Composer: Witold Lutosławski
Performer: Antoni Szuszkiewicz, Polish National Forum of Music Boys’ Choir, Lutosławski Quartet, LutosAir Quintet, Mikołaj Szuszkiewicz, Mariola Molczyk, Krzysztof Morgiel, Wiktor Dawidziuk, Szymon Goździkowski, Karol Płaczkowski, Kacper Dawiec
Orchestra: Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Andrzej Kosendiak
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: CD Accord
Catalogue: ACD242
Release: 2018
Size: 913 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
4 Children’s Songs
01. No. 4, Nightfall
02. No. 3, Sleep, Sleep
Spring
03. No. 1, Already It’s Spring
04. No. 3, Like a Warsaw Coachman
05. No. 2, Song of the Golden Leaf
06. No. 4, May Night
2 Children’s Songs
07. No. 2, Little Seashell
08. No. 1, Silver Pane
6 Children’s Songs
09. No. 1, Dance
10. No. 2, Year and Trouble
11. No. 3, Kitten
12. No. 4, Greg Strides
13. No. 5, The Brook
14. No. 6, Gossiping Birds
Straw Chain & Other Children’s Pieces
15. No. 1, Instrumental Introduction
16. No. 2, Lowly Hut
17. No. 3, There Was an Old Woman
18. No. 4, In the Woods Who Took a Knock
19. No. 5, In the Field Stood a Pear Tree
20. No. 6, A Viburnum Grew
21. No. 7, Sophie Fancied Some Berries
22. No. 8a, Straw Chain. Children
23. No. 8b, Straw Chain. Little Well
24. No. 8c, Straw Chain. Rose Bush
25. No. 8d, Straw Chain. Dog
26. No. 8e, Straw Chain. Flower
27. No. 8f, Straw Chain. Cow
28. No. 8g, Straw Chain. Ending
2 Children’s Songs
29. No. 1, Nightingale
30. No. 2, About Mr. Tralalinski
Warzywa
31. Vegetables
Trudny Rachunek
32. Tricky Calculation
4 Children’s Songs
33. No. 1, Little Sparrow
34. No. 2, Little Plume
As the name indicates, the Opera Omnia by Witold Lutosławski aims to offer up the composer’s complete works in fine, although the project itself hasn’t been rushed: in all, it has stretched out over a number of years. This seventh volume is given over to a number of pieces that the composer wrote for children: not for them to sing or play, but for them to listen to. Because one can inveigh all one wants against the evil dictatorships of the communist era (and a part of this reviewer’s family lived in one of these open-air prisons), but the efforts made at spreading culture, in particular to children, were real, and moreover they worked. And the organisers didn’t hesitate to put the country’s biggest names to work on them, in this case, Lutosławski, who wrote these fantastic miniatures for Polish Radio, all of which date from the 1950s. Far from any political toadying or didactic wittering, the composer here is taking popular and traditional lyrics (and sometimes melodies) and transforming them into a world of magic – for sure, a rather easy one harmonically, but always of great quality, so that children can enjoy the beauty and the text, while even the most experienced musician will find joy at every moment in the stupefying instrumental writing, and the harmonic and vocal polyphony. The boys’ choir of the National Musical Forum, the Wrocław Orchestra, the Lutosławski Quartet, the LutosAir Quintet, and solo vocalists – often children, but ever so talented – all join forces to honour this superb and rather neglected repertoire from the great Lutosławski.