Wikipedia:Today's featured article/January 25, 2023

Witold Lutosławski (25 January 1913 – 7 February 1994) was a Polish composer and conductor. His compositions include symphonies, concertos, orchestral song cycles, and chamber works. During his youth, he studied piano and composition in Warsaw. Having narrowly escaped German capture, during World War II he earned income by playing the piano in Warsaw bars. Post-war Stalinist authorities banned his First Symphony for being "formalist". His early works were inspired by Polish folk music, including Concerto for Orchestra and Dance Preludes in the mid-1950s. He often built up harmonies from small groups of musical intervals. From the late 1950s he developed new and characteristic composition techniques that stipulated elements of aleatoric music within a tightly controlled musical architecture. In the 1980s, he supported the Solidarity movement artistically. He received the Grawemeyer Award, the Royal Philharmonic Society's Gold Medal, and in 1994, the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest honour. (Full article...)