Witold Lutosławski Witold Roman Lutosławski (; 25 January 1913 – 7 February 1994) was a Polish composer and conductor. Among the major composers of 20th-century classical music, he is "generally regarded as the most significant Polish composer since Szymanow ...

's String Quartet was commissioned by

Sveriges Radio Sveriges Radio Aktiebolag, AB (; "Sweden's Radio") is Sweden's national publicly funded radio programming, radio broadcaster. Sveriges Radio is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, previously funded through a television ...

for the tenth anniversary of its new music program "Nutida Musik." It was completed in 1964 and its world premiere was performed by the LaSalle Quartet in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

on March 12, 1965.

Composition

The String Quartet has a duration of approximately 24 minutes and is composed in two

movements Movement may refer to: Generic uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Movement (sign language), a hand movement when signing * Motion, commonly referred to as movement * Movement (music), a division of a larger c ...

: "Introduction" and "Main Movement." Lutosławski described the piece in the score program notes, writing, "In this Quartet I have sought to develop and enlarge the technique employed in the two preceding works, '' Jeux Venitiens'' and ''Trois Poèmes d’Henri Michaux'' the technique of what I call controlled aleatorism. It employs the element of chance for the purpose of rhythmic and expressive enrichment of the music without limiting in the least the full ability of the composer to determine the definitive form of the work."

Reception

The String Quartet has been praised by music critics and remains one of the most widely performed and recorded modern string quartets. Graham Rickson of ''

The Arts Desk ''The Arts Desk'' (theartsdesk.com) is a British arts journalism website containing reviews, interviews, news, and other content related to music, theatre, television, films, and other art forms written by journalists from a variety of tradition ...

'' called it "fascinating, entertaining music" and wrote, "The music's complexities don't detract from its vivid, communicative power. Lutosławski's masterful ability to create beguiling sounds is just as potent in his chamber writing. The quartet's spectral ending remains astonishing."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:String Quartet (Lutoslawski) Compositions by Witold Lutosławski 1964 compositions Lutoslawski Music commissioned by broadcasting companies Sveriges Radio