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- Witold Lutosławski
Novelette (1979)
- Chester Music Ltd (Worldwide except Poland, Albania, Bulgaria, China, countries of former Czechoslovakia, Croatia, former territories of Yugoslavia, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, Romania, Hungary and countries of former USSR)
Commissioned by National Symphony Orchestra
Chester Music is the publisher of this work in all territories except Poland, Albania, Bulgaria, China, countries of the former Czechoslovakia, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, Romania, Hungary and the whole territory of the former USSR, where the copyright is held by Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne (PWM).
- 3(2pic)3(ca)3(Ebcl:bcl)3(cbn)/4331/timp.3perc/2hp.pf.cel/str
- 18 min
- 13th June 2025, The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts R Fraser Elliot Hall, Toronto, ON, Canada
- 13th June 2025, The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts R Fraser Elliot Hall, Toronto, ON, Canada
Programme Note
Novelette owes its existence to Mstislav Rostropovich. When he was appointed Musical Director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, he asked me to write a work for him to conduct with his new orchestra. This was not in fact the first occasion on which I composed a piece at the suggestion of this great artist; in the 1960s he had spurred me on to write a cello concerto. Composed very much with him in mind and dedicated to him, it was subsequently commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society in London, at one of whose concerts he gave the World Premiere.
Novelette is in five movements and despite the work’s almost miniature character, its total duration is eighteen minutes. As has happened in some of my other works, the last movement is more substantial than those which precede it, forming a kind of counterbalance to them. The titles of the movements are ‘Announcements’, ‘Three Events’ and ‘Conclusion’. The first movement is so-called because in it I present as it were samples of the ‘events’ which follow. The three are contrasting in character, the slow middle one being ‘buffo’ and the third one being a fast and sparkling scherzando. The ‘Conclusion’ consists largely of a slow heterophonic cantilena of two groups of violins with the accompaniment of other instruments playing ‘ad libitum’.
© Witold Lutoslawski
Novelette is in five movements and despite the work’s almost miniature character, its total duration is eighteen minutes. As has happened in some of my other works, the last movement is more substantial than those which precede it, forming a kind of counterbalance to them. The titles of the movements are ‘Announcements’, ‘Three Events’ and ‘Conclusion’. The first movement is so-called because in it I present as it were samples of the ‘events’ which follow. The three are contrasting in character, the slow middle one being ‘buffo’ and the third one being a fast and sparkling scherzando. The ‘Conclusion’ consists largely of a slow heterophonic cantilena of two groups of violins with the accompaniment of other instruments playing ‘ad libitum’.
© Witold Lutoslawski
Media
Novelette: Announcement
Novelette: First Event
Novelette: Second Event
Novelette: Third Event
Novelette: Conclusion
Scores
Discography
- LabelNaxos
- Catalogue Number8 553625
- ConductorAntoni Wit
- EnsemblePolish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
- SoloistAndrzej Bauer, cello
- Released20th April 1998
Lutoslawski at the Guildhall, Vol. 1
- LabelSomm Recordings
- Catalogue NumberSOMMCD219
- ConductorWitold Lutoslawski / Wojciech Michniewski
- EnsembleGuildhall School of Music / Drama Symphony Orchestra
- SoloistLouise Hopkins, cello
- LabelDeutsche Grammophon
- Catalogue Number431 664-2GH
- ConductorWitold Lutoslawski
- EnsembleBBC Symphony Orchestra
- SoloistKrystian Zimmerman, piano
