Grave (Metamorphoses for Cello and String Orchestra)

(Witold Lutoslawski)

This piece was first written for cello and piano in 1981 by the Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski in honor of the memory of the musicologist and publisher Stefan Jarocinski who had died the previous year. It was then transcribed for cello and 13 string instruments in 1982.

Jarocinski spent a lot of time on works by the composer Claude Debussy so the beginning of the composition included the first four notes of the opera Pelleas and Melisande which acted as the start of the cello’s melodic line. These notes then recurred before the end of the piece.

Lutoslawski stated that the composition has “a sort of metamorphoses” in which “the rhythmic values are gradually broken down to give the illusion of of a quickening tempo”.

The composition was premiered in April 1981 in Warsaw at the National Museum in a concert honouring Stefan Jarocinski. It was performed by the cellist Roman Jablonski and the pianist Krystyna Borucinska.

The works for both cello and piano and cello and strings has been performed on recordings that include VCPF: Great Cello Music of the 20th Century by Cecylia Barczyk and Reynaldo Reyes, Dialogo by Joris van den Berg and Martijn Willers, Rachmaninov: Lutoslawski & Webern by William Conway and Peter Evans, Dialoghi by Elinor Frey and David Fung, Lutoslawski: Orchestral Works 3 by Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Lutoslawski: Double Concerto – Dance Preludes – Chain (Orchestral Works) by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Sources:

Grave (Metamorphoses for Cello and String Orchestra)

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