Composers / Witold Lutosławski / Places catalog

Madrid

Witold Lutosławski’s aunt, the poetess and novelist Sofia Perez Casanova, came from Spain. She arrived in Poland as the wife of the eldest of his five uncles, the philosopher Wincenty. They were neighbours at Drozdowo and also in Warsaw, on Marszałkowska Street. Casanova spoke excellent Polish and even wrote in that language, but those around her were certainly used to hearing Spanish. When Lutosławski first travelled to Madrid, in March 1979, when taking his first rehearsal with the Orquesta Nacional de España, he addressed the musicians in French. At the second rehearsal, however, he delighted them by conducting basic communications in Spanish, thanks – as he assured them – to a teach-yourself guide. They were working on two earlier works, the First Symphony, from thirty years before, and the ten-year-old Cello Concerto, in which the soloist was Lluís Claret. The latter work was already familiar to the music lovers of Madrid, since four years previously it had been performed by Pedro Corostola with the orchestra of Spanish radio and television. Mi-parti was also planned for 1979, but the orchestral material did not arrive in time. Ultimately, that work was not performed in Madrid until 1998.

In 1986, Lutosławski received the Queen Sofia Prize. He was the first foreigner to be awarded the prize, and also the first composer to be honoured for his entire oeuvre rather than a single work. He received the prize from the queen on 13 March 1986 in the presence chamber at the royal palace in Madrid. The prize was funded by the Ferrer-Salat Foundation, which many years later, remembering about its exceptional laureate, organised a Lutosławski Composition Competition to mark the centenary of his birth in 2013.

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
Tanglewood Education, Other
Tokyo Appearances
Toronto Education
Toruń Education
Venice Performance spaces
Vienna Performance spaces
Villars-sur-Ollon Other
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