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Symphonic Variations
for Orchestra

  • Duration: 9'
  • Instrumentation: 3333-4331-batt (4esec) cel ar pf-archi
  • Year: 1938
  • Language of edition: eng, pol
  • Type: parts, score

Variations - beside an overture, scherzo and toccato - belonged to the forms which were particularly popular among the young composers during the interwar years. They allowed showing off not only the mastering of the variation technique, but first of all the skill of using the colour abundance of orchestra. Lutosławski's ''Symphonic Variations'', composed in 1938, became the first testimony of the outstanding talent of their creator who considered their first performance in April 1939 as his official composer's debut. The work of the 25 year old author, in spite of obvious influences by Szymanowski and Stravinsky, impresses with freshness of invention and an exceptional for his age mastering of the composing technique. The harmony doesn't move away too much from the tonality, and a simple, ten-bar theme gravitates towards the E-major key. Yet this theme-melody isn't the foremost element; one can say that the attractiveness of this music is inherent in what is happening outside the theme line. In ''Variations'' the main part is played by the colour, orchestral virtuosity and a constant capricious movement which altogether give the impression of an extraordinary activity of the sound matter. The score impresses with elaboration of the smallest details revealing a hand of both a born symphony composer and a miniaturist. The course of this composition is created by four contrasting links built of a theme and twelve variations of a different length - contrasted tempo-wise. The crowning of this opus is a fugue from the fourth link and an impressive coda. [Krzysztof Meyer]

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