10068 – Variations on a Theme of Paganini

Witold Lutoslawski (1913 - 1994)

Arranged by Roger Harvey

Difficulty: Virtuoso

Price: £35.00

Programme note:

During the Second World War Lutoslawski was trained in signalling and radio operating. He had completed his Symphonic Variations in 1939 and then had plans to travel to Paris for further musical study in September 1939. However, when Germany invaded western Poland and Russia invaded eastern Poland, Lutoslawski was mobilised with the radio unit at Kraków, and he was soon captured by German soldiers. He escaped while being marched to prison camp, and walked 400 km back to Warsaw. Lutoslawski's brother was captured by Russian soldiers, and later died in a Siberian labour camp.
To earn a living, Lutoslawski joined a cabaret group playing popular dances. He also formed a piano duo with friend and fellow composer Andrzej Panufnik, and they performed together in Warsaw cafés. Their repertoire consisted of a wide range of music in their own arrangements, including the first incarnation of the Paganini Variations, a highly original transcription of the 24th Caprice for solo violin by Niccolò Paganini. Defiantly, they even sometimes played Polish music (the Nazis banned Polish music in Poland—including Chopin), and composed Resistance songs. Listening in cafés was the only way in which the Poles of German-occupied Warsaw could hear live music; putting on concerts was impossible since the occupying forces prohibited all organised gatherings.

Lutoslawski left Warsaw with his mother a few days before the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, salvaging only a few scores and sketches—the rest of his music was lost during the destruction of the city, as were the family's Drozdowo estates. Of the 200 or so arrangements that Lutoslawski and Panufnik had worked on for their piano duo, only Lutoslawski's Paganini Variations survived.
This arrangement was made with the approval of the composer.