Lutosławski, Mykietyn | String Quartets

Two excellent works for string quartet by Witold Lutosławski and Paweł Mykietyn (the latter work was world-premiered) compiled on one album – this is an attractive proposition for lovers of excellent chamber music!

Date of release: 2014

Publishers: DUX, National Forum of Music

Performers: Lutosławski Quartet

The Lutosławski Quartet performs primarily music of the 20th and 21st centuries, putting emphasis on the advocacy of Polish music (compositions by, among others, Lutosławski, Bacewicz, Szymanowski, as well as one of the quartet’s members – Marcin Markowicz). As a group of versatile artists open to musical inspirations, they combine contemporary repertoire with Romantic, Classical and jazz works.

Creating music for a string quartet is, according to many, a particularly difficult task that can only be achieved by a composer with highly developed craftsmanship and excellent taste. The source of this belief is, to some extent, the nature of chamber music in general and quartet music in particular. Discussing his own String Quartet (1964) in a conversation with Tadeusz Kaczyński, Witold Lutosławski said: “Composing for a small ensemble is a difficult and strict test, because all the elements of the composition technique used are clearly visible. The colour and dynamic possibilities are limited, the number of sounds that can harmonise with each other at the same time is reduced, so everything must be even more balanced and put in the right place than in a piece for orchestra. Another problem is the burden of tradition, which is particularly strong in the case of genres such as symphony, opera, and string quartet. Whoever chooses this line-up is faced – whether they like it or not – with the compositions of great predecessors: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Bartók, Berg, and Shostakovich. Each new quartet is listened to – just because of the line-up – as an answer to the question: “what else can be invented here?” Paweł Mykietyn, the author of two string quartets (no. 1 - 1998, no. 2 - 2006), confessed after composing them (in a conversation with Katarzyna Surmiak-Domańska): “[in childhood] I complained: ‘Mom, but when I grow up, it will all be fully composed.’ And my mother said: ‘Don't worry, son, it won't happen.’ Today I’m not sure if I was wrong then.”

When listening to Lutosławski’s Quartet and Mykietyn's Quartet No. 2, it is worth keeping these considerations in mind. Developing an individual style facing the limitations and obligations imposed by the choice of the line-up the essential content of both works. (…)

Witold Lutosławski’s work – composed in the shadow (or rather – in the glow) of a great tradition – and Paweł Mykietyn’s music – written “after Lutosławski” – demonstrate the continued vitality of the quartet genre and more: the inexhaustible, “renewable” possibilities of the art of composition itself. Both quartets sound like an answer to the banal but difficult question: “what’s next?”, and like yet another repetition of it. They are most intriguing when you listen to them this way.

Marcin Krajewski

Awards:  Recording of the Month (November 2014) Classical Music on Spotify, ranked in 2014 Płytomania of Polish Radio 2, Nomination for Fryderyk 2015