Villars-sur-Ollon

In the late summer of 1957, Witold Lutosławski went on holiday to the south of France, availing himself of an invitation from Witold and Colette Małcużyński. Privately, that was an exceptionally pleasant journey, since he had finally managed to travel together with his wife. Artistically, it left a mark in the form of a dedication on a work he was composing at that time. On the way to the Małcużyńskis, the Lutosławskis stopped at the Alpine resort of Villars-sur-Ollon, where the seventieth birthday of Nadia Boulanger was celebrated at the villa of Igor Markevitch. Like other invited composers, who brought the birthday girl gifts in the form of new works, Lutosławski also came with a score. He dedicated to her four of the five songs to poems by Kazimiera Iłłakowicz that he had just completed – special pieces, since they were composed in a new harmony that he had been working on for some time.