Opera Omnia 02

A unique recording of two symphonies by the master Witold Lutosławski, conducted by the then artistic director of the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, Jacek Kaspszyk. The second album released as part of a series containing the complete works of the patron of the Wrocław Philharmonic, and later the National Forum of Music.

Album premiere: 2010

Publishers: National Forum of Music, CD Accord

Conductor: Jacek Kaspszyk

Performers: NFM Wrocław Philharmonic 

When asked about the way to approach Lutosławski’s music, Jacek Kaspszyk replies: “You have to play exactly what is in the notes.” Easier said than done, but ‘exactly’ can mean different things. In this context I understand it as follows: Lutosławski is, above all, a symphonist. He usually thinks in a multi-person, multi-timbre and multi-shaped ensemble. His orchestral technique aims to create a synthetic image in which many details cannot be noticed due to their accumulation. But this does not mean that one can play anything and in whatever way, thinking it will get lost in the general confusion. On the contrary: playing “what is in the notes” in this case means playing each part as if it were an independent solo, precisely placed in the whole, to show its own shapes, accents and arches, its own unique physiognomy. As in an impressionist painting, individual brush strokes may not be noticed (in fact, they should not be noticed) – but they cannot be random strokes, because a bad stain will spoil the overall result even if it is not noticed as a separate whole. Many performances of Lutosławski’s music suffer from this deficiency. This album is free from it.

Rafał Augustyn

The unique series Witold Lutosławski. Opera omnia, released by the NFM and CD Accord, is a project presenting all the works of this outstanding Polish composer. The albums in this series are exclusive in terms of performance, production and editing.

• Fryderyk 2011