Witold Lutosławski wrote his Little Suite in 1951 (orchestral version), based on folk music motifs from the Rzeszów region. It is one of the most recognisable and popular examples of the folkloric style in twentieth-century Polish music. However, unlike Karol Szymanowski, Lutosławski proposes a folk stylisation that is much less intellectual and restrained. It is characterised by simplicity and literality, thanks to which, despite its artistic sophistication, it would be appropriate to refer to the work as naive art – in the best sense of the word.

Robert Losiak

 

The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16 is among the most famous works of Edvard Grieg – the most renowned Norwegian composer (recognised for two Peer Gynt suites). The piece was one of the compositions that were important to the composer himself at the time of its creation, and nowadays remains one of the most popular piano concertos in the history of the genre. In the context of Grieg’s oeuvre as a whole, this work is not innovative, but the musical ideas it contains have become deeply embedded in the memory of a wide audience. The Piano Concerto is in keeping with the developmental tendencies of the genre from the first half of the nineteenth century, betraying inspirations from both Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 and Fryderyk Chopin’s concertos. Warsaw audiences had the opportunity to hear this work by Grieg just a few years after it was written. The Piano Concerto in A minor was performed in Warsaw by Ignacy Jan Paderewski, among others.

Dagmara Łopatowska-Romsvik

 

The Symphony No. 6 – often referred to as Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s swan song – was completed in 1893, a few months before his death. It was considered by the composer himself to be his most perfect work, the fulfilment of the musical and, perhaps above all, spiritual vision of his own symphonism. In this context, the title ‘Pathétique’, which could refer to a sizeable proportion of the composer’s entire oeuvre, does not reflect the depth of existential tragedy that permeates this work. If pathos is characterised by energy and struggle, then the Sixth clearly transcends it, in the lamenting finale attaining silence – the eloquent end of the journey.

Robert Losiak

Witold Lutosławski’s Little Suite is published by PWM Edition.