Witold Lutoslawski

Trois poèmes d'Henri Michaux was written for the Zagreb Biennale and first performed there by the orchestra and choir of Radio Zagreb, conducted by the composer and Slavko Zlatic on 9 May 1963. It is composed for 20-part choir and an orchestra similar to that of the Symphony of Psalms, though without the lower strings of the latter.Lutoslaswski has said that the general outline of the work came to him first, and only then did he choose the three poems. These reflect his Francophile taste: Henri Michaux was born in Belgium in 1899 and later became a painter: the trenchant Le Grand Combat, with its onomatopoeic invented words, dates form the 1920s- the other two texts, which are more philosophic than pictorial, form the 1930s. Choir and orchestra need separate conductors even though throughout they alternate more often than they combine.A description of the course of the music itself will be more useful than any discussion of its technical processes or of its notation. A quiet section of orchestral polyphony, which brass sforzandi punctuate with increasing frequency, frames the beginning and end of Pensées. After the choir's first unaccompanied passage, the woodwind have a staccato section over which the female voices, singing downward glissandi, are superimposed ('Ombre de mondes infimes?'). Then the woodwind and both pianos join in a lapping ostinato which illustrates the text of the next forte choir entry 'Pensées à la nage merveilleuse?' The climax of the movement comes as these characteristic woodwind figures alternate with the tintinnabulation of a gamelan-like ensemble of vibraphone, céleste, harp and pianos. / Orchestre

First performed in November 1954 by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Witold Rowicki. Duration c.29mins. Orchestral material available for hire from Chester Music.

Written for and first performed by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer in December 1986.

Commissioned by the town of Hagen and first performed there in 1968 by the Stadtisches Orchester conducted by Berthold Lehmann. Duration c.20 mins.

The original version of this work scored for chamber orchestra was written in 1950 in response to a commission from Warsaw Radio. In the following year the composer revised and slightly extended the work and rescored it forsymphony orchestra. The first performance was given by the Warsaw Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Grzegorz Fitelberg in Warsaw in April 1951. The work uses folk melodies from the village of Machow in the region ofRzeszow east of Cracow. Duration c.11 mins. Full score and orchestral parts available on hire from the publisher.

Conceived as a connecting link for orchestra alone between Lutoslawski's Partita and Chain 2 both for orchestra and solo violin. It can however be played independently. First performed as part of a sequence ofmovements in Munich in January 1990 by Anne-Sophie Mutter with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the composer. Commissioned by and dedicated to Paul Sacher.