Witold Lutosławski (1913-94)
Sunday, September 27, 2026
Golden Hall, Musikverein, Vienna
Not an obvious Vienna Philharmonic programme, if an enticing choice of repertoire, this Sunday-morning concert, the third of five outings for it, went like a charm. Lutosławski’s Fourth Symphony, his final such work, was completed in 1992 for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen. In one movement – effectively exposition-development-epilogue – Symphony Four begins in the depths, motifs coming to the fore, clusters of notes forming, other Lutosławskian trademarks present, the musical progression and argument sustained by intense string lines punctuated by discursive percussion, brass and piano (the composer true to himself), the music insect-like (numerous details) swarming forward to form a pixelated sound-world that climaxes to a solo violin and the barest of support, but the patient is in the recovery position and the Symphony rallies (twenty-three minutes here) with a terse if resolute coda.
Debussy’s La mer (three symphonic sketches) continued the musical excellence – masterly compositions and performances – a flowing, flexible account, as subtle as it was graphic, as illuminatingly detailed as the tuttis were sonorous, the Vienna players on top of Salonen’s changes of tempo during ‘Play of the waves’ and then delivering the drama of ‘Dialogue of the wind and the sea’ with certainty, Salonen broadening the climax significantly and persuasively, going on to resist reinstating the brass ‘fanfares’, and driving the final page with force, the sea breaking through protective sandbags.
Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony was the concert’s grand pinnacle, the work’s mysteries, transitions (specifically the upheaval that occurs during the first movement), vitality, the strange songfulness of the second movement, led a merry dance of contrasts by Salonen (although he has all the experience needed to talk himself out of them if he wished), and the Finale, launched attacca, was quick off the mark until the swans take flight, which brought a massive slowing to create a hymn to Nature that lived for the moment if awed by the sight, understandably given free rein, continuing to the craggy conclusion with splendour – terrific brass – arriving decisively.
Although the broadcast’s dynamic range was restricted, it was easy to imagine the glories filling the Musikverein.
Wiener Philharmoniker, Dirigent: Esa-Pekka Salonen. Witold Lutosławski: Symphonie Nr. 4; Claude Debussy: La Mer; Jean Sibelius: Symphonie Nr. 5 Es-Dur op. 82 (Übertragung aus dem Großen Musikvereinssaal Wien in 5.1 Surround Sound)