Lutoslawski: Orchestral Works Vol. 2 - Symphonic Variations, Paganini Variations, Piano Concerto, Symphony no.4 [Hybrid SACD, SACD]

Ed Gardiner and the BBC Orchestra obviously found a workable rapport here. They play four modern classics with assurance, virtuosity and, yes, fun. Lutoslawski is one of the most rewarding of 20th- Century composers, with a rhythmic and melodic gift which continually suprises. Louis Lorte is a dazzling soloist in the Piano Concerto, while the once-voguish Fourth Symphony is wonderfully well-performed.***** --Sunday Telegraph,08/01/12

For a composer who won the respect and affection of the UK concert-going public in the last 20 years of his life, Witold Lutoslawski (1913-94) has since been shamefully neglected. So it is good news that the Philharmonia Orchestra is planning a major retrospective next season. In the meantime, Chandos's excellent series of studio recordings not only helps to fill the gap but also reminds us what a craftsman the Polish composer was: there s not a note out of place, nor a crass gesture. This latest volume includes some lesser-known but far from insubstantial works the early Symphonic Variations, the jazz-inflected Variations on a Theme of Paganini for piano and orchestra, and two late masterpieces, the Piano Concerto and Fourth Symphony. The concerto is a racy, conversational work that evokes both Ravel and Rachmaninov, while the 20-minute symphony, played without a break, must rank as one of Lutoslawski's most enigmatic scores a canvas of weighty imagination interspersed with characteristically jewel-like inventions. These well-prepared performances, by pianist Louis Lortie and the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Edward Gardner, underline that Lutoslawski's oeuvre is classically wrought, full of welcome surprises and always communicative. **** --Financial Times,24/01/12

The Symphonic Variations from 1938 already show the young Lutoslawski's expertise in colourful orchestration. Here Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony, backed up by a glittering sound, do this work proud. Performance**** Recording***** --BBC Music Magazine,Mar'12

Lortie,sensitive to the score, is magnificently scurrying in the second movement,and Gardner is hyper-keen of response,too.Together,Lortie and Gardner convey the multitude of moods here,including the darkness of the third movement.Lortie's skittering touch again enlivens the Paganini Variations, where lutoslawski's entertaining,circus-like humour comes to the fore.Gardener impresses, too, eliciting some wonderful brass chord weighting.A wonderful disc. --International Piano, Mar/Apr 2012

Something of a revelation, then, and Lortie is no less inside the Variations on a theme of Paganini(1941)- a two-piano work written for the composer and Andrzej Panufnik and heard in its 1978 revision with orchestra, where the 12 variations more clearly take on the guise of a mini concerto whose large sections culminate in a apotheosis hardly less dazzling than of the Rhapsody which inspired it. Bernd Glemser's account is duly eclipsed and this disc, with its opulent SACD sound....reasserts Lutoslawski's stature at a time when his centenary is fast approaching. --IRR, Mar'12

Throughout, Gardner secures some first-class playing from the BBC SO. Cordially recommended. GRAMOPHONE CHOICE --Gramophone,Apr'12

Variations symphoniques - Symphonie n°4 - Variations Paganini - Concerto pour piano / Louis Lortie, piano - BBC Symphony Orchestra - Edward Gardner, direction