Album Review: Lutoslawski, Vocal Works

Lutoslawski, Vocal Works. Photo / Supplied

Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994) is not frequently encountered in our concert halls, although perhaps some atonement will be made two years hence to celebrate the Polish composer's centenary.

If you were fortunate enough to be in the capital last April, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra included his Fourth Symphony in its Wellington-only Polish Pride concert.

Back in 2001, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and Justine Cormack performed his Chain 2 for violin and orchestra, which stirred up some controversy in the pages of this paper.

Now, a new CD of the Polish composer's works for voice and orchestra, with Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra following on from their sterling 2010 collection of Lutoslawski's orchestral music, reveals just what we Kiwi concertgoers are missing.

Soprano Lucy Crowe has drawn rave reviews this year on both sides of the Atlantic - for Handel's Giulio Cesare in Chicago and Strauss' Rosenkavalier in Munich. She has the verve to make Lutoslawki's Silesian Triptych come across like a spicier Songs from the Auvergne, and brings an arresting emotionalism to a Lacrimosa, all that remains from a 1937 student Requiem.

Crowe also catches the ironies and whimsies of the 1990 Chantefleurs and Chantefables, in which Lutoslawski responds imaginatively to the post-Aesop visions of poet Robert Desnos. A vision of the rose is the purest imaginable; and you can almost sense jaws snapping in the black humour of the man-hungry Mississippi alligator.

Christopher Purves' dramatic conception of the moodier night visions of Desnos, as caught in Les Espaces du Sommeil, owes more to the baritone's triumph in Welsh National Opera's recent Wozzeck than dues paid in the pub band Harvey and the Wallbangers.

Some may remember Toby Spence as a spunky Laertes in last year's Metlive presentation of Thomas' Hamlet. The English tenor takes on the 1965 Paroles Tissees, robustly exploring its twilight world of prowling cats and howling cockerels.

This CD is a marvellous introduction to mainstream 20th-century repertoire that deserves to be better known. This music may be unlikely to turn up as concert fare, but in the meantime, it's only a CD away.

Lutoslawski: Vocal Works
(Chandos, through Ode Records)

Verdict: "Brilliant collection of Lutoslawski's vocal music makes one aware of what our concert programmes lack."