only way in which the Poles of German-occupied Warsaw could hear live music; putting on concerts was impossible since the Germans occupying Poland prohibited any organised gatherings.In caféAria,where they played, Lutosławski met his future wife Maria Danuta Bogusławska, a sister of the writerStanisław Dygat.

Lutosławski left Warsaw in July 1944 with his mother, just a few days before theWarsaw Uprising.During the complete destruction of the city by Germans after the failure of the uprising,most of his music was lost, as were the family's Drozdowo estates.He was able to salvage only a few scores and sketches;of the 200 or so arrangements that Lutosławski and Panufnik had worked on for their piano duo, only Lutosławski's Variations on a Theme by Paganini survived.Lutosławski returned to the ruins of Warsaw after the Polish-Soviet treaty in April 1945.

Post-war years (1946–1955)

Lutosławski on 16 August 1946

During the postwar years, Lutosławski worked on hisFirst Symphony—sketches of which he had salvaged from Warsaw—which he had started in 1941.It was first performed in 1948, conducted by Fitelberg.To provide for his family, he also composed music that he termedfunctional,such as theWarsaw Suite(written to accompany a silent film depicting the city's reconstruction),sets ofPolish Carols,and the study pieces for piano,Melodie Ludowe( "Folk Melodies" ).

In 1945, Lutosławski was elected as secretary and treasurer of the newly constitutedUnion of Polish Composers(ZKP—Związek Kompozytorów Polskich).In 1946, he married Danuta Bogusławska.The marriage was a lasting one, and Danuta'sdraftingskills were of great value to the composer: she became hiscopyist,and solved some of the notational challenges of his later works.

In 1947, theStalinistpolitical climate led to the adoption and imposition by the rulingPolish United Workers' Partyof the tenets ofsocialist realism.The political authorities condemned new compositions deemed to be non-conformist. This artistic censorship, which ultimately came fromStalinpersonally, was to some degree prevalent over the wholeEastern bloc,and was reinforced by the 1948Zhdanov decree.By 1948, the ZKP was taken over by musicians willing to follow the party line on musical matters. Lutosławski resigned from the committee,implacably opposed to the ideas of socialist realism.

Lutosławski at the piano,c. 1952–1953

Lutoslawski's First Symphony was proscribed as "formalist",and he found himself shunned by the Soviet authorities, a situation that continued throughout the era ofKhrushchev,Brezhnev,AndropovandChernenko.In 1954, the climate of musical oppression drove his friend Andrzej Panufnik todefectto the United Kingdom. Against this background, Lutosławski was content to compose pieces for which there was social need,but in 1954 this earned him—much to the composer's chagrin—the Prime Minister's Prize for a set of children's songs.He commented: "[I]t was for those functional compositions of mine that the authorities decorated me... I realised that I was not writing indifferent little pieces, only to make a living, but was carrying on an artistic creative activity in the eyes of the outside world. "

It was his substantial and originalConcerto for Orchestraof 1954 that established Lutosławski as an important composer of art music. The work, commissioned in 1950 by the conductorWitold Rowickifor the newly reconstituted Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, earned the composer two state prizes in the following year.

Maturity (1956–1967)

Stalin's death in 1953 allowed a certain relaxation of the cultural totalitarianism in Russia and its satellite states.By 1956,political eventshad led to a partial thawing of the musical climate, and theWarsaw AutumnFestival of Contemporary Music was founded.Conceived as a biennial festival, it has been held annually ever since 1958 (except underMartial law in 1982when, in protest, the ZKP refused to organise it).The first performance of hisMusique funèbre(in Polish,Muzyka żałobna,EnglishFunereal MusicorMusic of Mourning) took place in 1958. It was written to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death ofBéla Bartók,but took the composer four years to complete.This work brought international recognition,and the annual ZKP prize and theInternational Rostrum of Composersprize in 1959.Lutosławski'sharmonicandcontrapuntalthinking were developed in this work, and in theFive songsof 1956–57,as he introduced his twelve-note system, he realised the fruits of many years of thought and experiment.Another new feature of his compositional technique became a Lutosławski signature: he introduced randomness into the exactsynchronisationof various parts of the musical ensemble inJeux vénitiens( "Venetian games" ).These harmonic and temporal techniques became part of every subsequent work, and were integral to his style.

Lutosławski during his visit to Finland, 10 March 1965

In a departure from his usually serious compositions in 1957 to 1963, Lutosławski also composed light music under the pseudonymDerwid.Mostlywaltzes,tangos,foxtrotsand slow-foxtrots for voice and piano, these pieces are in the genre of Polishactors' songs.Their place in Lutosławski's output may be seen as less incongruous in light of his own performances of cabaret music during the war, as well as his relationship by marriage to his wife's sister-in-law, the famous Polish cabaret singerKalina Jędrusik.

In 1963, Lutosławski fulfilled a commission for theMusic Biennale Zagreb,hisTrois poèmes d'Henri Michauxfor chorus and orchestra. It was the first work he had written for a commission from abroad, and brought him further international acclaim.It earned him a second State Prize for music (Lutosławski was not cynical about the award this time), and he gained an agreement for the international publication of his music withChester Music,then part of the Hansen publishing house.HisString Quartetwas first performed inStockholmin 1965,followed the same year by the first performance of his orchestralsong-cycleParoles tissées.This shortened title was suggested by the poet Jean-François Chabrun, who had published the poems asQuatre tapisseries pour la Châtelaine de Vergi.The song cycle is dedicated to the tenorPeter Pears,who first performed it at the 1965Aldeburgh Festivalwith the composer conducting.(The Festival was founded and organised byBenjamin Britten,with whom the composer formed a lasting friendship.)

Shortly after this, Lutosławski started work on hisSecond Symphony,which had two premieres:Pierre Boulezconducted the second movement,Direct,in 1966, and when the first movement,Hésitant,was finished in 1967, the composer conducted a complete performance inKatowice.The Second Symphony is very different from a conventional classicalsymphonyin structure, with Lutosławski using his many compositional innovations to build a large-scale, dramatic work worthy of the name.In 1968, the Symphony earned Lutosławski first prize from theInternational Music Council's International Rostrum of Composers, his third such award,confirming his growing international reputation. In 1967, Lutosławski was awarded theLéonie Sonning Music Prize,Denmark's highest musical honour.

International renown (1967–1982)

The Second Symphony, andLivre pour orchestreand aCello Concertowhich followed, were composed during a particularly traumatic period in Lutosławski's life. His mother died in 1967,and in 1967–70 there was a great deal of unrest in Poland. This sprang first from the suppression of the theatre productionDziady,which sparked a summer of protests; later, in 1968, the use of Polish troops to suppress the liberal reforms inCzechoslovakia'sPrague Spring,and theGdańsk Shipyardsstrike of 1970—which led to a violent clampdown by the authorities, both caused significant political and social tension in Poland.Lutosławski did not support the Soviet regime, and these events have been postulated as reasons for the increase in antagonistic effects in his work, particularly the Cello Concerto of 1968–70 forRostropovichand theRoyal Philharmonic Society.Indeed, Rostropovich's own opposition to the Soviet regime in Russia was just coming to a head (he shortly afterwards declared his support for the dissidentAleksandr Solzhenitsyn).Lutosławski himself did not hold the view that such influences had a direct effect on his music, although he acknowledged that they impinged on his creative world to some degree.In any case, the Cello Concerto was a great success, earning both Lutosławski and Rostropovich accolades. At the work's première with theBournemouth Symphony Orchestra,Arthur Blisspresented Rostropovich with the Royal Philharmonic Society's gold medal.

In 1973, Lutosławski attended a recital given by the baritoneDietrich Fischer-Dieskauwith the pianistSviatoslav Richterin Warsaw; he met the singer after the concert and this inspired him to write his extended orchestral songLes Espaces du sommeil( "The spaces of sleep" ).This work,Preludes and Fugue,Mi-Parti(a French expression that roughly translates as "divided into two equal but different parts" ),Novelette,and a short piece for cello in honour ofPaul Sacher's seventieth birthday, occupied Lutosławski throughout the 1970s, while in the background he was working away at a projected Third symphony and aconcertantepiece for the oboistHeinz Holliger.These latter pieces were proving difficult to complete,as Lutosławski struggled to introduce greater fluency into his sound world and to reconcile tensions between the harmonic and melodic aspects of his style,and between foreground and background.TheDouble Concerto for oboe, harp and chamber orchestra—commissioned by Sacher—was finally finished in 1980,and theThird Symphonyin 1983. In 1977, he received theOrder of the Builders of People's Poland.In 1983, he received theErnst von Siemens Music Prize.

During this period, Poland was undergoing yet more upheaval: in 1980, the influential movementSolidarnośćwas created, led byLech Wałęsa;and in 1981, martial law was declared by GeneralWojciech Jaruzelski.From 1981 to 1989, Lutosławski refused all professional engagements in Poland as a gesture of solidarity with the artists' boycott.He refused to enter the Culture Ministry to meet any of the ministers, and was careful not be photographed in their company.In 1983, as a gesture of support, he sent a recording of the first performance (in Chicago) of the Third Symphony to Gdańsk to be played to strikers in a local church.In 1983, he was awarded the Solidarity prize, of which Lutosławski was reported to be more proud than any other of his honours.

Final years (1983–1994)

Lutosławski in 1993, byBetty Freeman

Through the mid-1980s, Lutosławski composed three pieces calledŁańcuch( "Chain" ), which refers to the way the music is constructed from contrasting strands which overlap like the links of a chain.Chain 2was written forAnne-Sophie Mutter(commissioned by Sacher), and for Mutter he also orchestrated his slightly earlierPartitafor violin and piano, providing a new linking Interlude,so that when played together the Partita, Interlude, andChain 2form his longest work.

In 1985, the Third Symphony earned Lutosławski the firstGrawemeyer Prizefrom theUniversity of Louisville,Kentucky.The significance of the prize lay not just in its prestige but in the size of its financial award (then US$150,000). The award is intended to remove recipients' financial concerns for a period to allow them to concentrate on serious composition. In a gesture ofaltruism,Lutosławski announced that he would use the fund to set up a scholarship to enable young Polish composers to study abroad; Lutosławski also directed that his fee from theSan Francisco Symphony OrchestraforChain 3should go to this scholarship fund.

In 1986, Lutosławski was presented (by Tippett) with the rarely awardedRoyal Philharmonic Society's Gold Medalduring a concert in which Lutosławski conducted his Third Symphony;also that year a major celebration of his work was made at theHuddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.In addition, he was awarded honorary doctorates at several universities worldwide, includingCambridge.

At this time Lutosławski was writing hisPiano ConcertoforKrystian Zimerman,commissioned by theSalzburg Festival.His earliest plans to write a piano concerto dated from 1938; he was himself in his younger days avirtuosopianist.It was a performance of this work and the Third Symphony at the Warsaw Autumn Festival in 1988 that marked the composer's return to the conductor's podium in Poland, after substantive talks had been arranged between the government and the opposition.

Around 1990 Lutosławski also worked on a fourth symphony and his orchestral song-cycleChantefleurs et Chantefablesforsoprano.The latter was first performed at aPromconcert in London in 1991,and the Fourth Symphony in 1993 in Los Angeles.In between, and after initial reluctance, Lutosławski took on the presidency of the newly reconstituted "Polish Cultural Council",which was set up after the1989 legislative electionsled to the end ofcommunist rulein Poland.

In 1993, Lutosławski continued his busy schedule, travelling to the United States, England, Finland, Canada and Japan,and sketching a violin concerto,but by the first week of 1994 it was clear that cancer had taken hold,and after an operation the composer weakened quickly and died on 7 February, aged 81.He had, a few weeks before, been awarded Poland's highest honour, theOrder of the White Eagle(only the second person to receive this since the collapse of communism in Poland—the first had beenPope John Paul II).He was cremated; his wife Danuta died shortly afterwards.

Music

Main article:List of compositions by Witold Lutosławski

Lutosławski conducting

Lutosławski described musical composition as a search for listeners who think and feel the same way he did—he once called it "fishing for souls".

Folk influence

Lutosławski's works up until and including theDance Preludes(1955) show the influence ofPolish folk music,both harmonically and melodically. Part of his art was in transforming folk music, rather than quoting it exactly. In some cases, such as the Concerto for Orchestra, folk music is unrecognisable as such without careful analysis.As Lutosławski developed the techniques of his mature compositions, he stopped using folk material explicitly, although its influence remained as subtle features until the end. As he said, "[in those days] I could not compose as I wished, so I composed as I was able",and about this change of direction he said, "I was simply not so interested in it [using folk music]". Also, Lutosławski was dissatisfied with composing in a "post-tonal" idiom: while composing the first symphony, he felt that this was for him acul-de-sac.As such,Dance Preludeswould prove to be his final composition centered around folk music; he described it as a "farewell to folklore".

Pitch organisation

InFive Songs(1956–57) andMusique funèbre(1958) Lutosławski introduced his own brand oftwelve-tone music,marking his departure from the explicit use of folk music.His twelve-tone technique allowed him to build harmony and melody from specific intervals (inMusique funèbre,augmented fourthsandsemitones). This system also gave him the means to write densechordswithout resorting totone clusters,and enabled him to build towards these dense chords (which often include all twelve notes of the chromatic scale) at climactic moments.Lutosławski's twelve-note techniques were thus completely different in conception fromArnold Schoenberg'stone-rowsystem,althoughMusique funèbredoes happen to be based on a tone row.This twelve-note intervallic technique had its genesis in earlier works such as Symphony No. 1, and Variations on a Theme by Paganini.

Aleatory technique

Further information:Aleatoric music

AlthoughMusique funèbrewas internationally acclaimed, his new harmonic techniques led to something of a crisis for Lutosławski, during which he still could not see how to express his musical ideas.Then on 16 March 1960,listening to Polish Radio broadcast on new music, he happened to hearJohn Cage'sConcert for Piano and Orchestra.Although he was not influenced by the sound or the philosophy of the music, Cage's explorations ofindeterminacyset off a train of thought which resulted in Lutosławski finding a way to retain the harmonic structures he wanted while introducing the freedom for which he was searching.HisThree Postludeswere hastily rounded off (he had intended to write four) and he moved on to compose works in which he explored these new ideas.

In works fromJeux vénitiens,Lutosławski wrote long passages in which the parts of the ensemble are not to be synchronised exactly. At cues from the conductor, each instrumentalist may be instructed to move straight on to the next section, to finish their current section before moving on, or to stop. In this way, the random elements within compositionally controlled limits defined by the termaleatoryare carefully directed by the composer, who controls the architecture and harmonic progression of the piece precisely. Lutosławskinotatedthe music exactly; there is noimprovisation,no choice of parts is given to any instrumentalist, and there is thus no doubt about how the musical performance is to be realised.

For hisString Quartet,Lutosławski had produced only the four instrumental parts, refusing to bind them in a full score, because he was concerned that this would imply that he wanted notes in vertical alignment to coincide, as is the case with conventionally notated classical ensemble music. The LaSalle Quartet, however, specifically requested a score from which to prepare for the first performance.Bodman Rae relates that Danuta Lutosławska solved this problem by cutting up the parts and sticking them together in boxes (which Lutosławski calledmobiles), with instructions on how to signal in performance when all of the players should proceed to the next mobile.In his orchestral music, these problems of notation were not so difficult, because the instructions on how and when to proceed are given by the conductor. Lutosławski's called this technique of his mature period "limited aleatorism".

Example 1,numbers 7 to 9 from the score of the Second Symphony (1966–67), illustrates Lutosławski's harmonic and aleatory procedures from his mature style

Both Lutosławski's harmonic and aleatory processes are illustrated byexample 1,an excerpt fromHésitant,the first movement of the Symphony No. 2. At number 7, the conductor gives a cue to the flutes, celesta and percussionist, who then play their parts in their own time, without any attempt to synchronise with the other instrumentalists. The harmony of this section is based on a 12-note chord built frommajor secondsandperfect fourths.After all the instrumentalists have finished their parts, a two-second general pause is indicated ( "P.G. 2" at top right of the example). The conductor then gives a cue at number 8 (and indicates the tempo of the following section) for two oboes and thecor anglais.They each play their part, again with no attempt to synchronise with the other players. The harmony of this part is based on the hexachord F♯–G–A♭–C–D♭–D, arranged in such a way that the harmony of the section never includes any sixths or thirds. When the conductor gives another cue at number 9, the players each continue until they reach therepeat sign,and then stop: they are unlikely to end the section at the same time. This "refrain" (from numbers 8 to 9) recurs throughout the movement, slightly altered each time, but always played by double-reed instruments which do not play elsewhere in the movement: Lutosławski thus also carefully controls the orchestral palette.

Late style

External audio
Symphony No. 4performed by theLos Angeles PhilharmonicandEsa-Pekka Salonen
Symphony No. 4

The combination of Lutosławski's aleatory techniques and his harmonic discoveries allowed him to build up complexmusical textures.According to Bodman Rae, in his later works Lutosławski evolved a more mobile, simpler, harmonic style, in which less of the music is played with anad libitumcoordination.This development first appeared in the briefEpitaphfor oboe and piano,around the time Lutosławski was struggling to find the technical means to complete his Third Symphony. In chamber works for just two instrumentalists the scope for aleatory counterpoint and dense harmonies is significantly less than for orchestra.

Lutosławski's formidable technical developments grew out of his creative imperative; that he left a lasting body of major compositions is a testament to his resolution of purpose in the face of the anti-formalistauthorities under which he formulated his methods.

Legacy

In the 21st century, Lutosławski is generally considered the most important Polish composer since Szymanowski, and perhaps the most outstanding since Chopin. This evaluation was not apparent after World WarII, when Panufnik was more highly regarded in Poland. The success of Lutosławski'sConcerto for Orchestraand Panufnik's 1954 defection to England brought Lutosławski to the forefront ofmodern Polish classical music.Initially, he was coupled with his younger contemporaryKrzysztof Penderecki,due to their music's shared stylistic and technical characteristics. When Penderecki's reputation declined in the 1970s, Lutosławski emerged as the major Polish composer of his time and among the most significant 20th-century European composers.His four symphonies, the Variations on a Theme by Paganini (1941), theConcerto for Orchestra(1954), and acello concerto(1970) are his best known works.

Awards and honours

Bust of Witold Lutosławski byArkadiusz Latos,Kielce,Poland

Monument to Witold Lutosławski and his wife Danuta at thePowązki Cemetery,Warsaw

SeeThe Witold Lutosławski Societyfor a comprehensive list.

• Order of Polonia Restituta,1953
• Order of the Banner of Work,1955
• Związek Kompozytorów Polskich(ZKP) Prize, 1959
• First Prize of theInternational Music Council'sInternational Rostrum of Composers,1959
• KoussevitzkyPrix Mondial du Disque (France), 1964
• Grand Prix du Disque deAcadémie Charles Cros(France), 1965
• Jurzykowski Prize(United States), 1966
• Herder Prize(Germany/Austria), 1967
• Léonie Sonning Music Prize(Denmark), 1967
• First Prize of the International Music Council's International Rostrum of Composers, 1968
• Grand Prix du Disque de Académie Charles Cros (France), 1971
• PrixMaurice Ravel(France), 1971
• Honorary member of the Polish Composers' Union, 1971
• Wihuri Sibelius Prize(Finland), 1973
• Honorary degree of theUniversity of Warsaw,1973
• Koussevitzky Prix Mondial du Disque (France), 1976
• Order of the Builders of People's Poland,1977
• Honorary degree of theNicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń,1980
• Ernst von Siemens Music Prize(Germany), 1983
• Honorary doctorate,Durham University1983
• Honorary degree of theJagiellonian University,1984
• Queen Sofía Composition Prize(Spain), 1985
• Grawemeyer Award(United States), 1985
• Koussevitzky Prix Mondial du Disque (France), 1986
• Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal(United Kingdom), 1986
• Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition,1987
• Honorary doctorate,University of Cambridge,1987
• Honorary degree of theFryderyk Chopin University of Music,1988
• Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts,1993
• Polar Music Prize(Sweden), 18 May 1993
• Kyoto Prize(Japan), 1993
• Honorary doctorate,McGill University,30 October 1993
• Order of the White Eagle(Poland), 1994

Sources

Books

• Będkowski, Stanisław; Hrabia, Stanisław (2001).Witold Lutosławski: A Bio-bibliography.Santa Barbara: Greenwood Press.ISBN978-0-313-25962-3.
• Bodman Rae, Charles (1999).The Music of Lutosławski, third edn.London:Omnibus Press.ISBN978-0-7119-6910-0.
• Bodman Rae, Charles (2001)."Lutosławski, Witold".Grove Music Online.Oxford, England:Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.17226.ISBN978-1-56159-263-0.(subscription orUK public library membershiprequired)
• Jacobson, Bernard (1996).A Polish Renaissance.London: Phaidon.ISBN978-0-7148-3251-7.
• Bohlman, Andrea F. (2018). "Lutosławski's Political Refrains". In Jakelski, Lisa; Reyland, Nicholas (eds.).Lutosławski's Worlds.Suffolk:Boydell & Brewer.pp. 273–300.ISBN978-1-78327-198-6.JSTOR10.7722/j.ctt1wx91nn.
• Lutosławski, Witold; Varga, Bálint András (1976).Lutosławski Profile: Witold Lutosławski in Conversation with Bálint András Varga.London: Chester Music/Edition Wilhelm Hansen London Ltd.
• Nordwall, Ove, ed. (1968).Lutosławski.Stockholm: Edition Wilhelm Hansen.
• Panufnik, Andrzej(1987).Composing Myself.London: Methuen.ISBN978-0-413-58880-7.
• Steinberg, Michael (2000).The Concerto.Oxford:Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-198-02634-1.
• Stucky, Steven(1981).Lutosławski and His Music.Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-22799-5.

Online

• Witold Lutosławski – Guide to Warsaw.NIFC 2013free app with biography
• "Life: Awards".The Witold Lutosławski Society. Archived fromthe originalon 2 December 2021.Retrieved20 August2021.

Further reading

SeeStucky 1981,pp. 219–237 andBodman Rae 2001for extensive bibliographies.

• Jakelski, L., and N. Reyland (eds.).Lutosławski's Worlds.[S.l.]: The Boydell Press, 2018.
• Kaczyński, Tadeusz (2012) [1972].Conversations with Witold Lutosławski.London: Chester Music.ISBN978-0-85712-987-1.
• Skowron, Zbigniew (2001).Lutosławski Studies.Oxford and New York:Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-816660-3.
• Thomas, Adrian(2005).Polish Music Since Szymanowski.Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.doi:10.1017/CBO9780511482038.ISBN978-0-521-58284-1.

External links

• Polish Music Center: Witold Lutosławski
• Witold Lutosławski – a classic of 20th-century musicat culture.pl
• Lutosławski Year 2013official website