On the Shoulders of Giants
Lutosławski’s View of the Musical Past
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Witold Lutosławski openly admitted to a preoccupation with his predecessors’ music. Alongside the classical Viennese composers, his sources of inspiration included French music, with Claude Debussy and Albert Roussel, as well as Bela Bartók, John Cage, and Chopin. In his work, however, these influences are so reworked that at first glance they are quite often barely recognisable.
(Osteuropa 11-12/2012, pp. 2938)