Houston

The music lovers of Houston were introduced to Witold Lutosławski’s music by Leopold Stokowski. In establishing a Society for Contemporary Music in the city towards the end of the fifties, he included Musique funèbre on the programme of the inaugural concert.

In 1985, Lutosławski visited Houston, conducting his Third Symphony. After the concert, a review appeared that clearly showed that the author lived at the heart of the American space programme: ‘The intensity, the strength and, above all, the wondrous, concentrated energy that flowed from Lutosławski’s symphony left the thrill of being in the center of a nuclear fusion reactor. Or sitting in the cockpit when the space shuttle rockets are fired’.