30th Anniversary of the Death of Witold Lutosławski
‘Her remarkable talent inspired me in my compositional endeavours, and I hope I’ll be able to write something more for her’. That was what Witold Lutosławski said in 1988 about the virtuosity of Anne‑Sophie Mutter. The outstanding German violinist repaid the Polish composer’s kindness, declaring: ‘He opened up for me the world of contemporary music. He showed me colours of the violin I hadn’t even suspected existed’. Lutosławski dedicated to Mutter several of his works, including Chain 2. He also produced for her an orchestral version of Partita, and for her wedding he presented the artist with a specially composed lullaby. Unfortunately, he was not fated to finish work on a planned grand violin concerto that she could have performed. On the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of Lutosławski’s death, Anne-Sophie Mutter will return to the stage of the Warsaw Philharmonic to once again perform works that arose out of the mutual inspiration between these two great artists. The programme of the concert also includes an orchestral version of Bedřich Smetana’s First Quartet in E minor, a work described as the musical confession of this Romantic Czech composer afflicted by deafness.
Bartłomiej Gembicki
