Varsovian, a loner out of choice, a lover of beauty and truth, both classicist and avant-garde. In his Warsaw residence in Żoliborz, in the office sterile covered with the cork, where were the piano, a long table, etchings of Vieira da Silva and graphics of Emil Schumaher over the years he created compositions which determined the canon of world music of the twentieth century.
Who was that man whose refined manners and humanity survived the most difficult moments of the twentieth century, and the music carries in the highest spaces of human existence?
Difficult beginning of the great period
Witold Lutoslawski was not a child prodigy. He began composing at the age of 10, however, in contrast to the prodigies such as Mozart or Chopin his first compositions did not distinguish with anything special. He was born in aristocratic family that had big artistic and intellectual aspirations at that time. His mother, Maria née Olszewska was a doctor, his father Joseph – agronomist and patriotic activist, both distinguished by their great skills in playing piano. Many years of learning how to play the violin and piano did not set the artistic way for young Lutoslawski. At the age of 11, he was first introduced to the music of Karol Szymanowski, that determined his musical creed and ambitions for many years. Compose study at Witold Maliszewski’s lasting nearly ten years with some pauses, Lutoslawski considered incomplete. Conservatism and romantic predilections of Maliszewski forced Lutoslawski to individual search conducted for many years at the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, and which he regarded as the basis of his musical education.
In September 1939, as a officer cadet, he was captured by Germany however, he managed to escape and return to Warsaw.
During the occupation, many artists earned money mainly by working in the cafés. Actors were employed as waiters and musicians as singers and players the various instruments. Lutoslawski originally accompanied a group of cabaret artists, and then with his colleague – Andrzej Panufnik formed a piano duet, performing in several Warsaw cafés. Their repertoire included hundreds of compositions of classicism and romanticism, of which only one survived – Variations on a Theme of Paganini, by Lutoslawski. Although the composer had a considerable distance to this composition, it is one of his most recognizable works.
When the Warsaw Uprising out broke, Lutoslawski was in Komorow near Warsaw taking counterpoint exercises, which in the near future was used in his first symphony and several later works. In this way, the composer hid himself in a world of music from the outside world. And maybe he should not be blamed as far as Chopin did the same when leaving Warsaw the day before the November Uprising, and history has proven that they both have become more useful to their country by writing music than fighting in the trenches.
The post-war conditions in Poland have turned out to be extremely difficult for the artists and excluded the possibility of living off free art. Lutoslawski was forced to write music for films, theatre and radio plays, and songs for children for the Polish Radio. In the 50’s to make his own living, under the pseudonym of “Derwid”, he also created pop hits, loved by proletarian audience and willingly used by Mieczysław Fogg, Irena Santor, Kalina Jędrusik and Halina Kunicka.
But the composer’s ambitions were bigger, so very methodically and systematically he worked on the language of the classics and the creation of a new classicism, as strong as the historical one. He devoted all his life to this work, bringing his musical language to the highest perfection and uniqueness.
However, his natural tendency to create the music did not combine with the ease of achieving success. Within the nine years after the end of the war, he only managed to compose four songs, two of which – The String Overture and Recitativo arioso do not last longer than five minutes. He matured slowly in the field of music, and the title of the first composer of the period od Polish People’s Republic he obtained only in 1954 after escaping another, a year younger composer – Andrzej Panufnik. In 1954 he achieved his first great success with the première of Concerto for Orchestra .
Composer became world-famous thanks to the following editions of the International Contemporary Music Festival Warsaw Autumn inaugurated for the first time in 1956, where Lutoslawski’s compositions have been presented with the highest honour.
According to those who knew the composer, Lutoslawski should blame himself for the late start to an international career. Own career has never been the object of his interest, and he focused mainly on the creation of music, has done nothing to accelerate his success.
Lutoslawski and totalitarianism
The period after the Composers Convention in Lagow in 1949 turned out to be a period of depression and crisis for Lutoslawski. He was unwillingly connected with the authorities, he did not want his name to be associated with the politics, which resulted in alienation and rejection by the authorities. Because of the rules of socialist realism imposed by the state, earning from the “real music” has become impossible. Lutoslawski filled this space with illustrations for radio plays, music, films and theatre, and pedagogical works collected in a collection called Bucolics that were meant to displace Soviet Bieriułki from the early elementary school education.
Additionally, answer to the question of how to reject socialist realism and remain loyal citizen, was a native folklore. Little Suite, Silesian Triptych, Bucolics, Dance Preludes seem to be example of the composer’s supreme cleverness because, although consistent with socialist realism rules, they remain innocent example of folklore.
When the communist authorities understood that music is not suitable for political purposes, they resigned from the music as a propaganda tool. Then, Lutoslawski ceased “alternative music” and never returned to the folklore.
Despite his cleverness in ignoring the Stalinist rules, he could not manage to refuse to make the sacrifice to the social-realistic times. But instead of works like “A cantata in honour of Stalin,” or oratory in praise of the communist regime, he complemented the work of this period with more than a dozen songs about a simple working man.
“Immodesty is ridiculous”
Just as Lutoslawski’s music was not similar to any other, as the composer was an individual and distinctive in a way that drew widespread attention. Speaking publicly or privately, leading rehearsals with the orchestra he behaved in a way that was only typical for him and very difficult to characterize, because not distinguished by anything in particular. He passed for a outdistance man and reluctant to make contacts. However, anyone who had contact with him knew, that he was a man with an open mind to other people’s affairs.
In numerous interviews, and even conversations with friends, the composer has consistently avoided the details of his family, that was his wife Danuta née Dygat – daughter of the famous Warsaw architect, and sister of a prominent writer Stanislaw Dygat. They got married on Oct. 26, 1946, and for nearly 50 years they led a life full of harmony and great warmth to each other. Danuta was living in the shadow of her husband, calling herself his personal copyist she participated in everything associated with his life and work. Lutoslawskis never separated with each other, and therefore probably the artist’s death in February 1994 became the main cause of Danuta’s death few weeks later.
Lutoslawski’s life passed with the constant and balanced rhythm for years. Intense creative work filled the first part of the day and lasted until dinner, which he used to eat about three o’clock. Then he read aloud in the company of his wife, at five o’clock in the afternoon he drank coffee in a tiny favourite china cup, successively had visitors or conducted correspondence in four languages, before sleep he read again two, sometimes even three books in a row. He did not watch TV, did not go to theatres nor opera. Absorbed with his work he could not go out for days, walking only around the garden. Although the music was the area in which he felt the most comfortable, different circumstances forced him to go out of his own music world. For many years he participated in the management of the Polish Composers Union as he believed it was socially useful and important for his colleagues. The same idea led him to participate in the work of the Committee of the International Festival of Contemporary Music Warsaw Autumn.
Lutoslawski was also a deep patriot, but did not show it outside, considering that feel to be intimate such as religious, family and friendship feelings.
Success has not changed his attitude towards himself and the people. He remained modest throughout his whole life. He even claimed that immodesty is ridiculous. Unpretentiousness and subtle manners were the result of upbringing in the family home, but they also resulted from the belief that talent is not the property of the artist, but a gift that is obliged to pass on to others.
Shortly before the death, he confessed that he has a head full of ideas that could immediately be put on paper. He died in Warsaw on February 7th, 1994. At his request, his body was cremated and after the silent funeral with no speeches, he was buried in a Powązki cemetery.
Lutoslawski was the greatest Polish composer of the second half of the twentieth century, and perhaps of the entire century, at the same time one of the leading contemporary music artists in the world. He did not belong to any “school” of composers, did not follow any trends nor fashions, did not sustain the tradition, did not participate in the avant-garde revolutions. He was a champion either of a great or small form, advocate of the independence of music from other arts, never satisfied with himself and improving his art throughout his life. He was finally great music, intellectual and moral authority which was confirmed by a number of honorary doctorates from the Polish and foreign universities and numerous awards given to him by such organizations as Unesco, the British Incorporated Society of Musicians, the Royal Swedish Academy, the American Academy of Arts and Letters , Royal Academy of Music, etc.
He conducted such distinguished groups as the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Orchestre de Paris and the National Polish Radio Symphony. He worked with Krystian Zimerman and Anne – Sophie Mutter, a friend of Olivier Messiaen’em and Nadia Boulanger. His element was symphonic music, instrumental and chamber music.
Accuracy and precision of expression, lack of colloquialisms, sublime elegance, and the most perfect proportion between form and content, intellect and emotion dominated the public image of Witold Lutoslawski, making him the aristocrat of the twentieth century music.
Photo © Wilkipedia/Karol Langner