See all Lutosławski Centenary concerts

As a cabaret pianist on the run from the Nazis in occupied Warsaw and then a staunchly independent composer denounced by Communist party apparatchiks, Witold Lutosławski survived some of the 20th-century’s grimmest years, and his cultural importance seems only to have grown since his death. Lutosławski became a close artistic associate of the LA Phil and Esa-Pekka Salonen in the last decade of his life, and his First Symphony will be recorded at these concerts to complete a Salonen/LA Phil cycle of the composer’s four symphonies for Sony Classical.

Come for:

A quintessential Salonen program. He has paired Beethoven and Lutosławski before, for his Beethoven Unbound festival in the 2004/05 season.

And more:

Lutosławski wrote his Fanfare for Los Angeles Philharmonic, a short piece for brass and percussion, in celebration of the LA Phil’s 75th Anniversary Season.