A potent and powerful pair of works
delights in this second helping of Lutos awski from Finland’s finest John Allison
Lutos awski
Symphonies Nos 2 & 3
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra/ Hannu Lintu
Ondine ODE 1332-5 (hybrid CD/SACD) 61:40 mins
Eagerly awaited ever since Ondine’s previous Lutos awski release from the same Finnish team, this magnificent new recording completes a strong symphonic portrait of the Polish modernist master. If it doesn’t offer quite the same wideranging view of the composer that one inevitably gets from the First and Fourth Symphonies plus Jeux vénitiens, this is a potent and logical pairing of works both written on a two-movement scheme.
The Third Symphony comes first here in a coruscating performance. Hannu Lintu conducts with lucidity and rigour in a work exploring Beethovenian notions of tension and release. His musicians respond with brilliant, punchy playing but are also capable of dazzling refinement, something vital in a work of such intricate translucence. Though the Third Symphony was composed at a time (1981-83) of great flux in Poland, indeed the period of martial law, somehow it rises above nonartistic concerns and Lintu makes a great case for its abstract richness.
Next to the Third, viewed by many as Lutos awski’s masterpiece, the less frequently heard Second is a symphony that breaks with symphonic tradition. Written in 1966-67, when not even the height of the Cold War could slow Lutos awski’s growing international reputation, it is especially notable for the sustained, searing scream of its second movement, a complex sound-mass based largely on aleatoric gestures. Lintu makes sense of its elusive qualities without, as it were, negating its very elusiveness. Altogether, Lintu’s Lutos awski cycle sets a new standard. PERFORMANCE ★★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
Lintu makes sense of Symphony No. 2’s elusive qualities