Lutosławski Circle

The orchestra was first created in Warsaw as the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, in 1935. It was founded by Grzegorz Fitelberg, who led the orchestra until September 1939. In 1945, the orchestra was reactivated in Katowice. Its first post-war conductor was Witold Rowicki, who left in 1947 and was replaced by Grzegorz Fitelberg. After the latter’s death in 1953, the orchestra was directed by Jan Krenz, and subsequently Bohdan Wodiczko, Kazimierz Kord, Tadeusz Strugała, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Stanisław Wisłocki, Jacek Kaspszyk (twice), Antoni Wit, and Gabriel Chmura. Since 2012, the artistic director and principal conductor is Alexander Liebreich. Presently, the orchestra’s patrons form an impressive group of Polish conductors: the PNRSO’s principal guest conductor is Stanisław Skrowaczewski, honorary conductor – Jan Krenz, and artistic advisor – Jerzy Semkow.

Over time, the orchestra changed names, first appearing in Warsaw as the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra (1935-1939), later in Katowice as the Great Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio (1947-1968), later as the Great Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio and Television (1968-1994), then momentarily returned to the name Great Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio (1994-1999), finally gaining the status of a national orchestra in 1999.

The orchestra’s connections with Witold Lutosławski are varied and of specially long duration. It is in June 1939 that the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Grzegorz Fitelberg gave the premiere of his Symphonic Variations – a work Lutosławski considered to be his factual, compositional debut. After the war, also under Fitelberg’s direction, the orchestra gave the first performances of his Symphony no. 1 (April 6, 1948), Little Suite (in the version for symphony orchestra, April 20, 1951) and Silesian Triptych (December 2, 1951). Under Jan Krez’s baton, the orchestra first presented Funeral Music (March 26, 1958) and the orchestral version of Five Songs to Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna’s Poems (September 22, 1960). In later years, when the best orchestras of the world appeared in premieres of Lutosławski’s symphonic works, which they commissioned, the PNRSO frequently presented these work’s first Polish performances – either under the composer’s baton (e.g. the performance of the entire Symphony no. 2, June 9, 1967), or that of its current directors (e.g. Antoni Wit in the case of the Symphony no. 4 – May 23, 1993).

Witold Lutosławski wrote a special text devoted to his ties with the orchestra for its 30th anniversary. He reminisced that the orchestra musicians’ protest during work on the Symphony no. 1, brought under control by Grzegorz Fitelberg was a brute awakening for him; "however, with later years, what had been upleasant largely faded away. Today I can say with much joy and pride that what I experienced from the part of our wonderful radio orchestra were expressions of sincerity, solidarity, and recognition, which I greatly cherish. I owe many wonderful experiences to the Great Symphony of the Polish Radio and Television", and later enumerates event such as the premiere of Funeral Music, collaborative work on his compositions, and his monograph concert with the orchestra in 1971 at the festival in Graz.

The orchestra has in its repertoire all orchestral works by Witold Lutosławski, and recorded them many times on phonograph releases. The catalogue of EMI and Polskie Nagrania includes a range of recordings with the composer conducting the orchestra. Under the direction of Antoni Wit in turn, the orchestra recorded all orchestral works by Witold Lutosławski. Notable performers on nine releases with the orchestra include: Olga Pasiecznik, Andrzej Bauer, Piotr Paleczny, Krzysztof Bąkowski, and the choir Camerata Silesia.

On February 9, 2014, at the festival Chain 11 in Warsaw, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice received the Year of Lutosławski Medal for its outstanding contribution to the dissemination of the composer’s heritage.

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Swiss conductor and composer, born in 1883 in Vevey, died in 1969 in Geneva. Studied in Geneva, Paris, Munich, and Berlin; his conducting professors included Felix Mottl and Arthur Nikisch. He became the musical director of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes thanks to Igor Stravinsky, and collaborated with them in the years 1918-1923. In 1918 he created the Roman Switzerland Orchestra in Geneva, which he directed for half a century. He gained fame as a superb performer of contemporary works, especially those of Debussy and Stravinsky, and gave a number of the latter's world premieres, including Histoire du soldat, Pulcinella, Lisa, Les noces, Mass, and The Three-Cornered Hat by Manuel de Falla.

Ernest Ansermet was also the first to perform one of Witold Lutosławski's compositions - Postlude I. The composer's original plan was to write an extended cycle of ‘concert pieces', and the title Postludes was meant to express (as suggested Tadeusz Kaczyński) a farewell to the symphony orchestra as a medium that according to the perception at the time was receding into the background. A somewhat different explanation is given by the composer: "I put the finishing touches on the first of the pieces in 1963 and I dedicated it to the International Red Cross in Geneva, so that [...] it could be used to close the program of the festive centenary. Tied in with this is the title Postlude, which I also gave to the two remaining pieces. This title is well-fitting, not least because they are my final compositions written in an altogether non-aleatoric convention".

The composition was the result of the first commission received by Witold Lutosławski from abroad; an invitation to write pieces for specific occasions was also extended to Benjamin Britten, Frank Martin, and Dmitri Shostakovich. Their world premieres (Shostakovich did not write a piece) was given on September 1, 1963, at the opening festivities of the Centenary Congress of the International Red Cross, in a performance of the Roman Switzerland Orchestra under Ernest Ansermet. Lutosławski did not attend the concert.

Anna Archacka (b. 1958) graduated from the Faculty of Education and Psychology at the University of Warsaw’s Białystok Campus, and received a Graduate Diploma in Museum Studies from the University of Warsaw. From the beginning of her career she has worked in the field of culture: she was a longtime employee of the Łomża Voivodeship Division for Art and Culture, and following Poland’s administrative reform, the Local Łomża District Government. She was recognized with the Meritorious Activist for Culture decoration, and is a finalist of the Regional Weekly Contacts plebiscite Woman of the Year 2011. In 2008, Anna Archacka became director of the Nature Muzeum in Drozdów, based in the Lutosławski manor house.

Her greatest achievements include the renovation of the Museum, which returned to the Lutosławski country estate its former glory. (Three projects have been realized there to-date with European means of financial support.) One of the priorities she took up is the popularization of Witold Lutosławski’s compositional heritage and the individual Lutosławski family members’ contribution to Polish culture, academics, and economy. To this end, a number of events exist, including: the concert series Chamber Music in the Lutosławski Manor House, and Witold Lutosławski: Great Pole and Artist, with the participation of known musicians, and an offer in workshops and concerts by faculty members and students of Polish musical institutions of higher learning, as well as displays of achievement in study by younger music school students. The person of Witold Lutosławski, his achievements and those of his family are made accessible through popular conferences, such as: Sofia Casanova Lutosławska – Spanish Writer, Pole by Choice, and A Witold Lutosławski Family Portrait.

The promotion of young talent and opening the Museum’s philosophy to collaboration with the artistic, academic, and wider educational milieu have made this institution into a significant centre of culture, the activity of which is based on the tradition of local place. The Museum’s activities aim is to associate, in the general consciousness, Drozdowo and the Łomża Lands with the person of the great Polish composer and his family origins.

Anna Archacka herself is full of admiration for Witold Lutosławski: “He is a great artist, who was a great human being. He was able to share with others not only his talent, but also moral and financial support, but in a discreet manner – without publicity. For this I salute him”.

On August 30, 2013, in Drozdów, Anna Archacka was honoured with the Lutosławski Centennial Medal.

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Andrzej Bauer (b. 1962) — cellist and pedagogue, a performer and popularizer of Witold Lutosławski’s music, professor at the Fryderyk Chopin Music University in Warsaw and the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz.

He completed his studies in Łódź under the direction of Kazimierz Michalik, and supplemented his education by working with André Navarra, Miloš Sadlo, and Daniel Szafran, among others. As a Witold Lutosławski scholarship recipient, he underwent two-year studies in the class of William Pleeth in London.

Andrzej Bauer remembers: “Witold Lutosławski’s influence on my life was immense. It began by chance. Witold Lutosławski saw my television recital. (...) The events which followed the recital seemed to me like a fairy tale: an invitation to Śmiała [Street] to the composer’s house, the opportunity to perform Grave for its masterly author, his first valuable remarks and first meetings on stage – the Cello Concerto under the composer’s baton at the Academy of Music in Warsaw”.

A NAXOS recording of Witold Lutosławski’s Cello Concerto was made by Andrzej Bauer together with the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra in Katowice under the direction of Antoni Wit. Bauer’s recording of Grave (with Jan Krzysztof Broja) appeared in the cycle Lutosławski. Opera Omnia (CD Accord / NFM Wrocław).

Andrzej Bauer in collaboration with his musician friends also performs arrangements of Witold Lutosławski’s compositions. With Leszek Możdżer and m.bunio.s he was initiator of the Lutosphere project in 2004, and with Agata Zubel and Cezary Duchnowski he now interprets ‘Lutosławski’s hits’, written under the pseudonym Derwid (the project EL-Derwid. Sunspots). In 2013, along with the group Kwadrofonik and Cezary Duchnowski, he presented a chamber version of the Cello Concerto and gave concerts with the group Lutosławski Collective.

Andrzej Bauer was Vice President of the Lutosławski Society in the period 2003-2006. He was conceptual originator and artistic director of the first two celebrations of the Witold Lutosławski Chain music festival (2004-2005). In 2013 he received the Witold Lutosławski Centenary Medal for outstanding contributions to the dissemination of the music and knowledge about the composer.

Maria Bilińska-Riegerowa (1911-1969) – pianist and pedagogue. She made her debut as a 13 year old playing Mozart’s Concerto in c minor in her home city, Rzeszów, in 1924. She studied under Edward Steuremann and Zbigniew Drzewiecki. Her participation in the 3rd International Chopin Piano Competition won her an honorary mention diploma. According to many, "she belonged to the most outstanding of Polish pianists, undeservedly left in the shadows". Her son, Stefan Rieger, remembers that "Chopin was her ‘daily bread’, which she did not hesitate to share with others, even during the occupation, at concerts organized in conspiration in Cracow and Warsaw".

In the postwar period (1945-1969), Maria Bilińska-Riegerowa was a Professor at the State Postsecondary Music School in Cracow, and from 1964 she led her own class in piano. One of her students remembers that "She taught us to dislike falsity and pretence, claptrap and shallowness, instilling in us a love for beauty and purity of intention". Disinclined to compromise with the "People’s" government, she was not able to travel abroad and could only give concerts at home, appearing in the majority of Polish cities with leading conductors. She gave the Polish premiere of Bela Bartók’s Piano Concerto no. 3 (1950), receiving enthusiastic reviews. She made numerous radio recordings, from which only several remain: the recordings of pieces by Chopin, Schubert, Szymanowski, Field, and Debussy which were salvaged from the ravages of time filled one CD, issued in 1995. Together with her husband Adam Rieger, also a valued pianist and pedagogue, she prepared numerous piano pieces for the PWM Edition.

At the PWM Edition concert in Cracow on January 26, 1948, Maria Bilińska-Riegerowa gave the world premiere of first of Witold Lutosławski’s Two Studies, composed in 1941. (The first radio performance was transmitted in 1947 by the Dutch Radio.)

Robert Black (1950-1993) – American conductor, pianist, and composer, passionate propagator of new music. Founder of the ensembles New York New Music Ensemble in 1975, and Prism Chamber Orchestra in 1983, member of the ensemble Speculum Musicae from 1978.

He gave hundreds of world premieres of contemporary works, many of which he also recorded. His performances and recording endeavours also took place in Poland (Warsaw, Katowice). As a pianist he was no stranger to the traditional repertoire. His recording of works by Franz Liszt was nominated by the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest for the Grand Prix du Disque. He performed concerts by Mozart, leading the orchestra from the piano.

On December 1, 1988, Robert Black led Speculum Musicae in the world premiere of Witold Lutosławski’s Slides for chamber ensemble. The composition was dedicated to Elliot Carter on the 80th anniversary of his birth.

Felicja Blumental (1908-1991) — Polish pianist. She studied at the Warsaw Conservatory under Zbigniew Drzewiecki, as well as Stefan Askenase and Józef Turczyński. She participated in the Third International Chopin Piano Competition in 1937. In 1942, she emigrated to Brazil, and gave concerts with great successes in South America and the United States. After the war she returned to Europe. She was specially valued for her interpretations of Chopin and Mozart, and performed numerous forgotten piano solo, chamber, and orchestral works, which she also recorded. She gave world premieres of a number of compositions written specially for her, including Heitor Billa-Lobos’ Concerto no. 5 and Krzysztof Penderecki’s Partita for harpsichord; she was an ardent propagator of Polish music. Beginning in 1999, festivals bearing name are celebrated in Tel Aviv.

In 1978, on request by the artist, Witold Lutosławski made an arrangement for piano and orchestra of his Variations on a Theme by Paganini. The world premiere of this version was given in Miami on November 18, 1979, with the dedicatee, Felicja Blumental, at the piano, and the Florida Philarmonic Orchestra directed by Brian Priestman.

Charles Bodman Rae (b. 1955) — English composer, pianist, conductor, and musicologist, Lutosławski scholar, presently Professor at the Elder Conservatorium of Music at the University of Adelaide.

He studied composition and conducting in Oxford and Cambridge. His fascination with the music of Witold Lutosławski gave birth to the idea of studying at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw (1981-1983). His intensive contact with Lutosławski and research into his compositions resulted after around a dozen years in a doctorate about the latter’s compositional technique (Pitch Organization in the Music of Witold Lutosławski since 1979, University of Leeds, 1992). A monograph by Rae, titled The Music of Lutosławski, was published in 1994 (Faber & Faber; the Polish edition appeared in a translation by Stanisław Krupowicz, Muzyka Lutosławskiego, PWN, 1996). Moreover, Rae is author of the entry about the composer in the English music encyclopedia The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, as well as several articles devoted to his output.

In a conversation with Grzegorz Michalski about his relations with Lutosławski, he said: “He was of course a master, but I never sought the master in him. We were on very cordial terms, and this is also how he related to my close ones: my wife, sister, parents. I played him my new compositions, which we later discussed. To have a friend in such a great man was an honour for me.”

Rae composed his String Quartet no. 2 in 2004, on the tenth anniversary of Funeral Music creator’s death.

In recognition of his work in popularizing the music and knowledge about the Polish composer, he received the Witold Lutosławski Medal in 2005, and the Witold Lutosławski Centenary Medal in 2013.

Gabriela Bogusławska, former last name Zamoyska (b. 1945) — wife of Marcin Bogusławski, Witold Lutosławski’s stepdaughter. During her stay in Oslo she was very active in the Polish-Norwegian Cultural Society ‘Kultura’. Together with her husband, she organized concerts, public lectures, appearances by Polish artists, and medical help for compatriots in Poland.

Witold Lutosławski and his wife often visited the Bogusławskis in Norway, where he treated their three daughters – Sandra, Agatha, and Mathilda – as his own.

Gabriela Bogusławska reminisces in a conversation with Grzegorz Michalski: “In the beginning, Witkowie (first-name-derived appellation for the Lutosławskis - trans. note) lived at our place when they came to Oslo. After several years they decided that having us as their only family, it’s obvious they will continue to want to visit, considering which they must have their own place, because Witek (dim. of Witold - trans. note) wasn’t able to work at ours. There simply wasn’t enough space to permit him to find the isolation. That’s when they bought a small house, with a really hushed atmosphere, full of calm”.

She also talks about Lutosławski’s unusual interests and abilities: “When the girls were older, Witek liked to go shopping with them, because he was really knowledgeable in women’s fashion. And if the girls went shopping with the mother-in-law, there followed the required fashion show — they were to go change and present themselves to Witek, while he commented on what was good, what he liked, and what he didn’t. In fact, my mother-in-law would never buy anything by herself, and Witek always had to be there to assist her. He really did know his stuff. I would receive truly beautiful things from my mother-in-law and the commentary always appeared: “You know, who picked it”. My daughters each wore something different, but Witek was always perfectly able to say what goes well with what. He really liked it...”.

Gabriela Bogusławska admires the Lutosławskis in marriage: “This was a couple tied together so incredibly, that it was probably difficult to find another one of the kind. This was true oneness”.

On January 24, 2013, during anniversary ceremonies at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Marcin Bogusławski and Gabriela Bogusławska were honoured with the Lutosławski Centennial Medal.

Marcin Bogusławski (b. 1937) — son of Danuta Lutosławska from her first marriage (with the architect Jan Bogusławski), Witold Lutosławski’s son-in-law. Following his architectural studies in Warsaw, he settled in Oslo. He designed a number of Norway’s representative buildings, such as the churches in Drammen and Larvik, and worked in teams which created the design for the olympic stadium in Lillehamer and that of the Statoil headquarters.

Witold Lutosławski said of him to Irina Nikolska: “Marcin was seven years old when he appeared in our home as my stepson, and I was the one who raised him with Danusia (dim. of Danuta — trans. note). After her, Marcin is my closest one — the closest family. Since he has lived in Oslo for the past 20 years, we also decided to organize ourselves a sort of existence in Oslo. In effect we sojourn there, even up to several months at a time. Marcin also persuaded me to buy this tiny house close to Oslo. It used to be a tiny house owned by a farmer, beautifully situated by some water and a forest, it is a rocky and very beautiful country. We send a month or two there, mostly in the spring. (...) Marcin has three daughters. The middle one is my goddaughter. Her name is Agatka (dim. of Agata - trans. note), and I find her endearing, because in her character she reminds me of Danusia. They really do understand each other wonderfully. And I can truly say that she is very dear to me”.

Marcin Bogusławski remembers his stepfather: “He was a man of homogeneity, unbelievably consistent, simultaneously a great Polish patriot, a very rare example when it comes to his stance in life as a family man and citizen”. He admires him for many things, also for his exceptional relation to work: “Witek (dim. of Witold — trans. note) had a certain trait, of which really everyone should be envious: his working method. I am talking about his method in compositional, as well as that of any other work which he did. He was so precise and systematized that alongside his immense life energy and love for work in everything that he did, he achieved results that were overpowering. He was not a man who acted hastily. He approached all matters scrupulously and did not repeat a thing. When he finished, he knew, what he had completed, and used it as a sort of trampoline to ‘jump’ even higher.”

Despite this characteristic, which in time gave birth to a type of pedantry, Lutosławski also knew how to surprise people. Marcin Bogusławski reminisces: “I remember, when he completely shocked and very much impressed me. He had just completed writing his latest symphony. So he called me and said: ‘You know what? I finished. Come and we’ll go out for dinner.’ I came with my wife, daughters, and we were getting ready to go to the restaurant for dinner, when Witek, while stepping outside, said: ‘You know, Marcin, in the last moment I changed the whole finale of this symphony’. One would expect that with all this systematic behaviour one would at a certain moment begin to fall into a routine, but he, while working, was able to preserve a fresh glance till the final moment.”

On January 24, 2013, at anniversary celebrations at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Marcin Bogusławski and Gabriela Bogusławska were hounoured with the Lutosławski Centennial Medal.

Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979), French composer, pedagogue, conductor, pianist, and organist. She was a student of Gabriel Fauré among others, and with her performances she popularized his Requiem. She became known as a charismatic pedagogue, teaching hundreds of composers from all over the world in academies in Paris and at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau. Among her students were several dozen Polish composers of a number of generations.

After completing his studies in Warsaw, Witold Lutosławski hoped to continue his compositional education with Nadia Boulanger, but his service in the army, and the subsequent military mobilization before the outbreak of the war prevented the realization of this plan.

The composer reminisces in conversation with Zofia Owińska: "I was never a student of hers, but I had the happy chance to meet her in 1946, when I came to Paris and regularly attended the so-called ‘Wednesdays', which were days on which she received guests. On this occasion I remained in Paris for three months [...]. During the visits there grew a true friendship between Nadia Boulanger and me. She showed me much warmth and interest as a person. I have several letters from her, and they are specially valuable to me. She came to all performances of my compositions in Paris and until the end of her life she maintained a very sincere interest for me."

On the occasion of Nadia Boulanger's seventieth birthday, Witold Lutosławski dedicated four of his Five Songs for soprano and piano to her, and he was one of the guests at the birthday celebration which took place at the Alpine property of Igor Markiewicz. The main musical attraction of the evening was the performance of a humorous, functional cantata written by Jean Françaix.

Pierre Boulez (1925–2015), French composer and conductor, student of Messiaen and Leibowitz, one of the creators of serialism and a leading representative of the postwar avant-garde. He exerted a great influence on the developmental direction of the music of his time through his compositional output, theoretical works, and conducting activity. As a conductor that appeared with the leading orchestras of the world he contributed to the popularization of contemporary music and the ‘twentieth-century classics', also becoming well-known as an interpreter of works by Wagner and Mahler. He is founder of the Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM), which he directed until 1991.

On October 1966, Pierre Boulez directed the Hamburg world premiere of Witold Lutosławski's Symphony no. 2 (second movement only). The performance was presented by the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra, which commissioned the work for the occasion of the hundredth concert in the series "Das Neue Werk", which was devoted to contemporary music. The Polish composer, being overburdened by responsibilities, was able to complete only the second, main movement of the work, titled Direct. (Witold Lutosławski lead the world premiere of the entire symphony the following year in Katowice).

Lutosławski was not entirely content with Boulez's interpretation, but he remembered the concert with satisfaction, regretting only that he presented "only part of the composition - its ‘torso' - not being able to transmit a proper conception of the entire undertaking" to the "vivaciously responsive audience".

Michał Bristiger (1921-2016) — musicologist, Professor at the Institute of Art in the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, doctor honoris causa of the University of Palermo, corresponding member of the American Musicological Society, honorary editor of the periodical Res Facta Nova, chief editor of the periodical De Musica.

Witold Lutosławski’s obituary written by Michał Bristiger in 1994 is among the most often quoted texts about the Polish composer. It reads in part: “We experienced His departure as a personal suffering, and it was felt to be a seismic wave in our entire culture. They say that the world of sounds is volatile in time, space, and history, and so I ask, how does it happen that we sense Witold Lutosławski’s music as a musical anchor in the tempestuous music history of our century? The music was His personal expression, one which simultaneously belongs to the spiritual fabric of the Polish people. Lutosławski exegit monumentum to our entire culture. To say that he was a Polish composer isn’t enough. Composers often bring the musical material of their home country into their works. With time, the opposite occured with Witold Lutosławski. It occurred after our first experiences and relations with His music, in the period of its reign. What was individual in it penetrated through us all, and suffused – consciously or naturally – our musical sensitivity to such an extent that the traits of His style started becoming identical with the ‘Polishness’ of Polish music. The same happened before with Karol Szymanowski, and still earlier with Fryderyk Chopin”.

In 2001, Michał Bristiger devoted the fifth celebration of the Polish Radio Music Festival, which he programmed, to the music of Witold Lutosławski. During the festival week (May 19-26) Lutosławski’s music was played along with works by Joseph Haydn, Maurice Ravel, Henri Dutilleux, Bela Bartók, Albert Roussel, Witold Maliszewski, and unexpectedly juxtaposed with compositions by Mieczysław Weinberg (String Quartet no. 13), Maurice Ohana (Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías), Giorgio Ghedini (Concerto dell'Albatro), and David Del Tredici (An Alice Symphony).

On January 24, 2013, Michał Bristiger received the honour of being decorated with the Witold Lutosławski Centenary Medal.

Ian Brown – English pianist and conductor active as soloist and chamber musician, valued partner of many prominent soloists, such as Mstislav Rostropovitch, Henryk Szeryng, Ruggiero Ricci, Elisabeth Söderström, Felicity Lott, and James Galway. From 1978, he is member of the Nash Ensemble, with which he appeared at all British festivals and regular concerts at Wigmore Hall, in addition to making numerous recordings. As conductor he leads concerts primarily with British orchestras.

On January 3, 1980, at London’s Wigmore Hall, Ian Brown and the oboist Janet Craxton participated in the world premiere of Epitaph by Witold Lutosławski. The composition was commissioned from Witold Lutosławski by Janet Craxton following the death of her husband, pianist and composer Alan Richardson, in 1978. Epitaph has first been heard at a concert devoted entirely to the memory of Richardson. This is the only of the Polish composer’s chamber pieces, which has not been instrumentated by him.

Stanisława Chyl – former director of the Drozdów Museum of Nature, propagator of Witold Lutosławski’s heritage.

She is a graduate of the Postsecondary School of Education in Kielce in the music education program, and the Graduate Museum Studies Diploma Program at the University of Warsaw’s Institute of Art. From 1973, she taught in music schools and primary schools, and led eurythmy classes in pre-school. In 1984, together with her husband Andrzej Chyl, she became engaged in the creation of the Drozdów Natural Museum (from 1995, the Museum of Nature). For many years, she led the Museum’s artistic-historical division, and in the years 1990-1998, served as its manager and director.

From the beginnings in Drozdów, she studied and popularized the Lutosławski family heritage, gathering all types of pertinent materials, as well as organizing exhibits, concerts, academic sessions, and other cultural events. She published articles, gave museum study sessions, and lectures on themes relating to the Lutosławski family line. In 1996, she organized the academic session The Lutosławskis in Polish Culture, and collaborated in the TV film production The Lutosławskis from Drozdów (1999), directed by Beata Chyża-Czołpińska. She authored and co-authored radio programs devoted to the achievements of Witold Lutosławski and other family members. (For example, in the years 1994-2013, she participated in meetings with scouts at the yearly Gray Scout Jamborees devoted to Father Kazimierz Lutosławski, Witold’s paternal uncle, one of the Polish scout movement’s organizers.) She organized five premiere celebrations of the Drozdowo and Łomża Musical Days (1994-1998). In addition, she initiated and realized the Performance Competition of Witold Lutosławski’s Music in Drozdów (2002, 2004, 2006, 2008), addressed to music school students from the entire country. From 2000, she is member of the Witold Lutosławski Society, where in 2003-2009 she was board member.

Stanisława Chyl’s undertakings were often met with the reluctance and resistance of her superiors, resulting in her dismissal from the Museum in 1998 and the danger of losing her authored collections, something she was fortunately able to prevent. In 2013, she received a half-year scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage for work on the Lutosławski and Drozdów materials gathered in 1985-2012. The developed material served as the basis for a number of presentations, public and academic lectures, as well as the folder Witold Lutosławski in Drozdów.

On April 30, 2013, at the Drozdów conference A Witold Lutosławski Family Portrait, Stanisława Chyl was honoured with the Lutosławski Centennial Medal by the Witold Lutosławski Society.

Andrzej Chłopecki (1950-2012) – musicologist, music theorist, critic, journalist and animator of musical life. In 1975 he graduated from the Institute of Musicology of the University of Warsaw with a Master's thesis on Krzysztof Penderecki's St. Luke Passion, written under the advisement of Zofia Lissa. He frequently took part in the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt (also as author of papers and presentations). He was scholarhip recipient of the Parisian Fondation pour une Entraide Intellectuelle (1980), Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen in Vienna (1984), Alban Berg Stiftung in Vienna (1986), and of the Ministry of Art and Culture in Poland (1999).

From 1973 to 1974, still during his studies, he fulfilled the responsibilities of the editorial secretary and director of the cultural section in the student bi-weekly New Medic (Nowy Medyk). In the years 1975-1981, and again from 1991 he was an employee of the Polish Radio, and in the years 1977-1981 and 1992-95 he held this institution's post of director of the editorial office for contemporary music, later becoming a commentator; in the years 1999-2005 he again directed the operations of the production team for contemporary music of Polish Radio Program 2, and from 2005 he was commentator of the Editorial Office for Classical Music of the Polish Radio. He is author of around 2000 radio programs. From 1994 he also programs the participation of the Polish Radio at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Paris.

In the years 1982-1993 he was assistant, and later senior lecturer at the Academy of Music in Cracow and the director of the editorial office and head specialist of the Marketing Section at the Warsaw Office of the PWM Edition. From 1996 he held the position of senior lecturer of the Academy of Music in Katowice, where he taught twentieth- and twenty-first-century music history, literature, and aesthetics. Around 30 Master's degrees were written under his advisement. From 2000 he also lectured at the Postgraduate Diploma Program of the Institute of Literary Studies at the Polish Academy of Letters and Sciences in Warsaw.

In the years 1986-1995 he collaborated with the Editorial Office of New Music of the broadcaster Deutschlandfunk in Cologne, in 1993-1997 he was columnist for the monthly Res Publica Nowa (he wrote the series "The Ear Daily"), from 1974 he collaborated with Ruch Muzyczny (Musical Matters and Events), and from 1989 with the bi-monthly MusikTexte. Zeitschrift für Neue Musik in Cologne (from 1993 he was member of the program board of the periodical), from 2001 a columnist in the Gazeta Świąteczna (Holiday Gazette) - the weekend edition of the Gazeta Wyborcza (Electoral Gazette) in the series "Extreme Listening". Moreover, he gave presentations of papers and lead seminars at symposiums and musicological congresses in many countries, such as Poland, Russia, Germany, Norway, Holland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Latvia, Slovakia, and Ukraine. He is also author of reviews, articles, essays, commentaries and in-depth writings published in the daily press, periodicals, and book publishers in Poland, in many European countries, as well as Japan, Australia, Hong-Kong, and the United States.

Beginning in 2001 he realized the authored project Förderpreise für Polen, financed by the Ernst von Siemens Foundation for Music based in Munich, in the course of which scholarships were accorded for the creation of 34 works by young composers from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovenia.

Andrzej Chłopecki was member of the Society of Polish Journalists (1977-1981), the Board of the Polish Society for Contemporary Music (1980-1989), and the Polish Section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (1980), the Polish Composers' Union (1982), founding member of the Witold Lutosławski Society (1997), co-founder of the Friends of Warsaw Autumn Foundation (founder in 1998, board member from 1999, president from 2000). In the years 1987-1989 he fulfilled the function of secretary of the Board of the Musicology Section of the Polish Composers' Union. From 1999 he was member of the Repertoire Commission of the Warsaw Autumn Festival (with a break in 2003).

He was received many awards and decorations, including the Award of the Board of the Polish Radio for the promotion of Polish music and the Polish Radio (1994), the Special Award of the Chapter of the Grand Decoration of the Culture Foundation for radio creativity and culture-promoting activities realized on the Polish Radio Program 2 (1998), the Honorary Decoration of the Polish Radio (2001), UNESCO Mozart Medal (2003), and the Honorary Decoration of the Polish Composers' Union (2003).

Source: www.polmic.pl

Janet Craxton (1929-1981) - English oboist, daughter of the widely valued pianist and pedagogue Harold Craxton. She studied at the London Royal Academy of Music (where she herself taught from 1958), and at the Paris Conservatory. She was lead oboist in several orchestras: the Hallé, London Mozart Players, and Covent Garden. She was active as in chamber performance, founding the London Oboe Quartet in 1967, and co-founding the London Sinfonietta two years later. As soloist she gave many world premieres of contemporary works. Her unique tone and phrasing was instantly recognizable to the lovers of her artful performances.

Following the death of her husband, the pianist and composer Alan Richardson (d. 1978), Janet Craxton commissioned a memorial composition from Witold Lutosławski. At the time, the composer felt a need to expand the role of melody, constructing "more simple, thin textures" and chords with a lesser number of elements. As he revealed to Tadeusz Kaczyński, "the first sample of the new [compositional] procedure is Epitaph for oboe and piano". Janet Craxton and the pianist Ian Brown gave the world premiere of Epitaph on January 3, 1980, at London's Wigmore Hall at a concert dedicated to the memory of Alan Richardson.

Henryk Czyż, b. June 16, 1923, in Grudziądz, d. January 16, 2003, in Warsaw; conductor, composer, and pedagogue. After his studies in Poznań under Walerian Bierdiajew he worked with the Poznań Opera and the Great Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio. He was two-time artistic director of the Łódź Philharmonic (in 1957-1960 and 1972-1980), and lead the Cracow Philharmonic in the years 1963-1967; he also fulfilled the role of general musical director in Düsseldorf. He devoted much attention to contemporary music, and collaborated with Krzysztof Penderecki among other composers, creating the first recordings of several of his works. In addition, he was a superb popularizer of music and author benefitting from the great popularity of the television program The Devil Isn't as Bad as He Seems and his many books on the subject of music.

On October 8, 1965, Henryk Czyż conducted the world premiere of Witold Lutosławski's Three Postludes at the Cracow Philharmonic. The performance took place on the twentieth anniversary of the PWM Edition celebratory concert, which was also a farewell to its retiring and meritorious director, Tadeusz Ochlewski. As Danuta Gwizdalanka and Krzysztof Meyer remind us, "The enthusiastic public exacted a repetition of the last [piece]". (The first Postlude received its premiere two years earlier in Geneva under Ernest Ansermet.) At the time, the Polish composer remarked: "The title Postludes fits these pieces also because they are the last which I wrote in a completely non-aleatoric convention". Later, Lutosławski did not particularly favour these compositions, although he admitted: "They were of certain service to me, because they were the first large-scale works in which I applied the results of my work on musical language".

Sir Edward Downes (1924-2009) – English conductor, active mainly in the field of opera. He began his career in 1952 as an assistant to Rafael Kubelik in Covent Garden, with which he associated himself for many years, leading 950 stage shows in total. He was a great admirer of Verdi, and conducted almost all of his operas. From 1970 he filled the function of musical director to the Australian Opera, and in the 1973 opening of the Sydney Opera House he conducted the Australian premiere of Prokofiev’s War and Peace. He also directed the BBC Philharmonic, with which he had particularly close working relation, and the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. He popularized the output of British composers, such as George Lloyd, Peter Maxwell Davies, and Malcolm Arnold.

On October 14, 1970, in London, Edward Downes conducted the world premiere of Witold Lutosławski’s Cello Concerto with Mstislav Rostropovitch, the composition’s dedicatee, and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. The concert was given at the Royal Festival Hall, and in the following days was repeated in Bournemouth and Exeter.

Soprano singer, born in 1908, received her education in Stanisławów, Warsaw, and Lviv. Around 1936 she began her collaboration with the Polish Radio. She delighted listeners with the beauty of her voice and clarity of musical interpretation. Her wide repertoire comprised European and Polish Romantic song, but she became famous for her performances of songs by Szymanowski and pieces by contemporary composers. She gave many world premieres, including performances of works by Bacewicz, Malawski, Rudziński, and Panufnik. A large part of her repertoire was recorded by the Polish Radio.

Maria Drewniakówna performed songs by Witold Lutosławski numerous times. On December 8, 1947, at a concert in Cracow broadcast on the radio, she performed his Songs of the Polish Underground, written during the occupation at the request of the Polish resistance movement called Armia Krajowa (Home Army). She took part in a world premiere of two children's songs to words by Tuwim, "The Late Nightingale" and "About Mr. Tralaliński" in an authored version for chamber orchestra performed with the Orchestra of the Polish Radio under Stefan Rachoń. At a concert of the Polish Music Festival in 1951 she gave the first performance of the Silesian Triptych along with the Great Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio (WOSPR) under the direction of Grzegorz Fitelberg.

In recognition of her work in disseminating Polish music, she received the Prize of the PWM Edition in 1947. On the day of her hundredth birthday, May 13, 2008, she received the honours of the Gold Medal Meritorious in Culture - Gloria Artis.

Zbigniew Drzewiecki (1890-1971) – pianist and pedagogue, one of the leading figures of the Polish pianistic world in the twentieth century. Following his studies in Vienna he debuted in Warsaw in 1916. He was a valued interpretator of Chopin and one of the first Polish performers of music by Debussy, Ravel, and Prokofiev. An important place in his repertoire was reserved for the music of Karol Szymanowski, with whom he maintained a friendship (becoming the dedicatee of two his Mazurkas).

He worked to popularize new music by Polish composers. From 1931 he took up pedagogical work at the Warsaw Conservatory, as well as in Cracow and Lviv, and contributed to musical life as a critic and publicist. After the war he co-organized the State Postsecondary Music School in Cracow, where he filled the function of rector, while continuing work in Warsaw. He was organizer of the First International Chopin Pianistic Competition, and served as jury member (1927-1965) and leader. His pupils included several dozen concert pianists, among them many future laureates of competitions and valued pedagogues. He described his rich and colourful life in the book A Musician’s Memoir.

At a concert of the PWM Edition in Cracow on July 22, 1946, Zbigniew Drzewiecki gave the premiere of Witold Lutosławski’s Folk Melodies. The collection of 12 pieces based on melodies from the collection of Jerzy Olszewski was created for purposes of teaching, and was used by generations of music school students. Regardless of this usage, the collection has gained popularity among concert pianists for reasons of its high artistic value.

Zbigniew Drzewiecki and Witold Lutosławski worked together on the forums of various organization, including the Polish National Committee of the International Music Council (IMC) created at UNESCO in 1956.

Stanisław Dygat (1914-1978) - writer, publicist, author of stories and novels (including Lake Constance, Farewells, The Journey, Disneyland, Railway Station in Munich), several of which have been adapted for film. He was the brother of Witold Lutosławski's wife, and was friends with the composer. Lutosławski has told Irina Nikolska of his relation to the writer:

"The war had not yet come when I met the brother of my wife, a renowned writer, Stanisław Dygat, through my being a member of the Film Authors' Cooperative. This was an organization of avant-garde directors: Cękalski, the Themersons, Jakubowska, Perski, and Ford. I was being engaged for their avant-garde films as a composer. Stanisław Dygat authored a film script, which was to be directed by Cękalski. This didn't come to fruition, but I became friends with Dygat, who had a great sensibility for music. He attended concerts, he had a great ear and a very wide-ranging passion for music. He would come to our concerts to Aria, the first cafe at which I played with Panufnik. He said that he would bring his sister, so that she too may listen to our playing. Stanislaw was to us practically the closest person in Warsaw until his death. We would see him almost every day, or at least telephone each other and comment upon each event".

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (1925-2012) — German singer, baritone, considered to be one of the greatest vocal individualities in the twentieth century, especially in the domain of song performance, to which he devoted most of his attention. Having at his command a voice of great elasticity, beautiful tone, and extraordinarily wide expressional possibilities, he applied great care to textual interpretation. For a long time his performances created controversies and were often considered too ‘manneristic’. The artist gained fame through his unparalleled interpretations of the passions and cantatas of Bach, oratorios, and – above all – nineteenth- and twentieth-century song. He performed and recorded nearly all of Schubert’s songs, among those of others. His achievements have written an important chapter in the history of vocal art.

Fischer-Dieskau was also active as a pedagogue, conductor, and popularizer of music, as well as author of books devoted to the subject of song and its composers. He gave world premieres of a number of outstanding contemporary composers’ works. Witold Lutosławski wrote for him Les espaces du sommeil. The composer has said to Zofia Owińska when referring to the history of the work’s creation:

“I first met him after the recital with Sviatoslav Richter. It was a Hugo Wolff evening which took place at the National Philharmonic, and in the same building was followed by a reception given by the German ambassador. During this reception Fischer-Dieskau asked me if I have anything for the baritone. Taken by surprise, I replied that at the moment I don’t, but his inquiry is a great encouragement for me — eine große Erregung. And it really happened that I put on the back burner everything on which I had been working, and I began searching for German texts. I wasn’t concerned with a cycle of songs, but some type of symphonic piece with baritone. Finally, by chance I came upon a record with Fischer-Dieskau’s recital devoted to the music of Debussy and Ravel, and I decided that his French is very lovely, so I could look for a French text. I easily found a wonderful text by Robert Desnos — it was so good, in fact, that it would be difficult to imagine a work more suited to having music composed to it.”

The composition was completed in 1975, and was dedicated to the soloist. The world premiere of Les espaces du sommeil was given in Berlin on April 12, 1978, at Witold Lutosławski’s compositional concert. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau performed the solo part, with the Berlin Philharmonic playing under the direction of the composer. The work was memorialized on a Philips record with the same group of performers.

Conductor, violinist, composer, born in 1879 in Dvinsk (Latvia), from the age of 12 studied violin performance under Stanisław Barcewicz and composition under Zygmunt Noskowski at the Music Institute in Warsaw. In 1904 he debuted as a conductor with the world premiere of his own Symphony no. 1. His initiative led to the creation of the Young Polish Composers' Impression Cooperative (Ludomir Różycki, Grzegorz Fitelberg, Władysław Lubomirski, Karol Szymanowski, Apolinary Szeluto, Mieczysław Karłowicz). Throughout his life Fitelberg was an ardent propagator of Polish music, and that of Szymanowski in particular, whose music he performed from Moscow and Petersburg to New York and Buenos Aires, in addition assisting young composers at the outset of their careers.

In 1935 he reorganized the Orchestra of the Polish Radio in Warsaw, bringing it to a world-class level, as testified by the gold medals accorded to the ensemble and the conductor two years later at a competition of orchestras in the World Exhibition in Paris. After the wanderings of the war years, Fitelberg returned to Poland to direct the newly created Great Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio in Katowice, which he lead from 1948 right up to his death in 1953.

Witold Lutosławski wrote the following about him: "In relation to young Polish music Fitelberg fulfilled the role of a true institutional propaganda, without which composers would find it difficult to develop their talents and obtain the necessary experience". In a conversation with Tadeusz Kaczyński, he admitted: "The dream of each composer entering professional life was to have Fitelberg himself take up the performance of his new works. [My] actual debut took place under no other conductor than Fitelberg. This was a performance of the Symphonic Variations in the Polish Radio, and later at [Cracow's] Wawel Festival in 1939".

Several further symphonic compositions of Witold Lutosławski received their world premieres under Grzegorz Fitelberg. They were: the Symphony no. 1 in 1948 in Katowice, String Overture in 1949 in Prague, Little Suite (version for symphony orchestra) and Silesian Triptych in 1951 in Warsaw.

The period of a closer relation between the two artists dates from the time of the world premiere of Symphony no. 1, which was highly valued by Fitelberg.

Edward Gardner (b. 1974) – English conductor, a performer and popularizer of Witold Lutosławski’s music, laureate of the Year of Lutosławski Medal.

He is a graduate of the University of Cambridge and Royal College of Music. For three years he was Mark Elder’s assistant in the Hallé orchestra, later musical director of the Glyndebourne Touring Opera and the English National Opera. He collaborates regularly with many outstanding symphony orchestras, including the Hallé, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Bamberg Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, Trondheim Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony.

Polish music became for him a great passion, connected above all to the music of Karol Szymanowski and Witold Lutosławski. For several years he has been recording the symphonic music of both composers with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, for Chandos Records (until October 2013, the label released five CDs with Lutosławski’s works). One review of the discs with Lutosławski’s music reads in part: “Gardner’s recordings for Chandos are unequalled in the well-balanced, high-level performance and interpretive coherence” (Michał Mendyk, Ruch Muzyczny, no. 16-17, 2013).

On October 2013, Edward Gardner received a Year of Lutosławski Medal, accorded for outstanding contributions in the dissemination of the composer’s music and knowledge about his person.

Janina Godlewska-Bogucka (1908-1992) – singer and actress, wife of the popular actor and singer Andrzej Bogucki. She made her debut with the Dana Choir. In the time of the occupation she performed, as did many other artists, in the cafe Art and Fashion (Sztuka i Moda), where the duo Lutosławski-Panufnik also played. She and her husband helped Jews in hiding and gave shelter to Władysław Szpilman, among others. From the latter’s initiative, trees were planted in 1978 for Janina Godlewska and her husband at the Yad Vashem institute in recognition of them as the Righteous Among the Nations. After the war, Janina Godlewska introduced into her repertoire songs by Szpilman. In 1952, she recorded with the choir Czejanda.

Janina Godlewska-Bogucka participated in the world premieres and first recordings of a number of Witold Lutosławski’s pieces for children. These were: Strawchain (1951), Spring (four songs for mezzosoprano and chamber orchestra, 1951, conducted by Witold Lutosławski), Spring-Time Outing (four songs for mezzo-soprano and chamber orchestra, 1951, conducted by Witold Lutosławski), Cockle Shell and A Silver Windowpane for voice and piano (1953, accompaniment by Witold Lutosławski), Six Children’s Songs to words by Julian Tuwim arranged for chamber orchestra (1952, conducted by Witold Lutosławski), Children’s Songs for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble (1954, conducted by Witold Lutosławski).

Danuta Gwizdalanka — musicologist, graduate of the Adam Mickiewicz University. Her wide interests comprise music history, often in the context of society, and she devoted much attention to Beethoven’s music, chamber music, and contemporary Polish music. She is author of a number of books, including the valued Guide to Chamber Music, the only such publication on the Polish market, several music history textbooks, and numerous articles. Among her publications are found: the Quadrilingual Dictionary of Performance and Interpretive Terms, Music and Politics, and Music and Gender.

Together with her husband, Krzysztof Meyer, Danuta Gwizdalanka published a Polish collection of Lutosławski’s writings and statements titled Witold Lutosławski. Postscriptum, and to this day the largest, two-volume biography of the composer, a work in Polish titled Witold Lutosławski. His Way to Maturity and Witold Lutosławski. His Way to Mastery. She also created the digital phone application Witold Lutosławski. A Guide to Warsaw.

On January 24, 2013, Danuta Gwizdalanka was decorated with the Lutosławski Centennial Medal.

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Susan Hamilton (b. 1970) — Scottish singer, soprano. She specializes in early music and contemporary performance, and collaborates with many leading ensembles, orchestras, and conductors. From 2003, together with John Butt, she leads the Dunedin Consort, with which she recorded J. S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and Mass in B minor, as well as Haendel’s oratorio Esther.

She took part in the first complete performance of Witold Lutosławski’s Twenty Carols in the version for women’s chorus and chamber orchestra, written for the London Sinfonietta. The performance took place on December 14, 1990, in Aberdeen, and was repeated the following day in Edinburgh. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra was conducted by the composer. Charles Bodman Rae, the composer and musicologist who wrote the book Lutosławski’s Music, was author of the carols’ English translation.

The premiere performance of the incomplete collection containing 17 carols in a version for instrumental ensemble took place five years earlier in London, also under the direction of the composer.

Julia Hartwig (1921) – poet, essayist, translator of Henri Michaux’s poetry, and other works.

As she reminisced in conversation with Grzegorz Michalski, she met Witold Lutosławski during martial law in Poland. Their common activity in social life transformed into a friendship between two married couples: Julia Hartwig and Artur Międzyrzecki, and the Lutosławskis – Danuta and Witold.

In the poetry of Julia Hartwig we find several references to the composer’s biography and music. The volume It Will Return (2010) includes the poem "The Unattainable" (which begins with the words "When Zimmerman asked Lutosławski..."), while the volume Zobaczone (The Seen) includes "Fotografia z pamięci" ("Photograph from memory", which opens with the words: "The Lutosławskis are eating pears in the Rialto..."). Hartwig devoted a separate poem to Danuta Lutosławska, "For the Death of a Great Composer’s Wife" in the volume Gorzkie żale (Lenten Psalms, 2011). In addition, she wrote several articles on the subject of the Lutosławskis. Her reminiscence The Lutosławskis was published in a volume of statements by the Polish composer, Postscriptum (in Polish, Warsaw 1999). She also wrote an introduction the Aleksander Laskowski’s conversations with prominent conductors, interpreters of works by Witold Lutosławski, titled Skrywany wulkan (Hiden Volcano, 2013).

In one statement, she described the composer in the following manner: "People who came into personal contact with Lutosławski repeat the opinion that his approach toward his interlocutors had a certain distance, shielded by courtesy. Some even called this distance coldness. Nothing of the sort was to be felt in his relations with friends; he was open, direct, and aways curious of the opinion of others. I think that if such distance did appear, it was a sort of protection against empty words, loss of time, and the everyday pressures toilsome for everyone, and from which he escaped ever so quickly into his creativity. It is appropriate to add that Lutosławski did everything to prevent his fame and position from getting in the way of his relations with loved ones. His behaviour was extraordinarily simple, and in social situations he left out matters of art".

On February 2014, at the Chain 11 festival in Warsaw, Julia Harwig received the Year of Lutosławski medal for her outstanding achievements in the dissemination of the composer’s heritage.

Jan Hoffman (1906-1995) – pianist and pedagogue based in Cracow. Following his studies at the Conservatory of the Musical Society in Cracow, he became the student assistant of Egon Petri in Cracow and Berlin. Early on (1928), he commenced his pedagogical activity, which became the passion of his life. After the war, he and Zbigniew Drzewiecki organized the State Postsecondary Music School in Cracow (PWSM). He was juror of many prestigious pianistic competitions, including the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw. He filled a variety of functions in the Cracow PWSM, that of pro-rector and rector among others. Hoffman greatly enlivened the activities of the institution, also through his creation of the Graduate Diploma in Musical Editorship.

He readily performed works by Polish contemporary composers, and reserved an important place in his repertoire for the music of Bach, as in the famous performances of concerts for two, three, and four pianos together with Zbigniew Drzewiecki, Bolesław Woytowicz, and Jan Ekier. He also made many editorial music arrangements for the PWM Edition.

In January, 1947, in Cracow, Aniela Szlemińska (voice) and Jan Hoffman (piano) gave the world premiere of Witold Lutosławski’s Twenty Carols. Stefania Łobaczewska wrote in the concert review that: “Only such a great master of contemporary form as Lutosławski could allow himself for a surely very bold experiment: associating carol melodies with a piano part conceived strictly in the contemporary spirit”.

Swiss oboist, composer, and conductor, born in 1939. He studied in Bern, Paris, and Basil. In his creative stance he remained under considerable influence from Pierre Boulez. His world career as instrumentalist began with successes at competitions in Geneva (1959) and in Munich (1961). Holliger commands a wide repertoire, which extends from the Baroque (including Albinoni, Zelenka) to the twentieth century, but is known mainly for his masterly interpretations of contemporary works (he extended the performance technique with the use of unconventional methods of sound production, e.g. multiphonics). Composers who wrote for him included Olivier Messiaen, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, Elliott Carter, Isang Yun, and Hans Werner Henze. He was a frequent guest in Poland at the Warsaw Autumn festival, and frequently performs with his wife Ursula, the harpist. Both Heinz Holliger, and Witold Lutosławski belong to a group of 12 composers, who on the invitation of Mstislav Rostropowich wrote for cello solo to celebrate the seventieth birthday of Paul Sacher in 1976.

Witold Lutosławski, who was greatly impressed by Holliger's art, planned to write an oboe concerto for him as early as in the beginning of the 70s. "Composing a concerto work for a melodic instrument like the oboe was for me an almost impossible task at the time, and that's why I breathed a sigh of relief when Sacher agreed for me to add another concertante instrument - the harp. This fact enabled me to solve many problems", said the composer, as quoted by Krzysztof Meyer. Lutosławski finally composed the work in the years 1979-1980 while abandoning many earlier ideas. The Double Concerto for Oboe, Harp, and Chamber Orchestra received its premiere on August 24, 1980, in Luzerne, with the participation of Heinz and Ursula Holliger and Collegium Musicum under the direction of Paul Sacher, who commissioned the work from Lutosławski. The Holligers later performed the Concerto with the composer as conductor, among other locations in Moscow and Warsaw (the latter on September 23, 1980).

At Warsaw Autumn in 1984, Heinz Holliger, this time in the role of the conductor of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, gave the Polish premiere of Witold Lutosławski's Chain I.

Ursula Holliger (1937-2014) – Swiss harpist, who after her studies in Basil and Brussels won the International Harp Contest in Israel, which opened her way to the great concert halls of the world. She appeared as soloist with the leading orchestras of Europe and America, and made numerous recordings, including the premieres of two concertos for violin and harp by Louis Spohr. She frequently makes concert appearances with her husband, most often with the contemporary repertoire. Many composers have written works for oboe and harp for Heinz and Ursula Holliger.

Among them is Witold Lutosławski, who remained under the impression of Heinz Holliger's artful performances, and planned to present him with an oboe concerto. He admitted, however, that writing a work for a melody instrument was for his a difficult task at the time. Finally, at the musician's request plans were changed, and the Double Concerto for Oboe and Harp, dedicated to the Holligers, was created. The world premiere of the work took place on August 24, 1980, in Luzerne, with the participation of Heinz and Ursula Holliger and the Collegium Musicum under the direction of Paul Sacher, who commissioned the work from Lutosławski. In the next month the artists performed the composition in Warsaw, with the composer as conductor.

Martina Homma — German musicologist, author of many publications on twentieth and nineteenth century music, researcher of Witold Lutosławski’s creative output. She studied piano, music theory, musicology, philosophy, as well as Slavic and German studies in Cologne, Cracow, and Warsaw. In 1996, she published a dissertation of over 750 pages: Witold Lutoslawski. Zwölfton-Harmonik – Formbildung – 'aleatorischer Kontrapunkt'. Studien zum Gesamtwerk unter Einbeziehung der Skizzen (Bela Verlag, Cologne).

The volume was the result of many years of research into the music of Lutosławski – research also based on his sketches, with which Homma acquainted herself in the late eighties at his home. In a conversation with Grzegorz Michalski, she remembered the times: “I would arrive every day at nine o’clock. A question was always posed: which sketches would be my pleasure? So I would tell him what I wished that day, which was quite comfortable for me. For example ‘today’ I would wish this and that – I would bring my scores, all the notes I had, and he would come with an envelope ready with sketches (...) and would leave me alone. I looked at what I wanted, till around eleven, eleven-thirty. He would then come, personally make me a small coffee, and ask me if I had any questions, if I understand everything, and if I would still like to find out more about anything”.

Homma’s dissertation was received enthusiastically in musicological and music criticism circles, and she immediately entered the canon of publications on the Polish composer. Andrzej Chłopecki closed his review of her work with a call: “For this book, in which Martina Homma turned Lutosławski’s ‘compositional kitchen’ upside down, and then created in it an order unexpected to its very owner, I nominate Martina Homma to all the most prestigious, most generous awards with which the Third Polish Republic can possibly honour her service to Polish culture.”

On January 24, 2013, at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Martina Homma received the Witold Lutosławski Centenary Medal for her outstanding contribution to the dissemination of the music and knowledge about the Polish composer.

When asked about her favourite composition by Witold Lutosławski, she mentioned Mi-parti.

Cellist, born in 1945, a former student of Roman Suchecki, later studied under Sergei Shirinsky in Moscow and Aldo Parisot at Yale University. He is a laureate of competitions in Munich, Gdańsk, Dallas, and Bordeaux. His appearance at Carnegie Hall as part of the tour of the Great Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio under the direction of Jerzy Maksymiuk opened to him the leading concert halls of the world. Roman Jabłoński is also a valued chamber musician, who appeared with Krystyna Borucińska and with the Quartet of the Polish Radio and Television, among others. As a pedagogue he was active in many Polish and foreign academies, and he often leads master classes. In his wide repertoire an especially important place is given to Witold Lutosławski's Cello Concerto, which he performed with great success in 1974 in Wrocław, and numerous times thereafter under the direction of the composer, with e.g. the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic (on the seventieth anniversary of Lutosławski's birth), and the Berlin Philharmonic, and recorded it for EMI in 1978. Witold Lutosławski was greatly impressed by the art of Roman Jabłoński's performance, and made the following remark: "He is, in my view, one of the very few top cellists of our times".

In 1981 Roman Jabłoński and Krystyna Borucińska gave the world premiere of Witold Lutosławski's Grave, composed in honour of the late Stefan Jarociński.

Eminent Polish violinist, specially valued by Witold Lutosławski, to whom the great composer entrusted the Polish premieres of all his violin works (Chain II , the Partita’s version for violin and orchestra, and Subito). On the Master’s invitation, he performed the composer’s works under his baton in major centres of the musical world.
Krzysztof Jakowicz completed his violin performance studies with distinction under the direction of such masters as T. Wroński, J. Gingold, E. Umińska, J. Starker, and H. Szeryng. He is First Award winner of the E. Ysaÿe Competition in Warsaw (1959) and the Third Award and the H. Szeryng Special Award in the H. Wieniawski 4 th International Competition in Poznań (1962). The Polish artist was a frequent guest of world- renowned festivals, such as the Warsaw Autumn, Edinburgh Festival, Berliner Festspiele, Old Cracow Festival, London City Festival, and festivals in Bregenz and Schleswig-Holstein. He appears with famous orchestras, such as the English Chamber Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, Wiener Symphoniker, BBC Scottish Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Polish National Philharmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Orquesta National de España, Polish Chamber Orchestra, and Amadeus Orchestra. He was soloist during a great number of tours abroad with the majority of Polish orchestras: the Polish National Philharmonic, Polish Chamber Orchestra, SinfoniaVarsovia, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonics of Łódź, Wrocław, Śląsk, Cracow, and Bydgoszcz, Amadeus Orchestra, and others. He collaborates with all prominent Polish conductors, as well as artists of such measure as J. Bělohlávek, R. Chailly, L. Hager, C. Imamura, P. Steinberg, M. Tabachnik, and T. Yuasa. For two years, he was first violinist of the famous Warsaw Quintet. For over a dozen years, he has appeared in a violin duo with his son, J. Jakowicz. He also collaborates with other outstanding artists of various generations, including J. Bocheńska, K. Borucińska, B. Gimpel, K. Jabłoński, S. Kamasa, M. Kozłowski, K. Marosek, W. Malicki, R. Morawski, T. Strahl, Wł. Szpilman, T. Tsutsumi, and M. Zdunik

It was Krzysztof Jakowicz who performed as soloist in the Polish premieres of Witold Lutosławski’s works for violin and orchestra: Chain II (in 1986) and Partita (in 1991). He was also the first artist to record, before the American premiere, Subito for violin and piano at the Polish Radio studio. His performances of Lutosławski’s Chain II, Partita, and Recitativo e arioso were permanently memorialized on several CDs. In 1986, during the Warsaw Autumn festival, he received the SPAM Music Critics’ Award for the performance of Chain II, and the record presenting his interpretation of this work was honoured in 1989 with the French critics Diapason d’Or award. The recording of the Partita in turn received the Fryderyk award. Jakowicz is a longtime performer of Lutosławski’s music in Poland and abroad. The Polish musician has often reminisced that his acquaintanceship with Witold Lutosławski was among the most important meetings in his artistic as well as private life.
On February 7, 2015, at a Chain 12 festival concert held in Warsaw at the Concert Studio of the Polish Radio, Krzysztof Jakowicz received the Year of Lutosławski Medal for his outstanding contribution to the dissemination of the composer’s heritage.

Stefan Jarociński (1912-1980) — musicologist, music critic, writer on music. He was a passionate of French music and culture, whose object of his interest lay in nineteenth- and twentieth-century aesthetics from the liminal area of music, literature, and visual art, as well as the history of music criticism. A specially important part of his output constitutes works is devoted to the music of Claude Debussy: Debussy and Impressionism and Symbolism, and Debussy. A Chronicle of life Work, and Epoch (both in Polish).

A colleague and friend of Lutosławski from Batory High School, he was a great admirer of his music and author of the book Witold Lutosławski, Materials for a Monograph (in Polish, PWM Edition, 1967), as well as articles devoted the composer’s music. In one such article he remarked: “He owes his leading role among all real artists not only, and perhaps not even, to the greatness of his talent, but to the impressive will and consistency with which he creates and develops his own musical language, as well as to the artistic results thus achieved” (“The Uniqueness of Lutosławski”, Ruch Muzyczny no. 21, 1961).

Witold Lutosławski remembers Stefan Jarociński in a conversation from 1981 with Elżbieta Markowska in the following manner: “I was connected to [him] with ties of a close, warm friendship. He devoted much time to my music, and was planning to publish a book on the subject of my compositions, having even begun in his time to prepare materials for it. (...) I have to admit that the things he said, and the manner in which he said them, as well as how he first reacted to my works, was of great importance to me. The same went for our shared musical passions and predilections. The fact alone, that Stefan devoted so much time in his life to Debussy, made him specially close to me, because in my own personal life Debussy also played an important role. (...) As goes for Jarociński’s creative work, especially the work on Debussy, I must say that I was also its ardent reader. (...) After Stefan’s death, I decided to honour his memory by composing a work dedicated to his person. I decided that it would be proper to relate it to Debussy’s music. I took the first four notes from the opening moment of Pelléas et Mélisande. These notes form the beginning of a certain musical idea, which is weaved further in a manner specific only to my music”.

The world premiere of Grave for cello and piano, took place on April 22, 1981, at the National Museum in Warsaw at an evening devoted to the memory of Stefan Jarociński. The premiere was given by Roman Jabłoński and Krystyna Borucińska.

Ryszard Kapuściński (1932-2007) — journalist, reporter, writer, traveler. He was a reporter for the Polish Press Agency on several continents, and with extreme perception observed and interpreted the realities of a rapidly changing world. He authored a number of best-selling books, translated into many languages. The best known are: If All Africa... (in Polish only), The Soccer War, The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat, Imperium, Travels with Herodotus, The Shadow of the Sun, and the series of Lapidariums (in Polish only).

He told the story of his new acquaintanceship with Witold Lutosławski to Grzegorz Michalski: “Together with Danusia (dim. of Danuta – trans. note), they liked very much what I wrote. Witold said once, probably to Artur Międzyrzecki, that he would like to invite me to his home. That’s how I found my way to Śmiała. This was the beginning of the 70s. Later, we were both in the Citizens’ Committee lead by Lech Wałęsa, so we participated in its sessions”.

Kapuściński had the opportunity to observe and admire Lutosławski in many situations unrelated to his musical activity: “He thought that the artist leads a double life. One in which he himself creates, and another in which he enters into the life of all people – the social life. He is that type of great creator, who had those two existences, two perfectly separated presences”.

The writer’s long-lasting acquaintanceship and frequent contacts with Witold Lutosławski enabled him to formulate many accurate observations about him as a composer and as a person: “I was most taken by Witold’s sense of great responsibility for the work of art, his care for it. I remember this painstaking kind of detail-work and the corrections, which can drive the people around ‘nuts’. A continued feeling of want, a lack in satisfaction. These aren’t good subjects for discussion. And this philosophy of his, that talent is an entrusted gift, which is offered to the human being by nature or God, but which must be paid back, given testimony to through creativity. He had the feeling that he has to honourably fulfill this mission”.

Jacek Kaspszyk (b. 1952) – conductor, artistic director of the National Philharmonic in Warsaw, performer and popularizer of Witold Lutosławski’s music.

In 1975, he completed studies in conducting, music theory, and composition in the State Postsecondary School of Music in Warsaw. From the time of his success at the prestigious Herbert von Karajan Conducting Competition (3rd Prize), he conducted many of the greatest orchestras in Europe and Asia, including the Bayerische Rundfunk, RSO Berlin, Orchestre Nationale de France, Wiener Symphoniker, and philharmonic orchestras in Oslo, Stockholm, Rotterdam, and Prague.

He held a wide range of posts in Poland, such as: general director of the Grand Theatre – National Opera in Warsaw, musical director of the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, artistic director of the Symphony Orchestra of the Witold Lutosławski Philharmonic in Wrocław. In September 1, 2013, he became artistic director of the National Philharmonic.

In one interview, Jacek Kaspszyk remembered Witold Lutosławski in the following manner: “His views were balanced, as were his composition, [which he] notated with the utmost perfection. He maintained that if he put something down and someone happened to not wholly understand it, the fault was his, and not that of the performer, for example. I once asked him, ‘Witek, why is your Fourth so short? It’s such an outstanding work, yet everyone is left with a lack of satisfaction’. He answered: ‘And that’s the wonderful thing – when the public leaves with a lack of satiety. An inverse situation would be terrifying’”. Jacek Kaspszyk and the Symphony Orchestra of the Wrocław Philharmonic recorded Lutosławski’s Symphonies nos. 2 and 4 for the CD Accord label. The compact disc received a Fryderyk Award in 2011.

On September 22, 2013, following a Warsaw Autumn festival concert at which Jacek Kaspszyk and Krystian Zimerman performed Witold Lutosławski’s Piano Concerto, the Polish conductor received the Witold Lutosławski Centennial Medal for an outstanding contribution to the dissemination of the composer’s music and knowledge about his person.

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Lidia Kmitowa, b. in 1888 in Moscow, d. in 1967 in Warsaw, violinist of Russian origins. She studied in Berlin under Ysaÿe, Joachim, and Barmos. Beginning in 1911 she appeared Germany and then Russia, finally settling in Poland in 1921. For many years she was connected with the Polish Radio Orchestra organized by Fitelberg, gave concerts as soloist and chamber musician, lead the Polish Radio Quartet, and taught at the Conservatory.

The young Witold, who was fascinated by the violin, took lessons for six years with Kmitowa. He reveals: "Thanks to her I possess the ability to use phrasing and interpretation in the classic sense of the word. At this time I was able to bring under my command a rather serious repertoire, which included the solo sonatas of Bach and concertos of Mozart".

As a superb violinist, Kmitowa performed two of his first chamber compositions - the Sonatas for violin and piano (1927 and 1928) - with him at the keyboard. Years later, the composer referred to them as "terribly naïve" pieces in the style of Grieg and early Debussy.

Not least of Lidia Kmitowa's contributions is the fact that it was she, who having observed the compositional interests of her student, referred him to Witold Maliszewski.

Eugeniusz Knapik, born in Ruda Śląska in 1951, is a pianist, classical composer, and university professor. He graduated from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music with two honours degrees: one in composition, under Henryk Mikołaj Górecki (1976), the other in piano, under Czesław Stańczyk (1977). In his long career as university faculty, he was successively assistant lecturer, lecturer, and professor at the Department of Composition, Conducting and Music Theory, which he chairs since 1996. Knapik served as Chancellor of the Academy from 2002 to 2008. In 2002, he was given the title Professor of Music.

Composition and piano performance have always been at the heart of his interests. As pianist, Knapik performed at many prestigious halls both nationally and internationally. His repertoire focuses on piano works by 20th-century piano music composers, including Messiaen, Skriabin and Bartók. As chamber music performer, he worked with the Silesian String Quartet, among other ensembles, and such renowned violinists as Konstanty Andrzej Kulka, Aureli Błaszczok, and Piotr Pławner. He has given many premiere performances and made multiple recordings of contemporary Polish and international composers.

Even his earliest works, written in the student years, demonstrate marked originality and technical excellence. Perhaps not surprisingly, Knapik won many important composition competitions. From 1988 to 1996, Knapik was occupied with his operatic trilogy titled The Minds of Helena Troubleyn, based on a text by Jan Fabre and commissioned by Gerard Mortier, Director of the Opera la Monnaie in Brussels. The trilogy’s three parts: Das Glas im Kopf wird vom Glas, Silent Screams, Difficult Dreams and La libertà chiama la libertà were premiered respectively in Antwerp (1990), Kassel (1992) and Wrocław (2010). Until now, his career’s summit is the opera Moby Dick (2001–2010), written to Krzysztof Koehler’s original libretto based on Herman Melville’s famous novel; the opera was written on a commission by the Grand Theatre – National Opera in Warsaw.

Kazimierz Kord (b. 1930 in Pogórze) — conductor and director of many musical institutions in Poland. In his longest post, which he held from 1977 to 2001, he was head of the National Philharmonic in Warsaw.

He began his education at the Secondary Music School in Katowice, after which he left in 1949 on a scholarship to Leningrad, where he studied for five years at the Conservatory in the class of the superb pianist and pedagogue Vladimir Nielsen. Following his return to Poland he enrolled in the State Postsecondary Music School in Cracow, and attended the class of Artur Malawski and Witold Krzemieński. He obtained his first professional conducting experience as a choirmaster at the Warsaw Opera. In 1962 however, he returned to Cracow, where he filled the function of the director of the Municipal Music Theatre, and where in the course of an eight-year period he prepared around 30 ballet and operatic premieres, including Faust by Charles Gounod, which Kord directed with Józef Szajna’s as stage designer.

Thanks to this very performance he was engaged by the Gartnerplatztheater in Munich, where he conducted, among other works, Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle. Kazimierz Kord’s great achievement in opera was the long-lasting collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera in New York. There, he prepared Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, Verdi’s Aïda and Macbeth, as well as Mozart’s Così fan tutte, and for the opening of the 1977-1978 season, Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov. In the San Francisco Opera he lead, among other works, Verdi’s Falstaff and Othello. He also remained in constant collaboration with opera theaters in Amsterdam, Munich, Düsseldorf, Copenhagen (with the Royal Danish Theatre), and well as in London (performances in Covent Garden).

In addition, Kazimierz Kord conducted many symphonic ensembles: in Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Dallas, and Cincinnati, where for a time he was first guest conductor. He lead a European tour with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and was a many-time guest conductor in Osaka and Tokyo. In Europe he conducted orchestras in London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Rome, Leningrad, Moscow, Hamburg, Cologne, Frankfurt. In the 80s he was head of the Sudwestfunk Orchester Baden-Baden.

In Poland, he was head of the Great Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio in Katowice for a period of four years, and in 1977 he took over the National Philharmonic Orchestra in Warsaw after Witold Rowicki, ending his work with the Philharmonic in 2001 at its centennial celebrations in Warsaw. Within this period the Orchestra secured its place on the international arena, and under Kazimierz Kord it made over 30 great concert tours to many countries of the world.

Kazimierz Kord’s repertoire included works from different epochs and styles, but it could also be said that his attention concentrated on great musical forms and contemporary compositions which he presented, among others, at the Warsaw Autumn Contemporary Music Festival, at the Donaueschingen Festival, and the Lutosławski Forum. It was Kazimierz Kord who asked Witold Lutosławski for the patronage over the Forum, devoted the most outstanding achievements of contemporary art.

In effect, Witold Lutosławski made a list of a several dozen masterworks, which together created the “twentieth-century canon”. Each season of the Forum consisted of concerts at the Philharmonic, as well as meetings, expositions, seminars, and lectures devoted to contemporary art. The most outstanding creators and theorists took part in the events. Another intention of the organizers was for the festival to become an opportunity for the presentation of young artists’ work. The first Forum took place in 1995, after the death of Witold Lutosławski, and during it Kazimierz Kord conducted the Symphony no. 4 of the Polish composer, at another he lead the Chantefleurs et chantefables (fourth Forum in 1998) with the solo part sung by Olga Pasiecznik, and at the second Forum (1996) Ewa Pobłocka performed the Piano Concerto with Kazimierz Kord as conductor. The latter work found itself also in the program of an evening which graced the anniversary of Chopin’s birth on March 1, 1999. Kazimierz Kord and Ewa Pobłocka recorded the Concerto on a disc issued by CD Accord, which includes two other piano concertos by twentieth-century composers: Andrzej Panufnik and Paweł Szymański.

Witold Lutosławski’s works often appeared under the baton of Kazimierz Kord in the concert programs of the National Philharmonic Orchestra in Warsaw. During the inauguration of the 12th International Chopin Competition on October 1, 1990, Kord directed the Symphony no. 3, while on October 4, 2000 he lead the Concerto for Orchestra, at the inauguration of the 14th Chopin Competition; finally, on November 5, 2001, at an evening adding splendour to the centennial of the Philharmonic’s existence, he conducted the Symphony no. 4. For the end of the concert season in June, 1984, Kazimierz Kord offered a rendition of Lutosławski’s Cello Concerto, with Roman Jabłoński as soloist. On an unforgettable evening in 1999, a concert titled “Yehudi Menuhin in memoriam” resounded with Lutosławski’s Funeral Music, played by the ensemble Sinfonia Varsovia under Kazimierz Kord. The artist returned many times to the Concerto for Orchestra, the Symphonic Variations, Livre pour Orchestre, Mi-parti and the Symphony also beyond Poland’s borders. He prepared a performance of the Symphony No. 3 with the Sudwestfunk Orchester Baden-Baden.

During Witold Lutosławski’s life we also have Kazimierz Kord to thank for the idea of a Lutosławski “Composition Competition”. Initially its organizer was the National Philharmonic, while from 2004 the role was taken over by the Witold Lutosławski Society.

Kazimierz Kord created many recordings for EMI, Philips, Decca, while in Poland he recorded — among others — all of Ludwig van Beethoven’s symphonies on the CD Accord label. The latter firm made a recording of the premiere of Wojciech Kilar’s Missa pro pace, a work which Kazimierz Kord commissioned from the composer on the centennial of Warsaw’s Philharmonic. The artist received numerous awards and distinctions in his home country and abroad.

Włodzimierz Kotoński (1925) – Polish composer and pedagogue, author of books on music.

Włodzimierz Kotoński was a student of Piotr Rytel and Tadeusz Szeligowski. He was a researcher into folk, electronic, and percussion music. He authored the first Polish electronic music composition, Concrete Study in One Cymbal Stroke (1959), collaborated with the Polish Radio Experimental Studio in Warsaw, and participated in the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt. His composition students included Hanna Kulenty, Paweł Szymański, Tadeusz Wielecki, and Paweł Mykietyn.

In conversation with Grzegorz Michalski, Włodzimierz Kotoński said that he met Lutosławski "at the meetings held in the Polish Composers’ Union when he himself was in his early twenties. It was in the year 1948-1949". The two composers collaborated on drawing up the Warsaw Autumn festival program. Kotoński described Lutosławski’s aesthetic predilections in the following manner: “He had his favourite composers and musical directions, but he was not against currents he did not understand. I’m thinking here of minimal music or Neo-romantic currents. He definitely did not like the music of such people as Krauze or Ligeti, meeting with the latter in private many times, but not liking the music. His approach to [the music of] Xenakis was also rather cautious, as if he was unsure of its real result. He accepted [the music of] Xenakis, but the later [works], not the mathematical ones. His favourite French composer was Dutilleux, and he loved Nordheim”.

On July 21, 2014, Włodzimierz Kotoński received the Year of Lutoławski Medal in his Warsaw home for his outstanding contribution to the dissemination of the music and knowledge about the composer.

Zygmunt Krauze (b. 1938) – composer, pianist, pedagogue, organizer of musical events, popularizer of new music.

He studied at the State School of Music in Warsaw in the piano class of Maria Wiłkomirska, and the composition class of Kazimierz Sikorski (diplomas respectively in 1962 and 1964). Furthermore, he studied in Paris under Nadia Boulanger (1966-1967) as a recipient of a Governement of France scholarship. Known primarily as a composer of unistic music, the principles of which are based on the theory of Władysław Strzemiński’s paintings. Zygmunt Krauze is the author of five operas, a number of instrumental concerts, and symphonic and chamber compositions. He also worked with architects while creating spatially-oriented music.

In 1966, he was First Prize winner at the Gaudeamus International Interpreters Award for new music, in Holland. From this time onward he gives concerts as a pianist throughout the world, performing mostly new music; one of his programs includes selected Folk Melodies by Witold Lutosławski, along with improvisations on their theme. In a conversation with Krystyna Tarnawska-Kaczorowska, he said: “I specially love playing Lutosławski’s Folk Melodies, despite it being an almost childlike, or school-like piece of incredible simplicity. At twentieth-century recitals, which sometimes feature complicated and controversial pieces, this simple melody, fashioned with such perfection, resounds with surprisingly great strength and persuasive power”.

Zygmunt Krauze was one of the founders of the Witold Lutosławski Society, where in the years 2003-2006 he filled the function of President of the Society.

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Conductor and composer, born on July 14, 1926 in Włocławek. He studied in Łódź under Kazimierz Wiłkomirski (conducting), and Kazimierz Sikorski (composition). Beginning in 1949 he collaborated with Grzegorz Fitelberg succeeding him in 1953 as artistic director of the Great Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio in Katowice. In the course of the fifteen-year period with the ensemble he became known as a passionate propagator of Polish (especially contemporary) music, both in Poland and throughout the world. He simultaneously introduced distinguished masterworks of foreign composers onto the stages of Polish concert halls. In addition, he played a significant role as the artistic director of the Teatr Wielki (Grand Theatre) in Warsaw.

Jan Krenz has revealed in a conversation with Elżbieta Markowska: "My ties with Witold Lutosławski consisted of the longtime contact with his music and relation with him as a person, which in time acquired the characteristics of an intimate friendship".

His collaboration with Witold Lutosławski began with a commission, which he submitted to the composer for a work to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Béla Bartók's death. This impulse lead to his Funeral Music. Lutosławski admitted: "Unfortunately, I was late for the tenth anniversary of his death Krenz wanted to begin the concert with a composition dedicated to the memory of Bartók. The world premiere of Funeral Music was only given two years later, under the baton of Jan Krenz."

The conductor presented Lutosławski's works often and with pleasure, feeling almost as if he was his ‘court conductor'. He had a strong emotional relation to the Trois poèmes d'Henri Michaux, a work which he conducted numerous times along with the composer. The audience of the 13th Warsaw Autumn was especially impressed by the Polish premiere of Livre pour orchestre (September 1969). Lutosławski held Jan Krenz's interpretations in high esteem, and said: "He is one of the performers which are of great significance to me".

Jan Krenz characterized the composer in the following manner: "I believe that Witold Lutosławski's secret was that he demanded the maximum from himself, and that he had a super-human will to realize his own potential. And he would do it with simplicity, without pathos or calculation for effect. For half a century I was a witness to his extraordinary life and compositional achievements - from the Symphonic Variations to the Symphony no. 4. I admired the immense vitality, creative potency, life energy and strength, with which he undertook the ever-new creative and conducting tasks. There was in him an eternal youth, constant creative ability, and enthusiasm - perhaps one that was masked, but also immense and authentic."

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Norwegian soprano singer, her true name Solveig Kringlebotn, born in 1963, studied at the Norvegian Academy of Music and the Royal Opera Academy in Stockholm, where she also began her stage career. Witold Lutosławski, having heard her at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, later said of the moment: "Her recital made a great impression on me. I realized that this is the ideal type of voice and interpretation for my new composition". The composition was a cycle of songs with orchestra titled Chantefleurs et Chantefables, written to the words of Robert Desnos. Its world premiere was given by Kringlebotn and the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the direction of the composer, on August 8, 1991, at the London Proms, and was enthusiastically received. This concert became a turning point in the career of Solveig Kringlebotn, who from that time is counted among the leading Scandinavian singers and appears on the foremost dramatic and concert stages. The Varsovian public received her with no less an applause in September 1991, when she performed the solo part in the Polish premiere of Chantefleurs et Chantefables at the closing concert of the 34th Warsaw Autumn, also under the direction of the composer. Kringlebotn recorded Lutosławski's songs under the baton of Daniel Harding.

Ludwik Kurkiewicz (1906-1998) – clarinetist and pedagogue, graduate of the conservatory in Poznań in the class of Prof. Jerzy Madej. In 1933 he became first clarinetist at the Warsaw Philharmonic, playing also in the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and in 1937 beginning pedagogical work at the Warsaw Conservatory. From 1945 until the end of his life he was tied to the State Postsecondary Music School in Warsaw, also as its long-time pro-rector, raising several generations of clarinetists. He performed almost the entire repertoire for his instrument, recorded discs with Karol Kurpiński’s Clarinet Concerto, and made numerous radio recordings. In addition, he took part in the Warsaw Autumn and the Poznań Musical Spring festivals, presenting new works by Polish composers. He enjoyed the stature of an international authority, sitting in juries of many national and foreign competitions, running masterclasses, and editing collections of pedagogical literature.

On February 15, 1955, in Warsaw, Ludwik Kurkiewicz participated in the world premiere of Witold Lutosławski’s Dance Preludes, with the accompaniment of Sergiusz Nadgryzowski. This cycle of five miniatures, first intended as a study piece, was to later reveal itself as an attractive performance item in the repertoire of clarinetists, also in authored arrangements for clarinet with chamber orchestra, and for an eight-piece ensemble.

Jerzy Lefeld, pianist, pedagogue, composer, b. 1898, d. 1980 in Warsaw. He studied piano under Aleksander Michałowski and composition under Roman Statkowski at the Music Institute in Warsaw. He was a prominent chamber musician and accompanist who collaborated with the leading Polish singers and instrumentalists. The Polish Radio archives hold many recordings which he created with such artists.

For over 50 years Jerzy Lefeld also devoted himself to pedagogical work, first at the Conservatory, and later at the State Postsecondary School of Music in Warsaw. As a composer he completed two symphonies, piano miniatures, pieces for children, and songs. His students included Stefan Kisielewski, Witold Małcużyński, and Witold Lutosławski, the latter of whom was assigned to his class at the beginning of his Conservatory studies at young Lutosławski's own request.

According to Krzysztof Meyer, "the choice of teacher was suggested by Stefan Kisielewski, who assured that this was the way for him to avoid another return to the hated finger drills". Lutosławski himself reminisced: "his kindness and sincere relation to the students guaranteed a study that was free of stress. Lessons with him were a very pleasant experience". Years later he acknowledged that studying with him also had its weak side: "The ease of play which he brought with him to the world was simply unbelievable. But these possibilities, both in the interpretation of music and in the technical mastery of text, meant that he couldn't teach a whole lot, because he himself never had to learn".

German conductor, born in 1908, died in 1996, son of the eminent poet Wilhelm Lehmann. A great influence on the development of his personality was made by Wilhelm Furtwängler and August Halm, the theoretician of music and Bruckner enthusiast. Lehmann commenced his career in 1927 in the Wiesbaden theatre, and appeared numerous times with the Berliner Philharmoniker. In 1949 he became general music director of the town of Hagen in the Ruhr region, which possessed an operatic orchestra of modest size, and held the position until 1970. Lehman considerably enlivened the activities of the ensemble, performing contemporary and other works, and called into being the Hagener Musiktage, still in operation.

Lehman became acquainted with Witold Lutosławski's works early on and became one of their first propagators in Germany, frequently performing his music. The most important moment of their collaboration was the 1962 commission of a new work for the orchestra, which resulted in the writing of Livre pour orchestre, dedicated to the conductor. The piece received its world premiere under his baton on November 18, 1968, at the Musiktage.

Witold Lutosławski reminisced in a conversation with Zofia Owińska: "Berthold Lehmann is in my life a rather special figure. [...] He invited me to Hagen, so that I could say a few words before a concert for students, where one of the compositions to be performed were the Venetian Games. Then he saw to that he would be able to commission me to write an orchestral piece. This became the Livre pour orchestre. Lehmann gave its premiere with great care and tremendous amount of preparation, though it wasn't a performance for which one would have wished, since it was too modest of an orchestra. Lately Lehmann celebrated an anniversary, the details of which I am unaware of, and wanted me to come and conduct my Symphony no. 3, which he had directed already as quite an older man, though I was not there to hear it."

Livre pour orchestre still holds the place of honour in the repertoire of the Hagen orchestra; there exists a conviction that the ensemble's collaboration with Witold Lutosławski raised Hagen to a well-ranking musical centre.

Danuta Lutosławska (1911-1994), maiden name Dygat, name from first marriage Bogusławska, wife of Witold Lutosławski, daughter of the architect Antoni Dygat and sister of the writer Stanisław Dygat.

Witold Lutosławski met his future wife at the time of the occupation, in the Warsaw restaurant Aria – the first in which he played in the duo with Panufnik. They were married in 1946. The composer simultaneously took on the responsibilities of stepfather in relation to her son from the first marriage, Marcin Bogusławski. According to mutually confirmed statements, the Lutosławskis were a specially harmonious couple. Danuta Lutosławska consciously abandoned her own professional ambitions, fully submitting herself to the demands of her husband’s creative endeavour. The Lutosławskis rarely parted, had the regular habit of common reading, and in their leisure time went sailing on the Zegrze Reservoir and the Masurian Lakeland.

Zofia Owińska made the remark that “I think that never in my life did I meet another couple so mutually sincere, so specially tied together. (...) Danusia (dim. of Danuta – trans. note) always behaved modestly, had incredibly good manners, and what I always found endearing, a disarming manner of smiling and laughing”. The composer himself said to Irina Nikolska: “Danusia... studied architecture. Unfortunately, when she was expecting her baby, she withdrew from her studies and never returned. There remained her interests and talents. This is also why she designed my studio, and she did it phenomenally! (...) Apart from this, from the rather early years of our marriage Danusia began to write clean copies of my pieces. This of course greatly facilitated things for me, because I could design the graphic arrangements of all my scores to be published by Chester. I wrote the scores quite neatly with a pencil, and I had already calculated the whole horizontal arrangement according to my wishes. From this, Danusia made carbon copies, which served as matrices for the printer. This was of great help to me, because I was certain of the final effect. One never has the same certitude when the material is given to an engraver...”.

“I decided to live longer than Witek (dim. of Witold – trans. note), because he needs me”, said Danuta Lutosławska according to Krzysztof Jakowicz. Danuta Lutosławska died two months after her husband. They rest together in the Powązki Cemetary.

Witold Maliszewski, composer and pedagogue. Born on July 20, 1873, in Mohylów Podolski, studied in Petersburg, first in the fields of mathematics and medicine, and later, in the years 1898-1902, composition at the Conservatory under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakow. In 1908 he worked in Odessa as the conductor of the Musical Society, and in 1913 became the founder and first rector of the Conservatory, where he taught composition, harmony, and counterpoint. In 1921, in fear of the Bolshevik persecutions, he moved to Warsaw, undertaking pedagogical work at the Conservatory, and later the Fryderyk Chopin Postsecondary School of Music. He also filled the role of director of the Warsaw Musical Society, and was co-organizer and head of the jury at the 1st Chopin Competition in Warsaw (1927). His students included Feliks Łabuński, Feliks Rybicki, and Witold Lutosławski. Maliszewski's oeuvre includes four symphonies, the opera-ballets Borut and Syrena, religious works Missa Pontificalis and Requiem, as well as chamber, piano, and choir works and songs.

Witold Maliszewski, being interested in the compositional efforts of the 14-year-old Witold Lutosławski, first gave him private theory and composition lessons. With his encouragement Lutosławski undertook studies at the Conservatory, although officially Maliszewski taught only classes in musical form and counterpoint there. Lutosławski reminisced: "This was my only professor in composition. He had a true fatherly relation toward me. This was a man who was a rare example of spotless character. Believing that I am lacking in the area of music theory, he saw to that these shortcomings were taken care of. He simultaneously emphasized the need for me to compose with the utmost freedom [...]. I remember Maliszewski as an extraordinarily wise human being". He also admitted: "I took the most advantage from his lectures in musical form. Those lectures, for the basis of which he used Beethoven's Sonatas, are significant for me to this day. Their nature was derived from the psychology of musical reception". The master, however, being conservative in his views, admitted that he doesn't understand the music of his student, who notwithstanding completed studies with him and presented portions of the Requiem and Fugue as his diploma work

Andrzej Markowski (1924-1986) — conductor, composer, organizer of musical life. At first, he was active as a creator of theatre and film music. He was artistic director and first conductor of the Cracow Philharmonic (1959-1964), director of the Wrocław Philharmonic (1965-1969), second conductor of the National Philharmonic (1971-1977), and president of the Łódź Philharmonic. From the beginning he let himself be known as an energetic propagator of early and new music. His greatest achievement was the founding of the oratorio and cantata music festival Vratislavia Cantans (from 1966). Andrzej Markowski gave numerous world premieres of works by contemporary Polish composers, which he also conducted throughout the world, all the while acquanting the Polish public with outstanding works from different periods, from Monteverdi to contemporary times.

To foster the performance of new music, Andrzej Markowski created the Chamber Orchestra at the Cracow Philharmonic. He asked Witold Lutosławski to compose a work to be performed at the orchestra’s Venice Biennale concert. Lutosławski’s answer to this were the Venetian Games, whose world premiere then took place at the Teatro La Fenice on April 24, 1961. The score did not yet have its final shape, as it lacked the third movement. (The world premiere of the complete version of the work took place in September of the same year at the Warsaw Autumn, under the direction of Witold Rowicki.)

The Venetian Games became a milestone on Lutosławski’s creative path, since the work includes his first use the technique of ‘limited aleatoricism’.

Witold Małcużyński (1914-1977) — pianist, third prize laureate of the 3rd International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. For this competition, he prepared for several months under the direction of Ignacy Jan Paderewski. He began his great career in 1940 by giving concerts first in South America, in the United States, and after the war, also in Europe. A superb interpreter of great Romantic works, he gained fame primarily as one of the best performers of Fryderyk Chopin’s music, he twice made a world tour on the occasion of Chopin anniversaries (1949, 1960), and participated in the operations of the International Chopin Piano Competition jury (1960, 1970, 1975).

Witold Lutosławski remembered Witold Małcużyński in a conversation with Zofia Owińska thus: “He was one of my closest friends, which wasn’t strictly tied to music. Put simply, we were friends at the Conservatory, although not in the same grade – because he was with Turczyński – but we finished our studies in the same time. Later, we began to see each other really only after the war, because before that, there was no such possibility. And from this time we regularly kept in touch. I really miss him. There was something important between us. And it wasn’t in a way a strictly musical friendship, but simply a human one. Or perhaps even more than that”.

Małcużyński enticed Witold Lutosławski to write the Piano Concerto. Lutosławski himself revealed in conversation with Zofia Owińska: “Małcużyński cared much about the creation of the Concerto, and in fact I cared likewise about him as a performer. However, this (already second) attempt was not successful. On the other hand, the first attempt at composing the Concerto was interrupted by the war”. The sketches for the composition, created in the years 1937-1939, were lost during the war.

Krzysztof Meyer (b. 1943, in Cracow) — composer and pianist, studied under the direction of Stanisław Wiechowicz and Krzysztof Penderecki, supplementing his education with Nadia Boulanger, and privately with Witold Lutosławski. He was lecturer at institutions of higher learning in Cracow (1972-1987) and in Cologne (1987-2008). In 1965, he debuted at Warsaw Autumn with his String Quartet no. 1 as the youngest composer in the history of the festival. He composed symphonies, concerts, string quartets, the opera Cyberiad after Lem, and the oratorio Creation of the World; moreover, he authored many writings on the subject of music. Krzysztof Meyer’s works are performed in many musical centres of the world. The fruit of his interest in Dmitri Shostakovich is his authoritative monograph of the Russian composer and the completion of his unfinished opera The Gamblers.

Krzysztof Meyer’s acquaintanceship with Witold Lutosławski lasted 29 years, from the moment when the latter proposed to give him private lessons after the young composer’s debut at Warsaw Autumn. As Meyer remembers, the lessons were not limited to music: “He immediately began speaking about politics. This was extraordinary for me in the sense that in those times one would not speak of politics with someone well-known. But he wanted to let me understand that we did not live in a free country, and that the conditions in which we found ourselves were far from normal. And that we must remember this and pass it further on”. Krzysztof Meyer saw in it a gesture of patriotism and “an attempt at raising a young person also under this angle”. He also said of his master: “He would give me extraordinarily precise indications, surpassing in it my previous teachers, and I say this having studied under Nadia Boulanger. This was for me a novel discovery: how one can teach compositional technique, precision, cosistency, and logic”.

Meyer recalls Lutosławski’s credo: “Just as truth is the loftiest goal of science, beauty is the loftiest goal of art”.

In later years, the relation master – student became transformed into close acquaintanceship, and finally, friendship, during their collaboration at the Program Council of Warsaw Autum and the Board of the Polish Composers’ Union. In 1996, in Düsseldorf, Krzysztof Meyer organized the Polish Autumn, presenting the creative output of Witold Lutosławski, still little known in Germany. He devoted his Abschied-Music to his memory.

He said of Witold Lutosławski’s music: “He created a musical language completely autonomous from any currents, trends, and styles of any other composers, one that was inimitable and instantly recognizable. And in the twentieth century, not many can boast of that. It is a great joy for me to live in times where his music gains wide acclaim”.

Together with Danuta Gwizdalanka, Krzystof Meyer published a Polish collection of Lutosławski’s writings and statements titled Witold Lutosławski. Postscriptum, as well as the composer’s most comprehensive biography to-date, a work in Polish titled Witold Lutosławski. His Way to Maturity and Witold Lutosławski. His Way to Mastery, which he supplied with many personal reminiscences about the composer.

On January 24, 2013, Krzysztof Meyer was decorated with the Lutosławski Centennial Medal.

Kazimierz Michalik (ur. 1933) — Polish cellist and teacher, Professor at the Fryderyk Chopin Music University in Warsaw.

He graduated from the State Postsecondary School of Music in Katowice, where he studied under the direction of J. Drohomirecki. He also completed studies at the Prague Academy of Musical Arts in the cello class of Prof. K. Sádlo and M. Sádlo. As he himself often emphasized, contacts with outstanding cellists, such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniel Szafran, and André Navarra, significantly influenced his artistic development.

He was a long-time leader of the cello section at the Polish Radio Great Symphony Orchestra in Katowice and at the Symphony Orchestra of the National Philharmonic in Warsaw. From 1974, he also became active as pedagogue. Many of his students count among outstanding Polish cellists, with Andrzej Bauer, Tomasz Strahl, and Karol Marianowski at the forefront. Andrzej Bauer said about his mentor: “Everyone, who comes into contact with the professor, senses the immensity of his intellectual horizons, extraordinary knowledge of literature, very high standards as to a widely understood manners. The professor possesses an extraordinary knowledge on the subject of art, literature, and theatre. He is a Renaissance man, in the best understanding of the term”.

Kazimierz Michalik is the conceptual founder of the International Witold Lutosławski Cello Competition, the President of the Foundation for the Promotion of Young Violoncellists (the competition organizer), and in several of its celebrations, chairman of the jury.

At the concert of the 9th Witold Lutosławski Cello Competition laureates, given at the National Philharmonic in February, 2013, Kazimierz Michalik was honoured with the Witold Lutosławski Centennial Medal in recognition of his contribution to the dissemination of the composer’s music and knowledge about his person.

Grzegorz Michalski - musicologist. He was editor of the bi-weekly Ruch Muzyczny (Musical Matters and Events) in 1971-1973, the director of Classical Music Section Editorship in the Polish Television in 1974-1981, the National Philharmonic’s programme consultant in 1982-1988, and director and chief editor of the PWM Edition in 1988-90. From 1990 to 1992 he was the State vice-secretary and later the plenipotentiary for the Chopin Heritage at the Ministry of Art and Culture, and from 1992 to 1999 he directed the Section of Cultural Journalism in the Polish Radio Program II. In the years 2001-2008 (with a break in 2006) he was the director of The Fryderyk Chopin Institute. In this role he initiated, among others: the series of yearly International Chopin Conferences, the Birthday Anniversary Concert Series at the National Philharmonic, the current of Chopin concerts and recordings made with historical instruments, the International Music Festival "Chopin and His Europe", publishing series (including Works by Chopin. Facsimile Edition). The member of the Polish Composers’ Union and PEN Club. In the years 2008-2014 he was the president of the Witold Lutosławski Society. Since 2011 he was a member of the Programme Commitee of the Chopin’s Institute following which, in 2014-2015, as a proxy of the director of the Institute, he was engaged in preparations for the Chopin Piano Competition. In may 2017 he became the president of the Polish Music Council.

Notable publications by Grzegorz Michalski include: "New Music (from 1937)", in: An Outline History of Polish Music, Warsaw: Interpress, 1979 (Polish original 1977); "New Polish Music 1980-1989", in: Polish Realities - the Art in Poland, Glasgow: Third Eye Centre, 1990; Lutosławski in Memories. 20 Conversations About the Composer, Gdańsk: słowo/obraz terytoria, 2007.

He was born on April 4, 1947, in Łódź. Wojciech Michniewski studied conducting with St. Wisłocki (Honours Master’s Degree, 1972), music theory (Honours Master’s Degree, 1971), and composition with Andrzej Dobrowolski at the Academy of Music in Warsaw (now the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music). From 1973 to 1978, Wojciech Michniewski was closely associated with the Warsaw National Philharmonic, first as assistant-conductor, perfecting his skills in close collaboration with maestro W. Rowicki, and from 1976 as permanent staff conductor. In parallel, together with K. Knittel and E. Sikora, he formed the KEW composers’ group, prominently active in the 1970s, creating collective compositions and organizing contemporary music concerts. In 1974, he was prizewinner at the National Conducting Competition in Katowice. In 1977, he won First Prize and Gold Medal at the Milan’s La Scala Guido Cantelli International Conducting Competition, and in 1978, Bronze Medal at the International Ernest Ansermet Conducting Competition in Geneva. From 1979 to 1981, Wojciech Michniewski was artistic director of the Grand Opera Theatre in Łódź, and in parallel (until 1983), music director of the Modern Stage at the Warsaw Chamber Opera. In the years 1984-1987, he was permanent guest conductor of the Polish Chamber Orchestra in Warsaw, playing an important role in the transformation of this ensemble into the well-known Sinfonia Varsovia. From 1987 to 1991, he was managing and artistic director of the Poznań Philharmonic. After 1991, he decided to refrain from accepting permanent positions and is now exclusively guest-conductor. Wojciech Michniewski has conducted symphonic concerts and opera performances in the grand majority of European countries, in Asia, as well as North and South America. Apart from his vast classical repertoire, he is particularly valued for his interpretations of contemporary music. He has brought many world contemporary works to the Polish audience, while conducting the Polish premieres of works by such twentieth-century and contemporary composers as Adams, Andriessen, Balakauskas, Berio, Boulez, Denisow, Dusapin, Dutilleux, Ferrari, Glass, Grisey, Halffter, Hosokawa, Kagel, Kancheli, Kurtág, Ligeti, Mâche, Maderna, Maxwell-Davies, Messiaen, Nordheim, Nørgård, Nyman, Padding, Reich, Takemitsu. At the Warsaw Grand Theatre – National Opera, he recently prepared and conducted numerous world premieres of stage works by P. Mykietyn, E. Sikora, R. Panufnik, D. Jaskot, and A. Gryka, as well as the Polish premiere of H. Kulenty’s opera The Mother of the Black- Winged Dreams at the Wrocław Opera, world premiere of M. Ptaszynska’s opera The Lovers from the Valdemosa Cloister at the Łódź Grand Opera Theatre, and world premiere of E. Sikora’s opera Madame Curie.

In a radio conversation with Ewa Szczecińska, Wojciech Michniewski reminisced that he first met the composer around 1973, when he began his collaboration with the National Philharmonic. Their closer acquaintanceship enabled the invitation of Wojciech Michniewski several years later to perform Lutosławski’s Trois poèmes d'Henri Michaux alonside the composer. When asked about Lutosławski’s symphonies in the same interview, he replied: “I conduct the Third and the Fourth whenever the occasion arises, because I like them a great amount. One is outstanding, the other outstandingly beautiful”.
Several works by Witold Lutosławski under the baton of Wojciech Michniewski have been released on records; apart from the above-mentioned Trois poèmes, Somm Recordings issued a disc that includes the Novelette, Symphony no. 2, and Fanfare for Louisville, recorded during the Breaking Chains festival in 1997. Together with Sinfonia Varsovia, Michniewski recorded the Partita (with Krzysztof Jakowicz), Musique funèbre, Overture for Strings, Jeux vénitiens, and Interlude. This CD Accord release obtained the Fryderyk award in 1996. In addition, the Polish Radio CD Hommage à Lutosławski includes a recording of the Interlude.
On February 7, 2015, at a Chain 12 festival concert held at the Concert Studio of the Polish Radio, Wojciech Michniewski received the Year of Lutosławski Medal for his outstanding contribution to the dissemination of the composer’s heritage.

Marek Moś is conductor, founding artistic director of AUKSO chamber orchestra, and artistic director of the AUKSO Summer Philharmonic festival in the Polish Lakes region.

He is a Polish violinist and chamber musician, having studied in Bytom and Katowice under Kazimierz Dębicki and Andrzej Grabiec. As founder and long-time leader of the Silesian String Quartet, fast one of Europe’s finest ensembles of the kind, Marek Moś performed at significant festivals and in prestigious halls in Europe and the world, for example in the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Concertgebouw and Ijsbreker in Amsterdam, Vredenburg in Utrecht, Schauspielhaus in Berlin, Tivoli in Copenhagen, Tonhalle in Düsseldorf, De Singel in Antwerp, Merkin Hall in New York, and Jordan Hall in Boston.

Apart from his intensive concert schedule, Marek Moś is currently professor at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice.

German violinist, born in 1963, began her career at the young age of 13, after Herbert von Karajan invited her to joint appearances and recording sessions. She debuted under his direction in 1976 with the performance of Mozart's Violin Concerto no. 4 in D major at the Luzerne Festival. Her first record, also recorded with Karajan and featuring two Mozart concertos, was released soon thereafter. The subsequent years were a long series of successes at the most prominent of world stages and collaboration with leading orchestras and conductors.

Anne-Sophie Mutter acquainted herself with Witold Lutosławski's music when Paul Sacher, for whom the Polish composer wrote his Chain II, engaged her to perform the solo part in the work. Years later, the 22-year-old artist reminisced: "In 1985 this was for me a great shock, since I had never performed contemporary music. Lutosławski was the first such composer for me. When I received the score, it seemed to me a collection of hieroglyphics. [...] I worried whether I would be able to grasp this music, and introduce something personal into it. [...] I understood that the composer is demanding something from me, and that this something is in me. Lutosławski struck a note which had not yet been sounded. This was a threshold in my musical development. After this composition I immediately wanted play another, and I dreamed of a full violin concerto".

Lutosławski in turn expressed his great admiration (which was rare for him) for the art of Anne-Sophie Mutter. In a conversation with Zofia Owińska, he recalled the rehearsals to Chain II in the following manner: "I will never forget this moment in my life. It was something utterly exceptional. I could not imagine that my music could sound like that. What was the source of the extraordinary strength and force of this music? Here we have an artist who possesses an extraordinarily rich emotional repertoire in her playing: the array of genres and moods [...] is stunning. [...] There isn't a moment where the performance is neutral. Everything, each detail in this music playing says something of great importance. [...] She gave me an experience of particular importance in my musical life. We later appeared together a number of times."

The world premiere of Chain II in January 1986, in Zurich, under the direction of Paul Sacher, was a great success which initiated a permanent collaboration of the composer and the very young violinist, for whom Lutosławski prepared an orchestral version of the Partita, so that she could perform it together with Chain II at his compositional concerts. The world premiere of the triptych, which arose out of the two works and the linking Interlude, was given in 1990 in Munich under the direction of the composer. Anne Sophie Mutter also received from Witold Lutosławski an entirely personal gift, he wrote and offered her a short Lullaby for Anne-Sophie. The composer also began working on a violin concerto, but fate did not allow him to finish it - he left only the sketches.

François-Bernard Mâche (1935) – French composer, music theorist, university lecturer. He studied composition under Olivier Messiaen. His creative work was inspired by ancient cultures, linguistics, and natural phenomena, such as birdsong. Several theoretical texts by F. B. Mâche appeared in Polish, e.g. two Polish Radio texts: "Muzyka a język" ("Music and language", Res Facta 2), "Messiaen – doświadczenia i perspektywy" ("Messiaen – Experiences and Perspectives", Res Facta 3); and "Surrealisme et musique, remarques et gloses" (Literatura na Świecie no. 5 1978).

In 1994, François-Bernard Mâche honoured the memory of Witold Lutosławski by participating in the project Hommage à Lutosławski. In his commentary to his work Planh, Mâche wrote: "The title relates my piece to the tradition of the mediaeval planctus or the planh of the Provençal troubadours – explains the composer. The term referred to a musical expression of grief after the loss of a great man. In my work, it also refers to the universal archetype of sobbing, which served as the pattern for the long canon of rhythmic values assigned to the string orchestra. A composer who wishes to pay tribute to a master’s memory can present on his grave a piece only extrinsically related to the occasion, or else endow his work with the emotional form of a meditation on the master’s death. I have decided upon the latter, as a more natural expression of my respect and sorrow".

On February 7, 2014, at the Chain 11 festival in Warsaw, François-Bernard Mâche received the Year of Lutosławski Medal for his outstanding contribution to the dissemination of the composer’s heritage.

Marc Neikrug (b. 1946) — American composer and pianist. He wrote a considerable number of compositions in various genres. Of these, the theatrical work Through Roses – a story about a violinist who survived Auschwitz – and the anti-nuclear opera Los Alamos, enjoy the greatest popularity. In the mid-70s, Marc Neikrug begins his continued performances and he records in the role of a pianist with Pinchas Zukerman. Witold Lutosławski composed the Partita for violin and piano (1984) with the two artists in mind, a piece commissioned by The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. (Pinchas Zukerman was its musical director at the time.) Zukerman and Neikrug first performed the Partita on January 18, 1985.

In a commentary to the composition Witold Lutosławski wrote in part: “The work consists of five movements. Of these the main movements are the first (Allegro giusto), the third (Largo) and the fifth (Presto). The second and fourth are but short interludes to be played ad libitum. A short ad libitum section also appears before the end of the last movement. The three major movements follow, rhythmically at least, the tradition of pre-classical (eighteenth-century) keyboard music. (...) Harmonically and melodically, the Partita clearly belongs to the same group of recent compositions as the Symphony no. 3 and Chain 1”.

Irina Nikolska — Russian musicologist. In the years 1968-1972, she studied at the Institute of Musicology at the University of Warsaw under Zofia Lissa and Michał Bristiger, and later at the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music in Moscow, where she also completed her doctoral studies. She currently works at the State Institute for Art Studies in Moscow. She devoted many of her works to Polish music, and authored the book From Szymanowski to Lutosławski and Penderecki (Moscow, 1990), for which she was awarded by the Russian Composers’ Union. The Paul Sacher Foundation enabled her to work on the heritage of Witold Lutosławski. She collaborates with the Polish Institute in Moscow, and hosts programs devoted to Polish music on the Russian Radio.

Irina Nikolska became acquainted with Witold Lutosławski in 1969, when writing a study on his Folk Melodies. She remembers: “Lutosławski knew how to make his conversation partner tensionless and comfortable. This was one of my strongest impressions after our first meeting. Before we went into the Folk Melodies, I found that many subjects were of interest to him. I have committed to memory how he asked about the music education in the USSR, and about the program of musicological and compositional training. He was interested in news about Russian literature, and was delighted by Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, which he had recently read in Polish translation. This interest in Russian culture surprised, but also pleased me. Later I heard from Witold that he was in the process of writing his Cello Concerto for Rostropovich, that he was fascinated by this artist’s prominent personality, and that he was delighted by Russian humour”.

Close relations between Irina Nikolska and Witold Lutosławski, together with his wife Danuta, deepen in the course of their numerous meetings both in Poland, and during the composer’s visits in the Soviet Union, often at the occasion of having his new works performed there. Nikolska was impressed by the Lutosławskis as a couple: “They were reminiscent of a pair of swans, which cannot live without one another”.

Nikolska reveals in the introduction to her book about the composer: “Fate has favoured me with the happiness of friendship with a great man. This was the most important creative encounter in my life. There exists absolute and perfect beauty, and I know that Lutosławski’s music inhabits it, clearing away from us the wretchedness of this world”. The book contains transcripts of conversations with Witold Lutosławski published in Russian, English, and Polish, titled Conversations with Witold Lutosławski, 1987-1992 (English edition: Melos, Stockholm).

On January 24, 2013, Irina Nikolska was decorated with the Lutosławski Centennial Medal.

Per Nørgård (b. 1932) – Danish composer, professor of composition at the Academy of Music in Aarhus, prizewinner of the Lutosławski Centennial Medal.

He studied at the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen in the class of Vagna Holboe, and in Paris under Nadia Boulanger. His creative output consists of over 300 works, including symphonies, chamber music, choral music, operas, electronic music, ballet and film music.

Maciej Jabłoński compared his symphonic works with those of Witold Lutosławski: “Nørgård achieves formal coherence by creating of multi-layered connections between discrete phenomena, and not (as in Penderecki, for example) through a monumental and impressive, but ultimately predictable construction. Such an approach is closer in my mind to Lutosławski, but the Danish composer also seems to be more daring in his nonchalant breadth of artistic stroke, while necessarily losing the Lutosławski’s elegance and distance.” (Glissando 2006, no. 8).

In 1994, the concert Hommage à Lutosławski included the performance of Per Nørgård’s Out of this World (Parting) for double string quintet or string orchestra. His commentary reads in part: “The work, commissioned by WItold Lutosławski's friends, is a symbolic valediction to the great composer and a noble-minded man. The title quoted the opening words of Biz dünyadan, a poem by Yunus Emre, a 14th century Turkish poet: ‘We are on the road which leads out of this world, making our farewells to those left behind...’”.

On November 29, 2013, in Copenhague, Per Nørgård received the Lutosławski Centennial Medal for his outstanding contribution to the dissemination of Polish composer’s heritage. The decoration took place during a concert at which Per Nørgård commemorated Witold Lutosławski with the performance of his piece for piano solo, En blomst som rosen...

Tadeusz Ochlewski, violinist, pedagogue, exceedingly active organizer of musical life, publisher, b. 1894 in Olshana, Ukraine, d. 1975 in Warsaw. He studied violin performance first in Petrograd, then in Warsaw under Stanisław Barcewicz, and delved into the art of early music interpretation under the direction of Wanda Landowska in Paris.

In the interwar years he was a violinist at the Warsaw Opera, and performed in the early music ensemble Triosonata which he founded as well as in the Polish Quartet, whose leader was Irena Dubiska. He was one of the founders of the Association of Polish Early Music Lovers and the Publishing Society of Polish Music, he directed the ORMUZ, an institution organizing concerts of the best performers in small communities. After the war he created the PWM Edition and directed it for 20 years, letting himself be known as an indefatigable propagator of Polish music. In 1963, Tadeusz Ochlewski founded the ensemble Con moto ma cantabile, which played a great role in the popularization of early music.

His close collaboration with Witold Lutosławski dates from the period when he directed the PWM Edition. Ochlewski, who above all desired to inspire the creation of new works, commissioned Lutosławski to write the Folk Melodies, and then a setting of Carols, both of which became immensely popular collections; he contributed to the creation of other pieces inspired by folk music, such as the Bucolics and Dance Preludes. Years later the composer admitted: "This was the source of my interest in folklore". Ochlewski also supplied him with Tuwim's poems, so that he could write songs for children. In recognition of Tadeusz Ochlewski's contributions Witold Lutosławski dedicated to him the 1951 Recitativo e arioso for violin and piano.

Andrzej Panufnik - composer and conductor, born in 1914 in Warsaw, died in 1991 in Twickenham. He studied various musical subjects, including composition under Kazimierz Sikorski and Witold Maliszewski at the Warsaw Consevatory, and later in Vienna (conducting under Weingartner) and in Paris.

During the years of occupation he played in a piano duo with Witold Lutosławski, appearing in Warsaw cafes, mainly At the Actresses' and Art and Fashion. For the needs of these appearances they prepared over 200 arrangements of classical works. Witold Lutosławski told Zofia Owińska: "We had in the repertoire a lot of classical music, from the organ toccatas of Bach [...] to Ravel's Bolero, which was our cheval de bataille. [...] We played entire cycles of waltzes by Mozart, Schubert, and Brahms. [...] We also freely paraphrased, as with portions of Bizet's Carmen, and even with some humor [...] with Monti's Czardas... All this went up in flames. I was able to bring with me only one single piece which we played with Panufnik - the paraphrase of Paganini's Caprice no. 24. It was created when the harpist of the Warsaw Philharmonic, Markiewicz, who was a waiter at Aria cafe, persuaded us to do so".

In his autobiography Panufnik reminisced: "Sometimes we'd play jazz just for fun... At times, to avoid boredom, we improvised our own jazz pieces... [...] we would draw a diagram indicating the tempo and the harmonic outline in a given number of measures [...], however we never revealed to the public our secret that we were improvising instead of performing composed and carefully prepared pieces".

There existed between the two composers a quiet rivalry, and after the war their relation cooled significantly. Panufnik developed a compositional and conducting career, but in 1954 he emigrated to England, by the same token condemning himself to artistic absence in Poland. His music gradually returned to Polish concert halls beginning with the 70s. Panufnik's triumph was his visit to Poland in 1990, when 11 of his compositions were performed at the Warsaw Autumn.

According to Tadeusz Kaczyński, Witold Lutosławski referred to Panufnik as a great composer. "He particularly admired his Violin Concerto, which he valued higher than the Sinfonia sacra."

Lady Camilla Panufnik – English photographer, author of several books, including parental guides and photograph albums, wife of the deceased Andrzej Panufnik. She collaborated with many charitable organizations, and has for many years been engaged in the popularization of Polish music in the world.

Camilla Jessel was the daughter of the English Navy’s commander emeritus. In her youth, she lived with her father in India, travelled through Africa and the United States, and studied in Paris at the Sorbonne. On November 27, 1963, she married Andrzej Panufnik.

On February 8, 2014, at the Chain 11 festival in Warsaw, Lady Camilla Panufnik received the Year of Lutosławski Medal for her outstanding contribution to the dissemination of the composer’s heritage.

Józef Patkowski (1929-2005) – musicologist, composer, eminent authority on new music and its devoted propagator, lecturer at the University of Warsaw and in musical institutions of higher learning in Cracow and Katowice. In 1957, he founded the Polish Radio Experimental Studio, which he headed until 1983. He inspired many composers to take up the creation of electroacoustic music, and made an immense contribution to its introduction and dissemination in Poland, and other Eastern Bloc countries. At home and abroad, he gave lectures and wrote many texts devoted to electroacoustic music, as well as led the radio program cycle Horizons of Music (together with Anna Skrzyńska). He was head of the Program Commission of the Contemporary Music Festival ‘Warsaw Autumn’, and President of the Polish Composers’ Union. The Witold Lutosławski Society was created on his initiative.

Józef Patkowski described his connections with Lutosławski to Grzegorz Michalski in a radio interview: “In the Polish Radio Theatre, I took over the position of musical advisor from Stefan Jarociński, and at the time, Witold Lutosławski wrote for the Theatre. That’s where we met. It is a very important chapter in my life. I have met few other people as wonderful as Witold Lutosławski. He was for me, in a sense, a father. I consulted him in numerous matters, received suggestions, and above all, I took advantage of his great kindness, exceptional cordiality, and intelligence. As one known philosopher said, “wisdom is intelligence plus goodness”. Witold Lutosławski certainly fulfilled these conditions... I considered the acquaintanceship as an important friendship in my life. Many times, after his return from abroad, Witold would phone me and relate how the concert went, what his impressions were, etc. The matters of the Composers’ Society were [more] obvious – whenever we saw each other I gave him an account of the news relating to the Warsaw Autumn... Being still very young, I undertook the responsible work of creating the Radio’s Experimental Studio. There was no one to professionally consult me about how to resolve certain things. Sometimes I had to make a decision: to make a move this way, or that. Generally, I was concerned whether I would manage. In such situations, it is important to have someone wise to take a look from the side, give encouragement, and help make a bit of order in the head, introduce some hierarchy of values. In this sense, I owe much to Lutosławski”.

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Bogdan Pałosz — Director of the Witold Lutosławski International Cello Competition, Vice President of the Foundation for the Promotion of Young Violoncellists (the latter also competition organizer), Professor at the Institute of High Pressure Dynamics of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

The Lutosławski Cello Competition’s first celebration took place in 1997. The competition occurs bi-annually in February. Among the laureates are found outstanding young cellists, such as Bartosz Koziak (2001), Julian Steckel (2003), and Marcin Zdunik (2007).

Lutosławski was chosen as the patron of the competition for young cellists (up to 24 years of age) in consideration of him having written three pieces of importance for the cello: the Sacher Variation, the chamber music Grave, and the Cello Concerto, works on which the programs of three successive phases of the competition were built. As Bogdan Pałosz emphasized in the original press release, also significant was Lutosławski’s sincere relationship to the young artists, whom he supported through scholarships.

The competition belongs to international organizations of importance: it is a member of The World Federation of International Music Competitions and The European Union of Music Competitions for Youth. Outstanding cellists from all over the world are found in the jury of the Competition, and the honorary chairman of its first celebrations was Mstislav Rostropovitch.

At the concert of the 9th Witold Lutosławski Cello Competition lauretes, given at the National Philharmonic in February, 2013, Bogdan Pałosz was decorated with the Lutosławski Centenary Medal in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the dissemination of the composer’s music and knowledge about his person.

Peter Pears (1910-1986) - English tenor, possessed a bright-sounding voice. His performances were characterized by great proficiency and wide expressional range. From 1937 he collaborated with Benjamin Britten, who considered him to be the ideal interpreter of his works, and with him in mind wrote a series of songs, concert pieces, and tenor roles in his operas. Pears gained fame as a superb performer of early music (Bach, Schütz, Purcell) and Romantic song (Schubert, Schumann).

With the thought of Peter Pears as performer, Witold Lutosławski composed the Paroles tissées to the words of Chabrun. The composer remembers: "For me it was a very memorable collaboration. This was an artist of great caliber. I met him when he appeared at the Warsaw Autumn. Britten was at the piano. After the performance Peter Pears approached me with the question whether I'd write a composition for him. I engaged in the project with great energy and pleasure."

The world premiere of Paroles tissées was given on June 20, 1965, at the Festival in Aldeburgh, by Peter Pears and with Witold Lutosławski as conductor.

In conversation with Zofia Owińska, Witold Lutosławski reminisced: "When we appeared together for the last time, in Saint-Louis, he was 68 years of age. This is when he sang best in every respect - it was absolutely the best performance both vocally and musically".

Warsaw Philharmonic gave its first concert on 5th November 1901 in the Philharmonic’s newly built concert hall.

The Orchestra was conducted by Emil Młynarski – co-founder, first music director and resident conductor of the Philharmonic, while the solo part was played by Ignacy Jan Paderewski.

Already before World War I and between the world wars, the Philharmonic became a key centre of musical life in Poland and one of Europe’s major musical institutions.

In the early years after World War II, the orchestra’s concerts were held in theatres and sport halls. On 21st February 1955, the Philharmonic moved to a new seat (which replaced the one destroyed by German air raids) and was granted the status of the National Philharmonic. Under its new director Witold Rowicki, it regained the reputation of Poland’s leading symphony orchestra. In 1955-58 the position of artistic director was held by Bohdan Wodiczko, then again by Rowicki, and from 1977 – by Kazimierz Kord. Between January 2002 and August 2013, Antoni Wit was both the Philharmonic’s managing and artistic director. As of 1st September 2013, Wojciech Nowak has been named Warsaw Philharmonic’s director, and Jacek Kaspszyk has taken over the artistic direction of the Philharmonic.

Today Warsaw Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra enjoys worldwide popularity and acclaim. It has made nearly 140 concert tours on five continents, appearing in all of the world’s major concert halls. It also regularly performs during the International F. Chopin Piano Competitions in Warsaw and the ‘Warsaw Autumn’ Festival, records for the Polish Radio and state television (TVP) as well as Polish and foreign record labels and film companies. The Orchestra has frequently been awarded prestigious record prizes, including the Grammy in 2013 (and six Grammy nominations) for their recordings of Penderecki’s and Szymanowski’s large-scale vocal-instrumental works, Diapason d’Or, ICMA, Gramophone Award, Record Geijutsu, Classical Internet Award, Cannes Classical Award, and the Fryderyk Award of the Polish Phonographic Academy.

Witold Lutosławski’s first encounter with the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra was in the role of a listener. On the jubilee of the institution, he wrote: "My thoughts wander back to all the most important moments I was able to experience in the hall at Jasna Street, realizing that they brought a richness into my life, and taught me to compose better than I would have, even if I had studied at the best music academy", later reminiscing about a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth, which he listened to "at the age of no more than seven", Szymanowski’s Symphony no. 3 ‘Song of the Earth’: "[it] introduced me to a totally new, magical world, the existence of which I had hardly imagined before", and the intense experieces with appearances by Josef Hofman, Walter Gieseking, Vladimir Horowitz, Bronisław Huberman, Paul Kochański, Bruno Walter, Ernest Ansermet, and Otto Klemperer.

Lutosławski’s first orchestral compositions were played before the war by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, as it was then called. On May 28, 1933, Lutosławski’s ballet music to the drama Haroun al Rashid was performed under the baton of Józef Ozimiński, while five years later, in 1938, Tadeusz Wilczak lead the premiere of the composer’s diploma piece – the Lacrimosa for soprano, choir, and orchestra. In the post-war years, a number of Witold Lutosławski’s works also become tied with the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, such as the world-premiered Concerto for Orchestra, written for the orchestra on a commission by Witold Rowicki. The complete version of Jeux vénitiens was also first presented by the orchestra at the Warsaw Autumn festival (September 16, 1961).

In addition, the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra has on its account a long series of world premieres in Poland of Lutosławski’s key works, e.g. the Piano Concerto with Krystian Zimerman, under the baton of Witold Lutosławski (September 22, 1988). The latter’s final conducting appearance in Poland occurred on September 25, 1993, where he led the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra at the Warsaw Autumn. The performed compositions were: Symphonies nos. 1 and 4, Les espaces du sommeil, and Chain III. This concert, and many others with Witold Lutosławski’s music performed by the orchestra, were recorded and issued on records.

During the Year of Lutosławski, the orchestra performed the majority of the Polish composer’s symphonic works. Jacek Kaspszyk led the Symphonies nos. 3 and 4, Antoni Wit – Symphony no. 3, and Stanisław Skrowaczewski – Symphony no. 1. Also appearing with the orchestra were prominent soloists: Anne-Sophie Mutter in Chain II and Partita, Ian Bostridge in Paroles tissées, and Krystian Zimerman in the Piano Concerto.

At the closing concert of the Year of Lutosławski in the National Philharmonic on January 25, 2014, the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra received the Year of Lutosławski Medal for its outstanding contribution in the dissemination of the composer’s heritage.

Simon Rattle (b. 1955) — English conductor and music popularizer, artistic director of the Berliner Philharmoniker. In Poland he is known as a great admirer and propagator of music by Karol Szymanowski and Witold Lutosławski.

Simon Rattle was born in Liverpool. He completed the Royal Academy of Music in London. Between 1980 and 1998 he was conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. In 1994, Queen Elizabeth II gave him the knighthood title “Sir”. In September 2002, he became Claudio Abbado’s successor at the post of music director to the Berliner Philharmoniker.

He has to his account over 70 discs recorded for EMI Classics, including a series of exploratory interpretations of Karol Szymanowski’s music. He has been a long-time conductor of the most important symphonic orchestras in the world, and leads ensembles which perform on period instruments – for example in his collaboration of over 20 years with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

For the 2012-2013 season, Sir Simon Rattle has programmed a cycle of concerts with the music of Witold Lutosławski for the Berlin Philharmonic, himself leading the performances of the Symphony no. 3, Piano Concerto (with Krystian Zimmerman), Double Concerto, Cello Concerto, Preludes and a Fugue, and the Symphony no. 2.

In an interview for the Polish Radio he remembered Witold Lutosławski in the following manner: “He was a patrician, aristocrat, gentleman. But it was evident for me that under this coat there sleeps a volcano. He was the most civilized composer with the best of manners. You’ll find these traits in his music, which isn’t to say that it doesn’t have its darkness, aggression, and violence. (...) He is someone whom I greatly miss”.

On April 20, 2013, in Berlin, Sir Simon Rattle received the Witold Lutosławski Centenary Medal for his outstanding contributions to the dissemination of the composer’s music and knowledge about his person.

Konstanty Regamey (1907-1982) – composer, music critic, philologist specialized in East Asian languages, originated from a Swiss family which settled in Poland in the nineteenth century. He was a student of Classical languages and Indian studies in Warsaw, as well as East Asian and language studies in Paris. In the 1930s, he became lecturer at the University of Warsaw, simultaneously developing his activities as music critic and composer. By this time, he was already in close contact with Lutosławski, who remembered him in conversation with Zofia Owińska: “He was an astonishing composer. As an artistic creator, he let himself be known during the war, when his Quintet was performed at a secret concert in the apartment of Tadeusz Ochlewski. My first encounter with his music was a complete revelation”.

Lutosławski was tied to Regamey with, in the former’s words, a “deep friendship. We gladly spent time in each other’s company. This was a very special man with absolutely extraordinary abilities and an unbelievable intelligence. Conversing with him [relied on] skipping of [various] stages: one needed not say everything, but instead reach into the conversation’s future tense, because he already knew everything”.

Following the war, Regamey settled in Lausanne and continued his work as a philologist and musician. He made several visits to Poland. Once, he emphasized: “In the domain of music, it would be difficult for me to consider myself as anyone other than a Pole”.

Witold Rowicki - conductor, b. February 26, 1914, in Taganrog, d. October 1, 1989, in Warsaw. From 1931 he studied violin performance at the Conservatory in Cracow, and played in Cracow's Philharmonic Orchestra, and furthermore in the General Government Orchestra during the occupation, simultaneously studying conducting under Rudolf Hindemith and music theory under Zdzisław Jachimecki. In 1945 he began organizing the Great Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio and Television in Katowice, becoming its artistic director, and after the return of Grzegorz Fitelberg, its substitute director. In 1950 he was called to the post of artistic director of the Warsaw Philharmonic, with which he was associated - with a break in the 50s - to the end of his career.

Soon after the commencement of his work at the Warsaw Philharmonic, Rowicki turned to Witold Lutosławski with a request for the composition of a large-scale work for his orchestra. Lutosławski's work on the Concerto for Orchestra took four years. In the world premiere Witold Rowicki directed the Philharmonic orchestra (in the Roma Hall, on November 26, 1954). In his dedication the composer wrote: "To dear Witek, with the sentiment of continued thanks for [supplying] the enthusiasm for the writing of this piece and an unparalleled preparation of the first performance". The conductor included the Concerto and other works by Lutosławski numerous times in the programs of his appearances in Poland and abroad, in the latter during a tour of the National Philharmonic.

The Concerto for Orchestra contributed to Witold Lutosławski's acclaim as a prominent Polish composer and became his most often performed composition in concert halls worldwide.

James Rushton (b. 1956) — Managing Director, Chester Music, the English publisher of Witold Lutosławski’s works.

In 1966, Witold Lutosławski signed a publishing contract with J. & W. Chester Ltd., the former London represenatative of the Danish publisher Wilhelm Hansen. The contract comprised countries of Western Europe and the Americas. Chester has in the late eighties become the property of Music Sales Group.

James Rushton completed his music studies at the University of Bristol in 1977. He became employed at Chester in 1980, and has filled its directorial functions for many years.

In an interview he said about his work with Witold Lutosławski: “Witold was a huge pleasure to work with. Of course, he was who he was, and so maybe I can be excused if there was a slight nervousness on my part in my initial meetings! But communication was quick and easy; in the days before email etc, questions were asked and quickly answered by phone or letter. We, as Witold’s publisher, always knew where we stood, therefore; and as a result there was a clarity to our approach to the publication and promotion of his work which, of course, is the ideal both for us and for our customers. Further, Witold’s concern for accuracy and efficiency was epitomized by his delivery of new scores. Witold’s wife Danuta, who was trained as an architect and had a draughtsman’s skills, therefore, prepared the scores from Witold’s precisely laid out manuscript. Their layout and clarity are a perfect reflection of the works themselves and their content”.

In January, 2013, James Rushton was decorated with the Witold Lutosławski Centenary Medal for outstanding contributions to the dissemination of the composer’s music and knowledge about his person.

Paul Sacher (1906-1999), Swiss conductor and musicologist, propagator of early and contemporary music, patron of the arts. He studied with Felix Weingartner in his home city, Basel, and founded the Basel Chamber Orchestra in 1926, as well as the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in 1933, to study early music and early performance practice. In 1941 he brought into being the Collegium Musicum in Zurich. His commissions resulted in the creation of over 200 works by leading composers, which included Bartók, Berio, Britten, Dutilleux, Hindemith, Honegger, Malipiero, Frank Martin, Strawinsky, and Richard Strauss.

On the seventieth birthday of the Swiss artist, Witold Lutosławski dedicated to him the Sacher Variation for cello, composed at Mstislav Rostropovich's inspiration, as well as works written for commissions from Sacher - the Double Concerto, Chain II, and the Interlude.

Witold Lutosławski revealed in a conversation with Zofia Owińska: "In the case of works for Paul Sacher, they are dedications not only to him as a patron, but also as a friend and a close, fellow human being. He is an extraordinary man, characterized by an incredible freshness of mind and emotion. And he is capable of enthusiasm, which constitutes an incredible rarity."

In 1989 Paul Sacher advanced the initiative of purchasing Lutosławski's manuscripts, thanks to which the legacy of the composer is kept at the archive of the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel.

Finnish conductor and composer, born in 1958. Following his studies at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and the 1979 debut, he still considered himself primarily as a composer. This changed in 1973, when the immensely successful concert with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London (with Mahler's Symphony no. 3) began his international career. In the following years, he collaborated with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Avanti! Chamber Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta. In 1984 he lead the first concert with the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra, which he later directed in the years 1992-2009. He presently leads the Philharmonia Orchestra. Contemporary music holds a privileged place in his repertoire, combined with the classics of the twentieth century, but without the neglect of earlier musical periods.

The artist is a great enthusiast of both the person and the music of Witold Lutosławski. His immensely expressive interpretations of the Polish composer are characterized by a transparency of texture, sensitivity for colour, and clarity of form. His repertoire holds many compositions by Lutosławski, and he recorded works such as the Concerto for Orchestra, the Cello Concerto, Symphonies nos. 2, 3, and 4, and vocal works. In 2006 he was decorated with the medal of the Witold Lutosławski Society "For considerable work in the familiarization of the public with Witold Lutosławski's oeuvre".

For the Lutosławski Centennial the conductor has planned choice programs, bringing together the works of the Polish composer with those of Debussy, Ravel, and Beethoven. He will lead the Philharmonia Orchestra in a series of concerts in London, and will also appear in Warsaw, Spain, and Japan. In addition, along with Krystian Zimerman he will inaugurate the celebrations of the composer's birthday at London's Royal Festival Hall.

Heirich Schiff - Austrian cellist, born in 1951. He studied in Vienna under Tobias Kühne and in Detmold under André Navarra. After his debut in 1971 in Vienna and London he began a brilliant career, appearing with leading orchestras and conductors. Contemporary music has an important place in his repertoire, and many composers have written music for him.

In October, 1971, the less than twenty-year-old musician performed Witold Lutosławski's Cello Concerto at the festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music in Graz, at a time when Mstislav Rostropovich was denied permission to leave the Soviet Union. Two years later, the Polish premiere of Witold Lutosławski's Cello Concerto was given at the closing concert of the 17th Warsaw Autumn festival with Heinrich Schiff, and the composer as conductor. Schiff's performance made a great impression on the listeners. The Austrian artist received the Orpheus statuette, and Lutosławski himself admitted that he prefers his playing to "Rostropovich's interpretation, because it is more objective".

For many years, Heinrich Schiff often performed the Concerto as soloist, and beginning in 1999 he conducted it numerous times accompanying other cellists. He recorded the work under the direction of the composer with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Dorota Serwa (b. 1971), director of the Mieczysław Karłowicz Philharmonic in Szczecin. She is a musicologist and cultural manager, graduate of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. She collaborated with the Polish Radio Szczecin and Polish Television Szczecin, the Sczecin press, and the Polish Radio Centre of Folk Culture, and lectured at the Postsecondary School for the Humanities in Pułtusk. In 2002-2004, she was vice-director of the National Centre for Culture, and from 2004, expert in European funds at the Foundation for Economic Education and lecturer at the Polish Academy of Sciences in the Cultural Management program. For six years, she filled the post of director of the Department of Cultural Education at the Stefan Starzyński Institute (Museum of the Warsaw Uprising Division), and director of the Warsaw Photoplasticon. She was responsible for the realization of a number of cultural events, including the festival Innocent Sorcerers and the spectacle Varsovians Sing (Un)Forbidden Songs.

As a director of the Philharmonic in Szczecin (from September 2012), Dorota Serwa realized a number of projects inspired by Lutosławski’s work and ones devoted to him, including the concert series To Lutos and Back. She wrote: “In the consciousness of many adult listeners, Witold Lutosławski is a difficult composer that operates without a clearly readable code; even today, his music’s message is perceived as avant-garde. Juxtaposing this point of view with colourful and expressive compositions created with the youngest of musicians and music lovers in mind, shows the extent to which Lutosławski was sensitized to the youthful public”. These realizations gave birth to the children’s educational project Lutophones, realized together with the Foundation Music is for Everyone. The project Genius Lutos in turn was created to include persons with mental disabilities in cultural activities. Finally, the project International Lutosławski Youth Orchestra was aimed at introducing the young into the secretes of contemporary music performance under the direction of experienced pedagogues. Their climax was a gala concert that took place on September 6, at which the orchestra under Ewa Strusińska performed music by Witold Lutosławski, Benjamin Britten, and the young composer Chris Roe, second award winner at the International Composition Competition on the occasion of the Lutosławski Centennial.

The concert event included the special decoration of Dorota Serwa with the Lutosławski Centennial Medal.

Zbigniew Skowron — musicologist, Professor at the Institute of Musicology at the University of Warsaw. The centre of his interests is occupied by the history of modern-period musical thought, theory and aesthetics of music from 1945, the compositional and reflective output of Witold Lutosławski, and Chopin epistolography and biographical studies. His scholarship stay in the United States (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia) resulted in the book New American Music (in Polish). He gave a cycle of lectures in Paris, London, and in Poitiers, which he devoted to new Polish and American music. His book The Musical Thought of Jean Jacques Rousseau filled an important gap in Polish knowledge of eighteenth-century intellectual culture.

As a Paul Sacher Foundation scholarhip recipient in Basel, Zbigniew Skowron led research on the heritage of Witold Lutosławski, preparing, among others, the publication of his Notes (in Polish). He published a collection of his dispersed writings on music, Witold Lutosławski: About Music. Writings and Statements (also in Polish). His editorial work included collections by various authors: the English-language Lutoslawski Studies, and the Polish Style and Aesthetics in the Music of Witold Lutosławski.

In a program, Zbigniew Skowron enticed the Polish Radio listeners: “To understand the music of Lutosławski, one has to become acquainted with his main ideas, the main principles of his compositional technique. It’s like learning a new language. One has to become familiar with the new sonic environment which Lutosławski creates. This may not be easy, but once we accustom ourselves, it is as if we were breathing a different atmosphere”.

In 2005, Zbigniew Skowron was honoured with the Witold Lutosławski Society Medal and elected as President of the medal’s chapter. On January 24, 2013, he was decorated with the Lutosławski Centennial Medal.

Stanisław Skrowaczewski (b. 1923) – one of the most internationally valued Polish conductors, and a composer. In the years of the occupation, he studied composition and conducting in his home Lviv. After the war, he continued his studies on a scholarship in Paris under Nadia Boulanger, Arthur Honegger, and Paweł Klecki. In the years 1949-1954 he was director of the Silesian Philharmonic. A winning prize at the competition in Rome (1956) opened his way to the West. He settled in the United States, where for 19 years he led the orchestra in Minneapolis. He gives concert appearances in the entire world, and is specially valued for his interpretation of Bruckner.

Skrowaczewski met Witold Lutosławski shortly after the war, and after this moment he closely followed his creative development. At the commencement of his career, when he directed the Silesian Philharmonic, he conducted many of Lutosławski’s compositions. Among those, he values the Concerto for Orchestra the most, and has included it in the majority of his debuts with important orchestras of the world – in Cleveland, Amsterdam, Berlin, New York, Minneapolis, and Israel. He admits that he “gave first presentations of the piece with great success in many places in the West, and especially America”. The Concerto was received with enthusiasm at the World Exhibition in Brussels in 1958, where Skrowaczewski gave performances with Poland’s National Philharmonic Orchestra. He also often performed Funeral Music, and was one of the first to conduct the Symphony no. 2, Livre pour orchestre, and the Cello Concerto (with Mstislav Rostropovich); moreover, he considers the Symphony no. 4 to be a masterwork. In an interview he said of the Interlude connecting the Partita and Chain II, written for Anne-Sofie Mutter: “I like it very much, but it is too short for a concert performance; so I play it twice, because it doesn’t really seem to end... And it doesn’t sound like a repetition... So I told Witold: ‘It is so simple, yet so full of colours, it is unbelievable...’. And he, as always modestly replied: ‘Well, one attains this after a life full of struggles...’”.

Presently, in the Year of Lutosławski, Stanisław Skrowaczewski performs the Polish master’s works in concert halls throughout the world.

Marie Slorach (b. 1951) – Scottish singer, soprano. Following studies in her home city, she joined the orchestra of the Scottish Opera in 1974, where she made her debut in the role of Musetta in La Bohème. She also appeared on the stage of the Wexford Opera, English National Opera, Glyndebourne Touring Opera, and Opera North. Endowed with a dramatic voice, she became remembered for her suggestive creations, such as that of Lisa in The Queen of Spades, Elektra in Idomeneo, and Amelia in Simon Boccanegra. She is also a valued performer of oratorio vocal parts.

Marie Slorach became the first performer of Witold Lutosławski’s 17 Polish Carols in the arrangement for soprano, female chorus, and chamber orchestra made for the London Sinfonietta. The world premiere of this version of the work – to Polish words – was given on December 15, 1985, at London’s Queen Elisabeth Hall, with the London Sinfonietta and London Chorus under the composer’s direction. The orchestral version of the complete collection of 20 Polish Carols in Witold Lutosławski’s compositorial arrangement was heard for the first time five years later, in December, 1990, at Aberdeen. This performance was also conducted by the composer.

Sir Georg Solti, 1912-1997, Hungarian conductor, after WWII a German citizen, and from 1972 a citizen of Great Britain. In the first years he was connected to the Budapest Opera, and after the war became famous as an opera conductor (Munich, Frankfurt, Vienna, Covent Garden). For 22 years (1969-1991) he directed the Chicago Orchestra, which he re-instituted as one of the leading symphonic ensembles of the world. He commanded an immense repertoire, and gave several world premieres. On September 29, 1983, he lead the Chicago Orchestra in the first performance of Witold Lutosławski's Symphony no. 3.

The Orchestra requested a composition from Witold Lutosławski as early as 1972, and renewed it two years later. Work on the composition lasted over eight years and resulted in one of Lutosławski's greatest masterworks. The score is dedicated to Sir Georg Solti and the Chicago Orchestra. In a conversation with Zofia Owińska the composer relates his meeting with the conductor:

"I found myself in London, where Solti was giving a concert. For the first time in my life I went to hear the conductor, who was to perform my new symphony. I was introduced to him by the director of the time, Chester. Solti was very happy to see me and not knowing about the commission, said:

- Would you compose something for our orchestra in Chicago?

I answered:

- Maestro, I happen to be writing a symphony commissioned by your orchestra.

- Oh, really - he said joyfully, and immediately swore to perform this very composition at the opening of the season".

Lutosławski admitted: "His rendering was not a hundred percent to my satisfaction, but it had great advantages, because he was a world-class conductor". The concert was broadcast in most of the Western European countries and contributed to the rapid popularization of the Symphony no. 3.

Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977) – American conductor of Polish origin. He became famous as the director of the Philadelphia Orchestra (from 1912), which he raised to an international level. He was also founder of other significant ensembles: the All-American Youth Orchestra and the American Symphony Orchestra. He made numerous recordings, which assured him an immense popularity. His legend was heralded by musical films made with the participation of the Philadelphia Orchestra – One Hundred Men and a Girl and Fantasia.

Stokowski maintained a live interest in new music, and contributed to the popularization of Witold Lutosławski’s creative output. He introduced into his repertoire Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra (a letter from 1958 survives, in which the composer thanks him for interest in the work) and Funeral Music, with which he inaugurated the existence of the Contemporary Music Society in Houston. During 1959 European tour Stokowski made a concert appearance in Warsaw (May 22), where he performed Witold Lutosławski’s Symphony no. 1, among other works. (The recording of the Symphony’s performance was released on CD in 1995.) In a radio interview given at the time, Stokowski said that he considers Shostakovich and Lutosławski to be the greatest living composers.

Although critics differed in their appraisal of Stokowski’s interpretations, for the Polish composer the performance of his work by a world-famous conductor was a memorable event. In a letter kept at the Paul Sacher Foundation, he wrote: “I will never forget your concert, the performance of my Symphony, your visit in our country, and all our personal contacts”.

One of Poland’s leading chamber music ensembles. In its early years, its members developed their abilities under the guidance of musicians from such quartets as LaSalle, Amadeus, Juilliard, Smetana, and Alban Berg. Today, the Silesian Quartet enjoys international fame, giving concerts throughout Europe and the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, China, and South Korea. It has performed in such famous venues as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Viennese Konzerthaus, De Singel in Antwerp, Schauspielhaus in Berlin, Tivoli in Copenhagen, Salle Pleyel in Paris, Carnegie Hall in New York, Jordan Hall in Boston, Hoam Art Hall in Seoul, and Bellas Artes in Mexico City. The quartet performs the canon of great chamber music masterpieces, but also dedicates special attention to the music of our time. The extensive discography of the Quartet includes music from many different periods, with particular emphasis on Polish music from the last three decades. The Quartet’s recordings have been released on more than 40 CDs under such labels as ECM, EMI Polska, Olympia, CDAccord, and Radio Katowice. Three of these won the Fryderyk Award of the Polish Phonographic Academy for the Best Chamber Music Album.

The Silesian Quartet has very often performed Witold Lutosławski’s String Quartet in Poland and abroad. It has produced it on records, first in 1997 in a CD Accord release (ACD 037, Studio Magazine’s Record of the Year Award, together the Quartets of Karol Szymanowski). The record was commented on the pages of the Tygodnik Powszechny weekly by Bohdan Pociej: “Silesian Quartet’s interpretation rises to previously unobtainable heights; I have not heard these pieces played in such manner: with the same subtletly, sublimation of sonority, refinement of structure and form; so mystically, as one would like to say - in the sense of a complete union with the composer and his idea of music”. Eight years later, the Polish Radio’s Katowice station released the composition’s second recording as interpreted by the Silesian Quartet (PRK CD069). The 35-year anniversary of the ensemble was celebrated with an eight-album box set containing its recordings of Polish contemporary music, including Lutosławski’s Quartet (FMPB CD 016-023).
On January 25, 2015, at a Witold Lutosławski Chain 12 festival concert held at the National Philharmonic in Warsaw, the Silesian Quartet received the Year of Lutosławski Medal for its outstanding contribution to the dissemination of the composer’s heritage.

Steven Stucky (1949-2016) is among the most known and renowned American composers. A laureate of the Pulitzer Prize for the Concerto for Orchestra no. 2 (2005), he is member of the American Academy in Rome, director of New Music USA, member of the board of The Koussevitzky Music Foundations and member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. A valued pedagogue, professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Eastman School of Music, he also is active as conductor, teacher, and writer on music.

Steven Stucky is one of the greatest authorities on the musical output of Witold Lutosławski, and the author of a valuable monograph titled Lutosławski and His Music (Cambridge 1981), recognized with the prestigious ASCAP Deems Taylor Award. His achievements in this field also won him the Gold Medal of the Witold Lutosławski Society in Warsaw. As a valued expert and mentor to the young generation of composers, he was appointed jury member of the Witold Lutosławski Composition Competition organized by the Witold Lutosławski Society.

In 2013 he was made artistic consultant and co-author of the program for the Lutosławski Centennial celebrations, organized by Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra in London.

Among the greatest compositional achievements of Steven Stucky in recent years one must mention the four-movement Symphony (2012), commissioned and premiered by two leading American orchestras: the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel and the New York Philharmonic lead by Alan Gilbert. Other significant presentations of his compositions included, among others, the performance of Rhapsodies (2008) by the New York Philharmonic at the festival BBC Proms in London and The Chamber Concerto (2010) by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Steven Stucky accepts compositional commissions from world-renowned soloists and orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Singapore Symphony, Camerata Bern, the percussionist Evelyn Glennie, pianists Emanuel Ax and Yefim Bronfman, as well as the recorder player Michala Petri.

The 2012/2013 season will bring the world premiere of an orchestral song cycle by Stucky, titled The Stars and the Roses (2012), the cycle Say Thou Dost Love Me (2012) for a cappella choir and the piece Take Him, Earth (2012), composed to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. Other important events of the season underway include the performance of the symphonic poem Silent Spring (2011) during the European tour of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, where Stucky filled the post of composer for the 2011/2012 season. In that season he was appointed Music Alive Composer-in-Residence at the Berkeley Symphony, while in the spring of 2013 he begins a period of residence at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

In a period of over 20 years Steven Stucky has regularly worked with the Philharmonic Orchestra in Los Angeles. Sir Andre Previn appointed him the composer-in-residence of the orchestra in 1988, while in the succeeding years he was active as orchestra consultant in matters pertaining to new music, taking active part in the programming of concert seasons by Esa-Pekka Salonen. With young composers in mind he created the Composer Fellowship Program attached to the orchestra.

Steven Stucky devotes a great amount of time to didactic work. He is also actively engaged in the popularization of contemporary music. In the recent seasons he was author of the valued cycle of talks titled Hear & Now, which accompanied the presentations of new compositions by the New York Philharmonic, and in parallel to this he develops his conducting activity. He leads, among others, the Ensemble X, a group he founded in 1997 in Los Angeles and which specialized in the performance of contemporary works, including those by William Craft, Christoph Rouse, Judith Weir, and Witold Lutosławski.

Aniela Szlemińska (1899-1964) – soprano. Following her completion of the Conservatory and School of Drama in Lviv, in 1927 she began performing in the city’s Grand Theatre, and later the Poznań Opera. From 1931 until the outbreak of WW II, she was tied with the Polish Radio in Warsaw. She appeared as guest both on national as well as foreign stages (in the United States, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, and Latvia), performing mainly soprano parts. She was also no stranger to lighter repertoire.

In the interwar years she was one of the most prominent Polish opera singers, and her stage as well as radio performances were in great popularity. She participated numerous times in the radio program cycle Profiles of Contemporary Polish Composers. In the period of occupation, she took part in private concerts and taught voice. From 1945 she was professor of vocal performance at the State Postsecondary Music School in Cracow.

In January, 1947 in Cracow, Aniela Szlemińska and the pianist Jan Hoffman gave the world premiere of five pieces from Witold Lutosławski’s Twenty Carols. Stefania Łobaczewska wrote in the concert review that: "Only such a great master of contemporary form as Lutosławski could allow himself for a surely very bold experiment: associating carol melodies with a piano part conceived strictly in the contemporary spirit".

Krystyna Szostek-Radkowa (b. 1933) – mezzosoprano, one of the leading Polish singers of the post-war period. She made her debut in 1957 at the Silesian Opera while still a student. After several years, she tied herself permanently with the Warsaw Opera, later also with the Grand Theatre, celebrating an unbroken line of triumphal successes. She was received with equal ardour on stages throughout the world. He immense repertoire encompasses numerous opera roles of all periods, from Baroque to contemporary (sometimes written specially for her), as well as vocal oratorio parts and song. The artist is also a valued pedagogue, and leads a class of vocal performance at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.

Witold Lutosławski entrusted Krystyna Szostek-Radkowa with the first performances of both versions of his Five Songs to Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna’s poems. The world premiere of the earlier version, destined for voice and piano, took place on November 25, 1959, in Katowice, with Anna Liwiska at the piano. In turn, the second version for voice and 30 instruments, was first performed on September 22, 1960, at the festival Warsaw Autumn. Krystyna Szostek-Radkowa was accompanied by the musicians of the Polish Radio Great Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Jan Krenz.

In this composition, on which Lutosławski worked in the years 1956-1958, includes his first use of his own twelve-tone harmonic system. He explains his special interest in the questions of harmony in the following manner: “I have a distrust for the assertion about the wane of harmony as an element of musical fabric; even more, I think that only now is it possible to encompass the entire richness of harmonic possibilities contained in the 12-tone scale – only now, that we are disposing of the limitations of tonal thinking once and for all”.

Paweł Szymański (b. 1954)

Szymański completed his compositional studies under Włodzimierz Kotoński (1974-1978) and Tadeusz Baird (1978) with a distinction from Warsaw’s Chopin State Postsecondary School of Music. In 1976 he participated in the International Summer Academy of Ancient Music in Innsbruck, and in the succeeding years (1978, 1980 and 1982) he took active part in the International Summer Courses of New Music at Darmstadt. This is also when he began his collaboration with the Experimental Studio of the Polish Radio (1979-1981) and the Independent Studio of Electroacoustic Music (1982-1984), as well as the Studio of Electronic Music of the Academy of Music in Cracow (1983). The Herder Scholarship enabled him to further continue his studies, this time under the guidance of Roman Haubenstock-Ramati in Vienna (1984-1985). He was also recipient of a DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) grant in Berlin, where he collaborated with the Electronic Studio of the Technische Universität (1987-1988). In the years 1982-1987 he lectured at the Department of Composition, Theory, and Conducting at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw.

From 1979 Paweł Szymański is part of the Polish Composers’ Union and served as Main Board member (1989-1999), twice in the role of vice-president (1991-1994, 1997-1999). He was also member of the Repertoire Committee of the Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music (1987, 1989-1998) at which he debuted as a composer in 1979, and co-founder (together with Krzysztof Knittel, Stanisław Krupowicz and Józef Patkowski) of the Friends of Warsaw Autumn Foundation (1997).

Paweł Szymański is laureate of many compositional competitions and recipient of artistic distinctions. In 1979 he received the First Prize at the Polish Composers’ Union Competition of the Young for the composition Gloria (1979) for women’s chorus and instrumental ensemble, and the fourth place distinction in the category of young composers at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Paris. In 1985 his composition Lux aeterna (1984) for voices and instruments won him one of the main awards at the Sacred Music Composition Contest in Stuttgart, and in 1988, his Partita III (1985-1986) for amplified harpsichord and orchestra received the First Prize (ex aequo with Barry Mason) at the Benjamin Britten Composing Competition in Aldeburgh.

The Polish Composers’ Union decorated Paweł Szymański with its yearly award in 1993, while in January of the following year he received the Grand Prix of the Culture Foundation. Also in 1994, his Miserere (1993) for voices and instruments found itself in the group of compositions recommended by the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Paris, and a year later his motet In paradisum (1995) for men’s chorus received the main prize of the Competition of the International Foundation for Polish Music.

Paweł Szymański is also a valued author of music for theatrical shows and films as well as documentary programs. From the beginning of the 90s, he collaborates with the prominent director and documentarian Maciej Drygas. He composed music to many-time award winning programs, such as To Be in the Cosmos (1995), My Mountain (2001), the film A State of Weighlessness (1994), and the performance Zarathustra (2004), directed by Krystian Lupa and presented in the Old Theatre in Cracow.

In the autumn of 2006, a Festival of Paweł Szymański’s Music of several days’ duration was held in the Lutosławski Concert Studio of the Polish Radio in Warsaw. The festival was recorded by the Polish Audiovisual Publishing House and issued as a 4-disc DVD album.

In the 2012/2013 season Szymański fills the function of composer-in-residence of the National Philharmonic. He has said of himself: “I live and work as a free artist in Warsaw”.

Paweł Szymański’s creative output is one of the most distinct phenomena on the map of contemporary European music. Beginning with the Partita II (1978) written as a diploma piece, it is distinguished by stylistic unity and a characteristic, easily recognizable compositional idiom.

Andrzej Chłopecki writes that:

Paweł Szymański debuted at a time when Polish music was undergoing a marked change of aesthetic stances [...], and in which a new generation of composers, later referred to as “the Stalowa Wola generation”, found its voice [...] (Eugeniusz Knapik, Andrzej Krzanowski, Aleksander Lasoń), to which Szymański was added as if “after the fact”. The common denominator for the aesthetic stance of composers such as these became the turn away from the fetishization of innovation and the idea of the avant-garde (serial and post-serial especially) as well as a strong turn toward tradition, which brought the reactivation of such categories as the cantilena, euphonic sonority and the elements of tonal and modal thinking.

However, this aesthetic also carries a mark of profound originality, which does not lend itself to easy pigeonholing in terms of style and collective tendencies. In the general outline it relies on a subjective play with musical conventions and creative inspiration by traditional elements with a particular preference for Baroque techniques and forms, as well as their constant transformation and repositioning in the completely new context of the contemporary compositional language.

To quote Andrzej Chłopecki again:

It has become customary to use the term “surconventionalism” in reference to the music of Paweł Szymański. The term pertains to the compositional strategy which relies upon the creation of new compositions from sound objects, and elaborated sound gestures derived from the conventions of the musical tradition, usually made by the composer as pre-compositional material [...]. Between the reality of musical convention and the “surconventional” final effect, a constant play is carried on in Szymański’s compositions. (2006)

The composer himself comments the relation between the past and contemporaneity in the following manner:

I try to find the key to tradition. This tradition, in the sense of music from the past that is based on certain well-functioning conventions, is a material, but if something becomes a material, it is already dead. I take from this material something which I can deconstruct, take apart into pieces, and then put back together into a different whole. I don’t have at the same time any destructive tendencies. To the contrary — it is even a kind of nostalgia for something well-known, something intangible, though also very clear [...]. (1997)

Contemporary artists, and that includes the composers – says elsewhere Szymański – find themselves fettered in the midst of two extremes. On one hand they risk gibberish if they completely reject tradition, and on the other hand they can fall into banality if they fix their gaze on it. This is the paradox of making art today. And what is the way out from such a situation? Since we cannot completely free ourselves from banality, we must lead a certain play or game with this banality, treating it like material that allows us to maintain certain elements of convention, but simultaneously achieve an appropriate distance in relation to it with the use of quotation, metaphor, and paradox. (Studio, no. 9, 1996.)

Paweł Szymański’s compositional output consists of several dozen works written mostly on commission by European institutions and festivals. Their premieres were often given with the participation of world-renowned artists at acclaimed musical events.

Selected works:

Epitaph for two pianos (1974), Partita II for orchestra (1977-1978), Gloria for women’s chorus and orchestra (1979), La folia for quadro or stereo tape (1979), Villanelle for alto tenor, two violas, and harpsichord to the words of James Joyce (1981), Two Pieces for string quartet (1982), Two Illusory Constructions for clarinet, cello, and piano (1984), Lux aeterna for voices and instruments (1984), Partita IV for orchestra (1986), Through the Looking Glass... I for chamber orchestra (1987), Through the Looking Glass... II for tape (quadro, 1988), A Study in Shade for orchestra (1989; version for solo violin 1997), Quasi una sinfonietta for chamber orchestra (1990, version for full orchestra 2000), Sixty-Odd Pages for orchestra (1991), Five Pieces for String Quartet (1992), Two Studies for orchestra (1992), Miserere – psalm for voices and instruments (1993), Through the Looking Glass... III for solo harpsichord (1994), Concerto for piano and orchestra (1994), Bagatelle für A.W. for violin, clarinet, tenor saxophone and piano (1995), Recalling a Serenade for clarinet, two violins, viola, and cello (1996), Prelude and Fugue for piano (2000), Three Songs to Words by Trakl for soprano and chamber orchestra (2002; version for soprano and piano 2002; version for alto and piano 2003), Concerto a 4 for clarinet, trombone, cello, and piano (2004), Qudsja Zaher – an opera in two acts with prologue (2005), Ceci n'est pas une ouverture for orchestra (2007), PHYLAKTERION for 16 voices and percussion instruments (2011), Sostenuto for orchestra (2012) – commissioned by the National Philharmonic in Warsaw to celebrate the Lutosławski Centennial.

Adrian Thomas (b. 1947) — English musicologist and composer. He studied in Nottingham, Cardiff, and Cracow, with Bogusław Schaeffer, among others. A long-time professor at universities in Belfast and Cardiff, now professor emeritus, he is a great authority on new Polish music and author of many studies devoted to it. Among these, his most valued books include: Bacewicz: Chamber and Orchestral Music, Górecki (English and Polish edition), Polish Music since Szymanowski, and under preparation, a monograph on Witold Lutosławski’s Cello Concerto.

He also disseminates knowledge about Polish music as guest lecturer in Europe and the United States, he gives public talks, conducts, authors radio programs and commentaries to recordings and concerts (including The Proms 2013), and initiates events, such as the exhibit The Hidden Composer: Witold Lutosławski and Polish Radio (London, 1997) and the national British festival Poland!, organized in 1993 (while he was director of the music section at BBC) and which underscores the round birthday anniversaries of Lutosławski, Górecki, and Penderecki occurring at the time. In his work, he not only presents the Western public with Polish composers’ musical creativity, but also places it in the context of political history, especially that of the ‘Dark Decade’ of post-war social realism. “Lutosławski stood at the origins of my fascination with Polish music – reminisces Adrian Thomas in conversation with Beata Bolesławska. Already as a student, he conducted, together with his English friend, the premiere of Trois poèmes d’Henri Michaux.

In recognition of his service to Polish music, Adrian Thomas was honoured with the Polish Composers’ Union Award (1989), the Order of Service to Polish Culture (1996), and the Witold Lutosławski Society Medal for the year 2004, while on January 24 of the present year, he received the Lutosławski Centennial Medal.

Mieczysław Tomaszewski (b. 1921) — musicologist, music publisher, pedagogue, founder of the Diploma Program in Musical Editorship, Director in the department of Theory and Interpretation of Musical Works at the Academy of Music in Cracow. In the years 1952-1988 he was active in the PWM Edition, from 1964 as Principal Director. In the years 1976-1981 he lead the Baranów Musical Meetings. He is author of numerous and highly valued works in Chopin studies and the history of Romantic song, publisher of works by Witold Lutosławski, and author of several texts devoted to the latter’s music.

In 1952, after beginning his work at the PWM Edition, Mieczysław Tomaszewski called into being its Editorial Program Council, headed by Witold Lutosławski. The relations between the composer and the publisher went beyond the sphere of musical, publishing house matters, as well as those relating to the care for the good of Polish music, which at the time required a decisive, yet simultaneously diplomatic resistance to pressures “from above”.

“These were, after all, strange and difficult times” – Tomaszewski said in conversation with Grzegorz Michalski. “It was necessary to prepare each meeting, because representatives of the Ministry and the Party were in attendance. For the PWM publishing plan to be passed according to our wishes, many prior determinations and agreements had to be made without their presence. In such situations our contacts had the opportunity of becoming tightened. (...) It would be difficult for me to call anything other than friendly several gestures which Witold Lutosławski made in my direction. I have in mind for example a song, which he dedicated to me. He found the words in [the works of Kazimiera] Iłłakowiczówna and probably had a good laugh to himself when he re-composed them. The poem, when we take into account the jubilee occasion, was strangely, and perhaps even shockingly titled: ‘Not for You’. And in the remainder of the text nothing besides the refrain repetition of ‘Not for you, for me, not for you, for me’, and so on and so forth. But at the end there appears a verse which I cannot possibly quote, the one which brings the punchline: because this very thing was most important for ‘you’”.

The song received its world premiere in Cracow at a concert of songs written by various composers in celebration of Mieczysław Tomaszewski’s sixtieth birthday. Lutosławski’s biographers called the song “Not for You” a “miniature masterwork”.

On January 24, 2013, Mieczysław Tomaszewski was decorated with the Witold Lutosławski Centenary Medal.

Barbara Turowska is a graduate of the Postsecondary Agricultural and Pedagogical School in Siedlce and the Pedagogical Diploma Program in the same institution. From 1992 until present, she holds a position at the Nature Museum in Drozdów (custodian, public education division). She performs tasks having to do with public education, organization of cultural events, and the museum publishing houses. Such tasks include the joint authorship and realization of temporary exhibits, providing tours of the museum, leading taught museum visits, organization of science fairs, publication of articles, editing books for publication, managing the museum library, and the coordination and management of projects (e.g. with grants from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage).

The beginnings of her interest in Witold Lutosławski and his family are connected with her employment in Drozdowo. “That is when absorbing knowledge about the Lutosławski family and transmitting it to the visitors at the Museum became a responsibility, but a pleasant one – emphasizes Barbara Turowska. While at work, I reflected on the number of those visitors, and it became evident that over the course of 20 years there were at least 40 thousand, which slightly surprised me...”.

Her most important activities have been: the organization of popular conferences (3rd Conference on Wincenty Lutosławski, Drozdowo 2006; Representatives of Provincial Elites in the First Half of the Twenthieth Century, 2009; Sofia Casanova Lutosławska: Spanish Writer, Pole by Choice, 2011; A Witold Lutosławski Family Portrait, 2013), organization of the concert series Young Artists Play Lutosławski, preparation of the exhibit Life and Creativity of Witold Lutosławski, 2008, and publishing of the following books (in Polish): Wacława Lignowska’s Memoirs, a translation of Sofia Casanova Lutosławska’s More Than Love (Más que amor), and Sofia Casanova Lutosławska. Spanish Writer, Pole by Choice. Barbara Turowska admits: “I am not able to think of Witold Lutosławski in isolation from his ancestors, the Lutosławski family line. For me, this man is a single individual from a whole group of people, who through creative throughout and persistent work shaped their oeuvre, making an offer of it not only to individuals, but also the entire society. When I think about Witold, the most famous of the family, there immediately forms a whole line of personalities who had a definite influence on him. Those lesser-known, but very interesting people are: his grandfather Franciszek, Wincenty the philosopher with his wife Sofia, the latter nominated by the Spaniards to the Nobel Prize, Father Kazimierz, the creator of the Polish Scouts Cross, and Józef, the composer’s father, executed by the Bolsheviks together with his brother Marian for patriotic activity...”.

On August 30, 2013, in Drozdów, Barbara Turowska was honoured with the Lutosławski Centennial Medal.

kt / trans. mk

Pierre-André Valade co-founded the Paris-based ensemble Court-circuit in 1991, and remained its music director for sixteen years, until January 2008. In September 2009, he was appointed chief conductor of the Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen. He is especially well-known and admired for his performances of repertoire from the 20th and 21st centuries, and receives regular invitations from major festivals and orchestras in Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

He has conducted many different orchestras in a wide range of repertoire, from Berlioz, Wagner, Verdi, Mahler, Ravel, Debussy, Saint-Saëns and Stravinsky to Berio, Birtwistle, Boulez, Carter, Lachenmann, Stockhausen, and frequently, composers of the younger generation, notably those of the French “Spectral school”, such as Hugues Dufourt, Gérard Grisey, Philippe Hurel, Philippe Leroux, and Tristan Murail.

He is regular guest conductor with the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich. Other orchestras he has worked with include the BBC Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Philharmonia Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Saarbrücken Radio Symphony, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Ensemble InterContemporain, London Sinfonietta, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, musikFabrik, and Ensemble Modern. He made his BBC Proms debut in 2001, and has appeared at the Aldeburgh, Bath, Perth, Sydney, Holland, Strasbourg Musica, IRCAM Agora, and Présences festivals, among others.

The Sinfonia Varsovia orchestra has performed and recorded music by Witold Lutosławski many times under the baton of the composer himself, as well as a host of other outstanding conductors (including Jan Krenz, Jerzy Maksymiuk, and Wojciech Michniewski). In 1991, the orchestra in collaboration with Solveig Kirglebotn and Witold Lutosławski presented the Polish premiere of the song cycle Chantefleurs et chantefables. In 1994, several months after the death of Lutosławski, it participated in a special concert presenting the music of Lutosławski under the baton of Jan Krenz during the Warsaw Autumn festival.
On January 15, 2015, at a concert in Warsaw held at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the Sinfonia Varsovia received the Year of Lutosławski Medal for its outstanding contribution to the dissemination of the composer’s heritage.

Michael Vyner (1943-1989) – English manager, musical director of the London Sinfonietta from 1972.

To a question posed by Zofia Owińska: “Was it a friendship?”, Witold Lutosławski answered: “It would be difficult to say whether it was a friendship. He was the artistic director of the London Sinfonietta who was responsible for its musical programs, and a great enthusiast and passionate of contemporary music, which was the object of his great interest and efforts. It was this orchestra which first organized a concert of my compositions in London, and then invited me to conduct these works. Next year, they will even do a small festival of my music” (the conversation took place in 1992).

Witold Lutosławski dedicated his Chain I to Michael Vyner and the London Sinfonietta. The composer himself conducted its world premiere in London on October 4, 1983. He also lead a performance of the composition at a Covent Garden concert devoted to the memory of Michael Vyner (1989).

Helena Warpechowska – singer, soprano; Witold Lutosławski’s colleague from studies at the Warsaw Conservatory. The trip to Riga was a specially memorable event from this period, and the composer remembers it thus: “A group of students from the Warsaw Conservatory, among them Witold Małcużyński, Stanisław Jarzębski, Helena Warpechowska, and myself, went on a voyage to Latvia, where we gave a concert at the Conservatory in Riga. This was an exchange concert, and Latvian students subsequently came to Warsaw. On the day on which our small group arrived in Riga, the city’s opera theatre happened to feature Karol Szymanowski’s compositorial concert. We could not attend this concert, because after the long and tiring trip we had to practice our concert program in advance of the appearance. Nonetheless, we were invited to the Polish consul’s reception given in honour of Karol Szymanowski”.

The Warsaw students’ concert took place on May 4, 1935, for the occasion of the Polish national holiday. As Helena Warpechowska-Wilczak reminisced years later in conversation with Danuta Gwizdalanka and Krzysztof Meyer, the students “not only became friends, but also created an informal representation of their institutions, assuming the name Group of the Youngest. The ‘Youngest’ would sometimes perform in the club Poetry and Art, and once gave a concert in the hospital at Wolska Street. Helena Warpechowska sang for the patients, with Lutosławski and Małcużyński at the piano”.

In November, 1938, Helena Warpechowska performed the solo part in Witold Lutosławski’s Lacrimosa at a diploma concert given with the orchestra of the Warsaw Philharmonic under the direction of Tadeusz Wilczak. She also sang Lutosławski’s songs for children on the airwaves of the Polish Radio.

Tadeusz Wielecki (b. 1954 in Warsaw) — composer, contrabassist, cultural animator, and from 1999, Director of the Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music.

He graduated from the Academy of Music in Warsaw, where he studied performance on the double bass under Alfred Wieczorek and Andrzej Mysiński, and composition under Włodzimierz Kotoński. He furthered his education abroad on a scholarship funded by Witold Lutosławski. The latter had created scholarships for the youth from the Grawemeyer Award he received for the Symphony no. 3 from the University of Louisville School of Music. As result, Tadeusz Wielecki went in 1986 to West Berlin, where he perfected his skills under Isang Yun, and subsequently studied with Klaus Huber in Freiburg im Breisgau.

Tadeusz Wielecki became known as contrabassist in many European countries, in Asia, and in the United States, appearing with a contemporary repertoire which included his own compositions. An example was the Auditorio Nacional Hall in Madrid, 2012 premiere of Tadeusz Wielecki’s new composition The Thread Spinneth... IV for double bass and ensemble, with the composer as the soloist. The ensemble Plular was conducted by Zsolt Nagy.

To obtain novel sounds from instruments, Tadeusz Wielecki proposes modifying the traditional technique of playing string instruments, among others. In the Concerto à rebours for violin and orchestra written in 1998, he develops a particular manner of playing which relies upon sliding the fingers on the strings, instead of traditionally placing them on the fingerboard. This particular work found itself among the group of recommended compositions in 1999 at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Paris. For many years, Tadeusz Wielecki worked in education, leading Polish Radio authored radio program cycles for children and youth, acquainting his listeners with the language of contemporary music. They were: Contemporary Musical Hits, Sound Charms, and Something from Nothing. He also collaborated with the Children’s Art Centre of Poznań.

In 1992 Tadeusz Wielecki presided over the World Music Days Artistic Committee of the International Society for Contemporary Music in Warsaw. He was invited as lecturer to the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music in 2004. A year later, at Florida State University in Tallahassee, he lectured and presented his double bass compositions, demonstrating his own playing technique on the instrument. He has composed works on commission from the aforementioned Darmstadt courses and the Warsaw Autumn Festival, Polish Radio, Poznań Philharmonic, Klangforum Wien, and the Hiroshima Symphony Association. From 1999, he is Director of the Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music. In this activity, emphasizes Tadeusz Wielecki, “what is important is the historical continuity: the past, and everything, which shaped the successive generations of composers. What is at issue is not only the presentation of music, but also the class of people who influenced the form of the Festival, and here we certainly owe much to Witold Lutosławski”.

However, both in Poland and in Europe Tadeusz Wielecki is valued above all for his creative output (he is laureate of the yearly Music Award). His compositions are regularly presented at the most prestigious festivals. In 2009, Hiroshima became the location for the world premiere of his Piano Concerto, composed for the Hiroshima Symphony Association. The event was broadcast by the Japanese public KTradio and television. Wielecki is a composer whose stance is characterized by an intellectual approach to the creative process on the one hand, and by a clarity of emotional expression on the other hand. When he presented his Beggar Ballad (a piece composed in 1994 on commission by the Warsaw Autumn and dedicated to the ensemble Cikada from Oslo) during the 10th Lutosławski Forum which took place in 2004 at the National Philharmonic, Wielecki wrote: “We are all slightly imperfect and frail, but we sing as best we can; this moves me and I try to honour it”. An important theoretical category, but also a significant element of compositional technique for Wielecki is the “musical gesture”, and he has said: “in the compositional method using gestures I see the possibility of a music that plays with expressions, and with variegated energies”.

Selected works, beginning from 1995:

Study in Gesture for clarinet, piano, and cello (1995), Id for orchestra (1996), Study in Gesture II for piano (1997), Concerto à rebours for violin and orchestra (1998), Study in Gesture III for clarinet, trombone, piano, cello, and double bass (2000), Thesis for solo flute (2000), Credo, quKTia absurdum for tape and dancer (2001), Planes for symphonic orchestra (2002), Time of Stones for amplified double bass and chamber orchestra (2002), String Quartet (2004), Rustle of Semitones for double bass and ensemble (2004), Shoals for symphony orchestra (2005), Knights of the Round Table - A Documentary Opera for soprano, tuba, instrumental ensemble, and electronic media (2006), Necessity and Chance for string quartet and electronic media (2006), The Valley of Dry Water for chamber orchestra (2007), String Vibrations for harpsichord (2008), Piano Concerto (2008-2009), In the Beginning There Was... for slammer poet, sampler, and chamber ensemble (2009), Quarter Tones and Half-Shadows for double bass, two percussion sets, and ad libitum trumpet (2009), Cogs, Springs, and Pinions for violin and guitar (2010), The Thread Spineth... IV for double bass and chamber ensemble (2012), A Subjective Model in Dramatized Form for viola, tuba, tape, and non-formal group of performers (2012), Points of Listening for chamber ensemble (2012).

Tadeusz Wilczak (1908-1956) – conductor, after completing his studies at the Warsaw Conservatory under Walerian Bierdiajew in 1936, he became his assistant. Before the war, he conducted in Warsaw’s theatres among others, and during the occupation he led concerts organized by the Central Welfare Council. In the post-war years he conducted the Cracow and Warsaw Philharmonics, Bydgoszcz Symphony Orchestra, Łódź Philharmonic, and Warsaw Opera. From 1950, he led the class of conducting at the State Postsecondary School of Music in Warsaw.

In November, 1938, Tadeusz Wilczak conducted a Warsaw Philharmonic concert which featured the world premiere of Witold Lutosławski’s Lacrimosa – one of two parts of the Requiem, which he composed as his diploma piece in fulfillment of his composition studies in the class of Witold Maliszewski at the Warsaw Conservatory. Helena Warpechowska performed the solo part.

Antoni Wit - conductor, born in 1944 in Cracow, directed the Pomeranian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Polish Radio Orchestra and Choir, for 17 years he lead the Great, and later the National Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio in Katowice. From 2002 he holds the post of Chief and Artistic Director of the National Philharmonic. Throughout his entire career he let himself be known as a passionate propagator of Polish music, especially that of the twentieth century, which he performs throughout the world.

Works by Witold Lutosławski have secured a permanent place in his repertoire. Together with the composer he conducted Trois poèmes d'Henri Michaux in the monographic Lutosławski concert at the Berlin Philharmonic. On May 23, 1993, Antoni Wit gave the Polish premiere of Lutosławski's Symphony no. 4 in the Polish Radio's Studio S-1. In his recordings, especially those for Naxos, which were recognized through numerous awards, he memorialized the complete works with orchestra by Karol Szymanowski, Witold Lutosławski, and Krzysztof Penderecki.

The value of these performances was emphasized by Danuta Gwizdalanka and Krzysztof Meyer: "The series of records with Witold Lutosławski's complete works for orchestra conducted by Antoni Wit provides us with interpretations that are more precise and more enrapturing than those which were recorded by the composer himself".

In January of this year, Antoni Wit together with Anne-Sophie Mutter will inaugurate the Year of Lutosławski in Poland in a celebratory concert at the National Philharmonic.

Krystyna Witkowska (1937-2018) — geophysicist (graduate of the Academy of Mining and Metallurgy in Cracow), relative of Witold Lutosławski (her grandfather, Marian, was the elder brother of Józef, the composer’s father, with whom he perished at the hands of the Bolsheviks). A passionate of the family’s history, she collected and partly published its documentation, and co-authored the book The Lutosławskis in Polish Culture (in Polish). She was active in the Society of the Nature Museum Friends in Drozdów and the Lutosławskis’ family estate, organized the Polish National Performance Competition of Witold Lutosławski’s Music for children and youth, and is a member of the Polish Genealogical Society. She prepared for publication the Polish philosopher Wincenty Lutosławski’s correspondence, and in the book The Stones that Speak (in Polish), the gravestone inscriptions from Warsaw’s Powązki Cemetary.

In an extended conversation with Grzegorz Michalski (Lutosławski in Memory, in Polish), Krystyna Witkowska told the family story, revealing the lesser-known side of the lives of Lutosławski and his close ones.

Lutosławski was always very interested in politics, simultaneously avoiding any sort of collaboration with the communist regime. In turn, as Krystyna Witkowska reminisces, “the moment when Solidarity began its activities, he ‘mounted his horse’. This was something indescribable, the kind of change that occurred in the way he spoke, the manner in which he reacted. Listening to him ‘anew’ was a pleasure. He became a completely new man. This was now his life. He was enraptured, for example, by the [Solidarity] contacts with Adam Michnik and Zbigniew Bujak. This was when he lived his life to the fullest, and him keeping guard at the coffin of Father Popiełuszko (the Catholic priest murdered by the Militia Police - trans. note) was no accident. He was simply in this movement”.

Krystyna Witkowska reminds us of the sensitiveness of the composer for the needs of others: “He was excessively modest. In fact, they both were... On the other hand, he made use of the money he made. He put it toward higher goals, about which he never, or at least rarely spoke”.

She is also delighted by the harmoniousness of the Lutosławskis as married couple: “They were absolutely indivisible — one without the other would simply not be able to function. There was no doubt that Witek (dim. of Witold — trans. note) was still in love with Danusia (dim. of Danuta), and that Danusia was in love with Witek. This was something which madly appealed to me”.

On January 24, 2013, at anniversary celebrations at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Krystyna Witkowska was honoured with the Lutosławski Centennial Medal.

Pianist, born on December 5, 1956, in Zabrze, a student of Andrzej Jasiński from the beginning of his education until the obtention of his degree at the State Postsecondary Music School in Katowice (1976). In 1975 in brilliant style he became the winner of the 9th International Chopin Piano Competition. From this moment dates his international career, which confirmed him as a member of the world pianistic elite. Zimerman appears with leading world orchestras, records with conductors such as Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Pierre Boulez, Kiril Kondrashin, and Simon Rattle. Dissatisfied with the conductors' treatment of the orchestral parts in Chopin's concertos, he proposed his own understanding of the works when he created the Polish Festival Orchestra. In 1999, on the 150th anniversary of Chopin's death, he completed a historical tour in Europe and the USA, and made recordings of both concertos for Deutsche Gramophon.

Zimerman gives much attention to international presentations of the most valuable works of Polish music, devoting a special project to Grażyna Bacewicz, and remaining an ardent propagator of the music of Witold Lutosławski. In a conversation with Tadeusz Kaczyński, Zimerman relates: "To my discreet question about whether he wouldn't want to compose a piano concerto, Lutosławski answered: ‘Yes, I will definitely write one, because for several years I've had various ideas in that regard'". The Polish composer has for a long time planned writing the Piano Concerto, first with the idea of playing it himself, then with Witold Małcużyński as the performer. "I do not make it a secret that a rather strong inspiration was having Krystian Zimerman greatly interested by the work and him making it known to me in various ways - Lutosławski told Elżbieta Markowska. This served as a great incitement and occurred at a propitious moment, when my musical language had reached a completeness allowing for the achievement of such a task."

The Piano Concerto was created on a commission by the Salzburg Festival, and is dedicated to Krystian Zimerman. Its world premiere was given on August 19, 1988, in Salzburg, with the dedicatee as soloist and the Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer. From this time the Polish pianist performed the composition numerous times, as one that is among the specially important works in his repertoire. Zimerman ascribes great value to the Year of Lutosławski and plans to perform Lutosławski's Concerto in Paris, London, and Berlin, among other cities.

Slavko Zlatić (1910-1993) – Croatian composer, conductor, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, music critic, and music writer, author of many radio program series devoted to topics such as the music of Yugoslavia’s nations. He was choir leader in Rijeka and Zagreb, principally with the Zagreb Radio Choir (later the Croatian Radio and Television Choir) – the country’s first professional group of this kind. Zlatić would visit his home Istria throughout his entire life, being fascinated by its folk music and instruments. The Istrian scale, which he employed in his mostly choral compositions, was a strong inspiration for him. Zlatić filled many honourable functions; he was, among others, President of the Yugoslavian Composers’ Union and member of the UNESCO Music Council.

On Slavko Zlatić’s commission for his choir, Witold Lutosławski composed the Trois poèmes d’Henri Michaux. Since the choral parts are not synchronous and “in many places different types of rhythm appear simultaneously, it was necessary to introduce two conductors for the work’s performance”, as the composer emphasized.

The world premiere of Trois poèmes d’Henri Michaux took place on May 9, 1963, at the Music Biennale Zagreb, with the participation of the Radio Orchestra and Choir in Zagreb. Slavko Zlatić conducted the choir, and Witold Lutosławski, the orchestra. The event initiated Lutosławski’s activity as a conductor of his own works.

Pinchas Zukerman (b. 1948) – Israeli violinist, one of the most prominent personalities of the violin world in our times. A New York debut in 1963 initiated his carreer, one of extraordinary breath. Zukerman also appears as a violist and conductor, and engages in pedagogical activities. In the years 1980-1987, he was musical director of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and presently leads the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa.

Witold Lutosławski composed the Partita for violin and piano in 1984, on a request by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. The work was destined for Pinchas Zukerman and the regularly collaborating pianist, Marc Neikrug; the two artists gave its premiere on January 18, 1985.

Lutosławski wrote in a Warsaw Autumn program commentary, in part: “The work consists of five movements. Of these, the main movements are the first (Allegro giusto), the third (Largo) and the fifth (Presto). The second and fourth are but short interludes to be played ad libitum. (...) The three major movements follow, rhythmically at least, the tradition of pre-Classical (eighteenth-century) keyboard music. (...) Harmonically and melodically, the Partita clearly belongs to the same group of recent compositions as Symphony no. 3 and Chain I”.

Mario di Bonaventura (ur. 1924) — American conductor and pedagogue, propagator of new music. He studied composition under Nadia Boulanger and conducting under Igor Markévitch. He lead the Lauderdale Symphony Orchestra and the Julliard Contemporary Music Ensemble. In the years 1962-1974, he was active at Dartmouth College in the State of New Hampshire, where he was also director of the summer new music festival – Congregation of the Arts (1963-1970) – to which he invited outstanding composers, often giving premieres of their works. In 1966 Witold Lutosławski was a guest of the Festival.

Witold Lutosławski revealed to Zofia Owińska: “Mario di Bonaventura is one of my really dear friends. He was always interested in my works. He was director of a very good festival in New Hampshire, and once invited me to be composer in residence for two weeks. He had a number of my compositions performed there, and they were conducted by me or di Bonaventura as the main festival conductor. That’s also how our friendship formed. I wrote Preludes and a Fugue at his request, originally for this very festival, which has since ceased to exist”. The world premiere of the mentioned work was given on October 12, 1972, in Weiz, near Graz at the Styrian Art Festival, in which Mario di Bonaventura lead the Zagreb Radio and Television Chamber Orchestra.

Lutosławski’s Symphony no. 3 holds an important place in the repertoire of the conductor. He lead its world premiere in Poland on September 30, 1984, at the gala finale concert of the Warsaw Autumn.