Composers / Witold Lutosławski / Places catalog

Royal Albert Hall

The Royal Albert Hall has resounded to the music of Lutosławski on numerous occasions, beginning with a concert on 12 August 1960, when Alexander Gibson conducted Musique funèbre, as well as a work by one of Lutosławski’s favourite composer’s: Debussy’s Jeux. Lutosławski himself took to the composer’s rostrum at the Albert Hall in July 1979, leading the first British performance of Les espaces du sommeil. The composer was invited to the Proms on eight further occasions. In accordance with the practice of those concerts, he conducted one or two works. He twice conducted the Cello Concerto, but never the Concerto for Orchestra, although that work appeared on the programmes of Promenade concerts as many as nine times up to 2014, more than nearly any other work composed during the second half of the twentieth century. Premiered at the Proms were the songs Chantefleurs et Chantefables, after which the reviewer for The Sunday Telegraph wrote: ‘It is rare today to fall head over heels in love with a new work at first hearing, but it happened to me on Thursday at the Proms with the first performance of Lutosławski’s song-cycle Chantefleurs et Chantefables […] How refreshing to encounter music that had obviously been created out of sheer pleasure and a passion for beauty of sound’. Lutosławski last appeared at this festival on Friday 27 August 1993, conducting the British premiere of his Fourth Symphony. Before the concert, in accordance with tradition, he answered questions from the audience, and the encounter was led by Adrian Thomas. That work was performed three more times over subsequent years.

In 2013, the Proms marked the centenary of Lutosławski’s birth with the premiere of Thomas Adès’s work Totentanz, composed to a commission from the former director of Chester, Robin Boyle, in memory of Witold and Danuta Lutosławski.

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