“A Symbol of Freedom”
Lutosławski’s Influence on the Soviet Union
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
In the bleak Brezhnev-era, Poland was for Soviet artists and intellectuals a window on the West. Everybody had an opinion about Witold Lutosławski. The regime declared his music “not recommended for performance”, because it was considered avantgarde. In the 1980s, it was undesirable for political reasons due to the Solidarity movement. But for composers in Moscow and the Baltic, Lutosławski was a symbol of freedom and rigorous intellectual discipline. They studied and drew on his compositional techniques. Whether “Western” or “Slavophile” in orientation, Soviet musicians were crazy about him.
(Osteuropa 11-12/2012, pp. 143–146)