Grave (1981)

As its title suggests, Lutoslawski’s Grave is a deeply serious work, short though it is. And as its subtitle, Metamorphoses, indicates, it explores the range of melodic and expressive interest to be found in a process of thematic transformation. Dedicated to the memory of the Polish musicologist Stefan Jarocinski, a Debussy specialist, it is based on the first four notes (D A G A) of Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande. It makes no effort to recall Debussy’s sound world but remains entirely within Lutoslawski’s own. Solemnly introduced in the bottom register of the cello, the theme passes on a rising tempo through a variety of textural and emotional situations to an impassioned climax and a refllective cello soliloquy at the end.