Lutoslawski Concerto for Orchestra

Throughout the history of Western Classical Music, folk music has
imprinted itself as an invaluable resource for composers from all
over the world. In fact, it’s easier to make a list of composers
who never used folk music in their compositions than it is to
make a list of the composers who did! This tradition began long
before the 20th century, but the work of composers like Bartok
and a resurgence in the influence of nationalist music sparked a
massive increase in composers using folk music throughout the
20th century and into the 21st. Bartok is thought of as the king
of using folk music, as he was essentially the worlds first
ethnomusicologist. But Stravinsky, who used dozens of uncredited
folk tunes in his Rite of Spring, as well as Bernstein, Copland,
Gershwin, Grainger, Vaughan Williams, Szymanowski, Dvorak, and so
many others embraced folk music as an integral source for their
music. This was in stark contrast to the second Viennese school
composers like Schoenberg, Berg and Webern, and post World War II
composers like Stockhausen, Boulez, and others who deliberately
turned their backs on folk music. One composer who straddled both
worlds during their lifetime was the Polish composer Witold
Lutoslawski, a brilliant composer whose career started out in the
folk music realm, though not entirely by choice, and ended up in
music of aleatory, a kind of controlled chaos! One of his first
major works, the Concerto for Orchestra is the topic for today’s
show, and it is heavily influenced by folk music from start to
finish. It is a piece also inspired and might even be a bit of an
homage to the great Bela Bartok and his own Concerto for
Orchestra, which was written just ten years earlier. Lutoslawski,
if you’re not familiar with him, is one of those composers that
once you learn about him, you can’t get enough of him. I’ll take
you through this brilliant and utterly unique piece today from
start to finish. Join us!