Day 144
Lutoslawski: Paganini variations
The Slovak Piano Duet
For the last of this short exploration of sets of variations for piano I have cheated slightly by picking a work for two pianos. This pieces dates from the years immediately after the end of the Second World War where in the chaotic conditions in Eastern Europe Lutoslawski and his friend and colleague Panufnik scratched a living by playing and composing piano duets. This work, which is wholly by Lutoslawski, is apparently the only work from that era which has survived.
I thought it was great fun. Onc can almost imagine the two musicians improvising on the famous Paganini caprice and gradually refining what they did into a finished composition. It is short, doesn’t take itself too seriously, and is full of invention. The broadly outlines of Paganini’s original are clearly retained in the background but it is subject to harmonic and rhythmic ingenuity which I am sure would have astonished the composer - but I also imagine he would have been delighted to see the bravura spirit of his original being recreated over a century later.
I’ve not listened to much Lutoslawski over the years and I don’t think that this piece is typical of his mature style. But he clearly had a first class sense of musical invention and he is certainly on my list of composers to explore in more detail.
No comments:
Post a Comment