Composers / Witold Lutosławski / Places catalog

Zagreb

In May 1961, the first edition of the Muzički biennale, Internacionalni festival suvremene muzike was held in the Croatian capital Zagreb, which then was the second largest city of Yugoslavia. The festival guests included Witold Lutosławski, who delivered a lecture on Polish contemporary music, illustrating it with recordings of works by his younger colleagues. Considering the history of the demolition of the ‘edifice of Classical musical language’, he declared his faith that ‘the more quickly the old musical material is dismantled, the more quickly new material will arise. And from it, through synthesis, it will be possible to forge new lasting conventions for a new Classical period’.

The festival audience could hear how he himself imagined the ‘forging of new conventions’ during the next edition of the Biennale, when Trois poèmes d’Henri Michaux was performed. That work required two conductors. Music history had previously known examples of three or even four conductors appearing in the concert hall at the same time (Stockhausen’s Gruppen and Carré), but they had all followed a shared, precisely notated score. In the Lutosławski, the situation was different: each of the conductors was working independently of the other; the music was notated in an aleatory fashion, and in two separate scores it gave independence to the chorus and the orchestra. Thus on the left of the platform the 23-strong Zagreb radio orchestra was conducted by the composer, whilst on the right the 20-strong chorus was led by the Croatian conductor Slavko Zlatić.

During that concert, on Friday 9 May 1963, Lutosławski made his public debut as a conductor. He had already stood before music ensembles many times before, including symphony orchestras, but always in a radio studio.

Place Category
Aix-en-Provence Appearances
Aldeburgh Appearances
Amsterdam Appearances
Århus Education
Aspen Appearances
Austin Other
Baranów Sandomierski Other
Basel Other
Basztowa Street Performance spaces
Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts Other
BBC Orchestra and other ensembles Appearances
Belfast Other
Berea Performance spaces
Berlin Appearances
Białystok Education
Boston Appearances
Brisbane Other
Budapest Other
Calgary Education, Other
Cambridge Other
Celle Publishers / Bookshops
Chicago Appearances
Cincinnati Other
Cleveland Appearances
Cologne Other
Copenhagen Appearances
Cracow Philharmonic Performance spaces
Dartington Education
Donaueschingen Other
Dresden Other
Drozdowo Flats
Düsseldorf Appearances
Edinburgh Other
Evian Appearances
Filmography Radio / TV
Florence Appearances
Geneva Appearances
Glasgow Other
Graz Other
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Hagen Other, Performance spaces
Hamburg Other
Hanover (New Hampshire) Other
Helsinki Education
Herkulessaal Appearances, Performance spaces
Houston Other
Huddersfield Appearances
Indianapolis Other
Jagiellonian University Education
Katowice Other
Kazimierz nad Wisłą Other
Komorów Flats
Łagów Other
Lancaster Appearances
La Rochelle Appearances
Leeds Appearances
Leipzig Education, Performance spaces, Publishers / Bookshops
Lisbon Appearances
Liverpool Appearances
Łomża Education
London Sinfonietta Performance spaces
Los Angeles Appearances
Louisville (Kentucky) Other
Lublin Appearances
Lucerne Other
Madrid Appearances
Manchester Appearances
Mikołajki Other
Milan Appearances
Montreal Appearances
Moscow Appearances
Munich Philharmonic Appearances, Performance spaces
New York Appearances
Odense Education, Performance spaces
Olsztyn Education
Opio (near Grasse) Flats
Oslo Other
Paris Appearances
Pittsburgh Appearances
Poznań Other
Prague Appearances
PWM EDITION Publishers / Bookshops
Riga Performance spaces
Rome Other
Rotterdam Appearances
Royal Albert Hall Appearances, Performance spaces
Royal Philharmonic Society Appearances
Saint Paul (Minnesota) Other
Salzburg Other
San Francisco Appearances
Strasbourg Appearances
Stawisko
Stockholm Appearances
Sydney Appearances
Szczecin Other
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Tokyo Appearances
Toronto Education
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Vienna Performance spaces
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Warsaw Appearances, Flats, Other, Performance spaces
Washington Appearances
Wawel Appearances
Wehr near Rheinfelden Other
Wrocław Other, Performance spaces
Wzdów Other
Zagreb Performance spaces
Zegrze Other
Zurich Performance spaces