Witold Lutoslawski at 100

Synopsis

In 1960, the Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski heard a radio broadcast of John Cage's Piano Concerto, a work that leaves much to chance and is, therefore, different at every performance. "Those minutes were to change my life decisively," said Lutoslawski. "I suddenly realized that I could compose music differently from that of my past."

Lutoslawski had survived WW II and the Nazis by going underground in Warsaw, and managed to maintain his artistic integrity even during the Stalinist post-war years in Poland.

Now, we in the West have no idea how attractive the idea of "free" music -- whether improvised jazz, rebellious rock n' roll, or even the "chance" music of John Cage -- could be for composers who lived and worked under stifling totalitarian regimes.

Lutoslawski's chance encounter with chance music resulted in a 1961 piece he called "Venetian Games," whose score allows performers their own breath of freedom, letting them choose what to play during freely notated, improvisational passages.

Lutoslawski's subsequent symphonies and concertos have come to be ranked among the 20th century's finest. In 1985 he won the $150,000 Grawemeyer Prize, money he promptly used to set up a scholarship to enable young Polish composers to study abroad.

Shortly before his death in 1994, Lutoslawski received the Order of the White Eagle, his country's highest honor. He was only the second person so honored since the collapse of communism in Poland -- the first being Pope John Paul II.

Today's date marks the centenary of Lutoslawski's birth.

Music Played in Today's Program

Witold Lutoslawski Jeux Venetian

On This Day

Births

• 1851 - Flemish composer Jan Blockx, in Antwerp;

• 1886 - German composer and conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, in Berlin;

• 1911 - American composer and pianist Julia Smith, in Denton, Texas;

• 1913 - Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski, in Warsaw;

• 1921 - American composer and conductor Alfred Reed, in New York City;

Premieres

• 1817 - Rossini: opera, "La Cenerentola" (Cinderella), in Rome at the Teatro Valle;

• 1902 - Franz Schmidt: Symphony No. 1, in Vienna;

• 1909 - R. Strauss: opera "Elektra," in Dresden at the Hofoper, conducted by Ernst von Schuch, with soprano Annie Krull in the title role;

• 1946 - R. Strauss: "Metamorphosen," in Zürich;

• 1957 - Walton: Cello Concerto, by the Boston Symphony conducted by Charles Munch, with Gregor Piatigorsky the soloist;

• 1963 - Karl Amadeus Hartmann: Symphony No. 8, by the West German Radio Symphony, Rafael Kubelik conducting;

• 1987 - Paul Schoenfield: "Café Music" for piano trio at a St. Paul Chamber Orchestra concert.