Lutoslawski: Symphony No. 3 / Chantefleurs Et Chantefables

Featuring

Tadaaki Otaka
Valdine Anderson
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Witold Lutosławski

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Composer's Artistic Vision

Lutoslawski's Third Symphony combines stylistic traits from his 1950s works, like bright orchestration, with avant-garde techniques such as aleatoric counterpoint from his 1960s works.

Composition History

The song cycle Chantefleurs et Chantefables was written in 1990 and premiered in 1991 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, conducted by Lutoslawski himself.

Composer's Artistic Vision

For Lutoslawski, the model of a perfectly balanced large-scale form was the pre-Beethovenian symphony, particularly Haydn's, despite his fascination with Beethoven's strategies.

Composer's Artistic Vision

The poetry for Chantefleurs et Chantefables by Robert Desnos is intended for children, but Lutoslawski stated that the music of his cycle is not.

Performer Biography

Tadaaki Otaka, the conductor, comes from a musical family; his father was a conductor and composer, and his mother was a pianist.

Composer Biography

Witold Lutoslawski, the composer, received an honorary doctorate from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, in 1993.

Composition History

Lutoslawski began composing his Symphony No. 3 in 1972 after a commission from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, but the final score was not ready until January 1983.