Lutoslawski's Third Symphony

Author(s): John Warnaby

Source: Tempo, New Series, No. 148 (Mar., 1984), pp. 21-23
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/945057
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 FIRST PERFORMANCES 2I

expectations, such as a large church, cathedral or arena, would hav

better. Nor would any aspects of Messiaen's copious directions have
and the ritualistic nature of the content and action could be brought o
more easily. It would also benefit from more spacious surrounding
disguise the cramped conditions of the orchestra and choir). Space
important to Messiaen (e.g. Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum) and
opera still awaits an adequate staging. Until that happens, one's fee
piece must remain very mixed.

Lutoslawski's Third Symphony

John Warnaby

DURING recent years, many composers have rediscovered the sym

medium for extended musical discourse. On the other hand, few h
adapting the legacy of the great symphonic tradition to the demands of
too often, symphonies are produced which abound in so many referen
that they have little contemporary relevance: the main problem being
retains a powerful hold on our musical sensibilities, especially
articulation of large-scale structures, but is extremely difficult to rec
language of'modernism'. It is therefore rare to encounter work wh
'symphonic' in impulse, yet quintessentially 'modern' in language, a
reason that Lutoslawski's third essay in the genre may well prov
significant contribution to 20th-century symphonism.
An important factor which will help to explain Lutoslawski's achiev
he has invariably turned to the symphony as a means of summing
stages of his development-particularly if we include the Concerto f
this category. The First Symphony attempted to make sense of his exp
and the Nazi occupation; the Concerto for Orchestra salvaged at least o
work from the wreckage ofStalinist repression; the Second Symphony
the threads of experimentation which had proliferated following t
Gomulka regime and the sudden access to Western culture. In essence,
can be seen as increasingly ambitious syntheses of various facets o
style; and in this respect, there are compelling reasons for regar
symphony as the culmination of this process. By the time he wrote Livr
and the Cello Concerto, Lutoslawski had fully developed the kale
dramatic aspects of his idiom and now, in his Third Symphony, he has
that these apparently contrasting features are also complementary.
Nominally the symphony has three movements, which the co
characterized as 'introduction', 'main movement', and 'a sort of a
short, very fast coda';' yet despite the abundance and diversity of i
work is best regarded as a single span of music-not least because
compressions (a lifetime of composition has been condensed into a
minutes), but also partly because the wealth of ideas is contained

I Introduction to the first BBC broadcast of Lutoslawski's Symphony No. 3 on I O

Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Georg Solti). The work, a CSO commission,
premiere from the same performers in Chicago on 29 September.

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22 TEMPO

purposeful overall structure or 'sound vision'.2 Thus, even the most com
do not disturb the dynamic progress of the music.
The first four notes announce the principal unifying factor of t
played very rapidly and forcefully. Introduced on three occasions
opening pages, they occur thereafter regularly throughout the first ha
structural signposts. Initially, their manner of presentation is only var
slight changes of register and instrumental colour but later the rhythm
become much less predictable and on one occasion the pitch is also a
The fact that the F ] 's return to conclude the work may suggest that th
sort of tonal centre, but this is hardly the case since the work does not
way that might allude to other symphonic models, nor are there any co
areas. Invariably, they are heard without any form of preparation.
Indeed, these note-repetitions are themselves preparatory, for besid
the various episodes of the introductory movement they provide a dram
its kaleidoscopic material and are therefore largely instrumental in buil
readiness for the advent of the main movement.
At this juncture, the full significance of the composer's conception gradually
becomes apparent, as the contrast between reiterated gesture and orchestral colour is
replaced by a fully sustained musical argument involving opposing groups of
thematic ideas. The influence of the three preceding episodes, however, is not
exhausted, for many of their ideas form the basis of subsequent events. The effect is to
blur the distinction between introduction and main movement; and the precise
moment at which the latter starts is made still more ambiguous in that it is prefaced by
an interlude, mainly for the upper strings. The complex polyphonic texture they
produce, by playing a series ofjagged rhythmic figures in a variety oftempi, differs to
some extent from those passages elsewhere in the work where similar results are
obtained by means of aleatory techniques. As with the episodes, material from the
interlude recurs later in the work.
Lutoslawski has stated that the construction of the 'main movement' adheres to a
'very quasi' sonata-form which has no 'classical' development section and only a
partial recapitulation.3 Nevertheless, it is soon clear that such a free interpretation of
symphonic structure does not preclude an important element of conflict. The strings
begin by establishing a strong harmonic focus, for the first time. This they duly
expand, despite interjections from piano/pitched percussion and solo oboe. When the
brass enter, this time playing repeated chords centred around B flat, the influence of
the strings is quickly undermined, and after a further interlude (comprising material
from the earlier episodes) an alternative harmonic language is offered: powerful and
aggressive, in contrast to the lyricism of the string writing. A huge climax ensues,
suggesting the epic scale of the composer's 'sound vision', and the dominance of the
brass is such that the rest of the orchestra is temporarily silenced. This power cannot
be sustained, however, and as soon as the brass fade, the strings re-emerge more
forcefully than before-if only for a brief moment-before being curtailed by the
timpani. Nevertheless, the strings play a significant part in the subsequent passage,
with its further reference to the earlier episodes, before gradually gaining the
ascendancy prior to a section, initially for strings alone, of such importance that it
could easily be interpreted as the hub of the entire work. It begins with an extension of
the pizzicato theme for lower strings which has opened the third episode, but as the

2 Music Weekly (BBC Radio 3, 25 September I983).

3 Introduction to first BBC broadcast.

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 FIRST PERFORMANCES 23

violins
violins join
join
in ain
complex
a complex
contrapuntal
contrapuntal
texture is built
texture
up. One
is strand
built comprises
up. One astrand
sequence
sequence of of
slowly
slowly
changing
changing
chords against
chords which
against
the other
which
partsthe
moveother
at much
parts m
greater
greater speed.
speed.
The whole
The whole
passage passage
is precisely
is notated,
precisely
as is notated,
made clear as
by is
themade
composer's
composer's handling
handling
of theof
fullthe
orchestra,
full orchestra,
whose re-introduction
whose re-introduction
is signalled by a is s
single
single stroke
stroke
on tubular
on tubular
bells. The
bells.
strings
Thedo strings
not cease do
their
not
activity,
ceasebut
their
become
activity,
part but
of
ofa amuch
much richer
richer
texture
texture
in which inthe
which
function
the offunction
counterpointofiscounterpoint
considerably is
broadened.
broadened. On On
the one
thehand
onethere
hand is there
a direct is
confrontation
a direct confrontation
between fully composed
between f
and
andaleatory
aleatoryelements;
elements;
on the on
other,
thetheother,
variousthe
orchestral
various
groups
orchestral
engage in groups
an
increasingly
increasingly animated
animated
'debate''debate'
with eachwith
other,each
basedother,
on the different
based on kinds
theof differ
material
material through
through
whichwhich
their separate
their identities
separatehaveidentities
been firmly
have
established.
been firmly
A seriesestabli
of
ofclimaxes
climaxesensures
ensures
that the
that
music's
the epic
music's
potential
epicis fully
potential
realized,
is and
fully
in a realized,
sense everyand in
feature
feature of of
the the
composer's
composer's
style is style
reviewed,
is reviewed,
culminating in culminating
a broad melody infor
a broad
strings melod
and brass in unison: their conflict has been reconciled. Final resolution is thus
achieved, and the music can begin to wind down-a process which is vivid
presented in several stages, the tension audibly slackening as the music lo
momentum and ultimately collapses into an expressively lyrical adagio section. T
concluding coda is remarkably cogent. The tempo suddenly accelerates and the entire
symphony appears as though crystallized in a brilliant halo ofhigh-pitched percussio
sound. This texture is punctuated by several carefully spaced orchestral chords whic
lead the music back to F , thereby bringing the work full circle and allowing it to e
with the four-note gesture from which it had sprung.
Despite its various references to repeated notes, Lutoslawski's Third Sympho
generally eschews tonal centres. On the contrary, it is a convincing demonstrat
that the creation of a large-scale structure can be consistent with Ezra Pound
injunction to 'make it new'. Indeed, it should be stressed that Lutoslawsk
continuing espousal of a 'modernist' aesthetic does not mean that his symphony
unnecessarily difficult or obscure. Meirion Bowen has described the work as 'mu
for a possible unwritten tragedy'.4 There is surely a good deal of substance in this, f
in summarizing the composer's oeuvre, the Third Symphony undoubtedly refle
the fact that his career has coincided with the most turbulent epoch in the history
mankind.

'Fanferlieschen Schonefufsschen'*
Gerhard R. Koch

THOMAS MANN, in his remarkable talk on Wagner's Ring given in Zurich in 1934,
drew an antithesis-comparing the threatening situation at that time with the
bourgeois 9Ith century he so much admired-between Wagner's myth-like cycle and
the great English, French, and Russian realistic novels. Mann, certainly no
anti-Wagnerian, came to the conclusion (not without irony) that the novelists had
concerned themselves with historical reality, while the musical dramatist, as
representative of the German tradition, had concerned himself with pre-history. In
times of crisis the Germans turn to fairy-tales.
* Kurt Schwertsik's chamber opera Das Marchen von Fanferlieschen Schinefusschen was premiered by the
Wiirttemburg State Opera at the Staatstheater, Stuttgart, on 24 November I983. Gerhard Koch's review
first appeared in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and is given here in a translation byJulian Silverman.
Silverman.

4 The Guardian, 3 October I983.

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