Witold Lutosławski - Grave

Lutosławski wrote this piece in memory of Polish musicologist Stefan Jarociński, who devoted much of his scholarly work to the music of Debussy. To recognize this work, Lutosławski structured his Grave around the first four notes of Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande. The cello begins by playing these four notes, setting the foundation for the rest of the melody. As the cello line emerges, the piano joins to emphasize and develop. The subtitle of this piece, Metamorphoses for cello and piano, describes the rhythmic development. The sure, deliberate pace of the beginning deteriorates slowly as the note durations shorten, giving the sense of a quickening pace. Tempo is not changed but compressed. Notes are repeated in quick succession where they might have been played as undivided, long-held tones. Again and again the original four notes appear but in a variety of registers and with rapidly played variations that intensify the direction of the piece. They are sometimes curtailed, sometimes inverted, and sometimes only hinted at, but they consistently direct the nature of the content until, as the intensity dies down, the cello plays them again fully formed. The slow pace reappears, and the four note statement is restated unaccompanied and without adornment. As the notes recur, the cello pushes the motif into the upper register, finally whispering them to subtle piano accompaniment as the piece closes to silence.

copyright Connor Buckley