Day Twenty-Eight: Lutoslawski, Variations on a Theme of Paganini for two pianos

Today’s recommended listening was a new discovery for me yesterday evening, Witold Lutoslawski’s Variations on a Theme of Paganini for two pianos, performed here by Martha Argerich and Evgeny Kissin. It was my intention to try and never repeat a composer or performer on this blog, and to a great degree I have succeeded but I think a special exception will have to made for Argerich. Sorry!

Many wonderful composers have written “variations on a theme of Paganini”, Rachmaninov perhaps holding first place in terms of recognition for his version with piano and orchestra. The “Theme” comes from the 24th Caprice by Paganini which, for reference, I am including in the original form below.

During the Second World War, Lutoslawski was captured by German soldiers whilst with the radio unit of the Krakow Army. Miraculously, he managed to escape while being marched to a prison camp, fleeing the 400km on foot back to Warsaw. Although this left him without an official identity for the rest of the war, he managed to make ends meet teaming up with local cabaret performers and playing in small clubs. Making the best of an otherwise intolerable situation, another pianist and composer destined to be a giant of Polish music after the war, Andrzej Panufnik (1914-1991), formed a piano duo with Lutosławski. The two composers performed in a handful of popular and famous nightclubs for the next few years, with Lutosławski arranging over 200 pieces for them.

In anticipation of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, in which the Nazis systematically demolished 85 percent of the city and executed several hundreds of thousands of people, both Lutosławski and Panufnik wisely fled to less populated areas, taking with them only their most essential possessions. Among the few music scores that Lutosławski managed to carry out to safety (all others now presumed destroyed), only one was from the 200 arrangements for his piano duo: Variations on a Theme by Paganini from 1941.