MUSIC REVIEW : Lutoslawski Leads Institute Orchestra

Whole programs of music by Witold Lutoslawski are not unheard of in Southern California--the composer himself led such an agenda by the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion six years ago.

But they are sufficiently rare to command attention. Much attention was paid to the latest one Wednesday night in Royce Hall at UCLA, when a large and influential audience of musicians and music-lovers turned out to greet the Polish composer, who led three important works performed by the L.A. Philharmonic Institute orchestra.

Despite the fact that only one of these pieces is new to these parts, this was a special occasion. The 76-year-old Lutoslawski led the youthful players with his customary elegance and vigor, the orchestra played expertly--rather a feat in these complicated but exposing scores--and the music emerged victorious.

As he had done for Karel Husa’s new Cello Concerto last spring, Lynn Harrell brought to Lutoslawski’s 19-year-old Cello Concerto a stunning intensity, complete emotional identification and all the resources of virtuosity it requires.

Closing this concert, Harrell, Lutoslawski and the instrumental ensemble made a dramatic excursion into the work’s disturbing environment of hostility and alienation. The piece offers no let-up of aggression, even in its quiet, smoldering moments; and it purposefully never achieves a comfortable plateau of repose. It compels by direct, if varied, assault; this performance reiterated its power.

Powerful in another way completely is the composer’s handsome and mordant First Symphony, completed in 1947 but only now reaching our West Coast. It is clearly a post-Stravinsky exercise in neoclassicism, but original and imposing nonetheless.

The then-young composer’s other influences--as outlined thoroughly in Steven Stucky’s program notes for this event--include Bartok and Ravel, among others. Yet it speaks in an individual voice, one both key-centered and atonal, both astringent and accessible.

The young players of the institute rose to the musical occasion and accomplished the recognizable modernist style effortlessly. Not all American orchestras have this kind of versatility. Or immaculate instrumental skills.

“Chain III,” commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony on the occasion of its 75th anniversary and introduced by that ensemble in December, 1986, was the centerpiece of this engaging program--and greeted hotly, as was the entire performance, by the knowledgeable audience.

It seems to follow, in clear-cut progress, an unwritten scenario of dramatic urgency. Its action is not specified, yet cannot be ignored. It is dense, chaotic, compelling, precipitous, ear-opening. Wednesday night, the composer and this orchestra solidly communicated those qualities.