• WL100/28: Jazz Conversations (Lutosphere)

Having heard Agata Zubel, Andrzej Bauer and Cezary Duchnowski in conversation with Lutosławski’s alter ego ‘Derwid’ at the end of the Philharmonia’s Woven Words festival last month (Zubel Zings!), I’ve revisited an earlier set of ‘conversations with Lutosławski’.  These took place in the project Lutosphere, when Bauer teamed up with the pianist Leszek Możdżer and the DJ M.Bunio.S to explore Lutosławski’s concert music.  Among the pieces which they reference are the Intrada and Passacaglia from the Concerto for Orchestra (1954) and the Cello Concerto (1970). As I’ve written before, there’s quite a tradition of Polish jazz musicians reworking the music of major Polish composers (Chopin, Szymanowski), but this is the first time that the composer’s own voice has been included in the process!

There are currently a handful of uploads on YouTube, some with live video footage.  Here are five (two of them are short extracts), dating from 2008-10.

OFF festival, Mysłowice (8.08.2008)

Polish Radio (pre 6.11.2008, with partly English-language intro by Możdżer)

(pre 17.05.2009)

Kraków Philharmonic (31.10.2009)

Theatre on the 6th Floor, Warsaw (26.08.2010)