I enjoyed this CD more than I expected. At the risk of appearing self-referential, I looked up my 2009 Limelight review of a Lutosławski box, which noted that his musical trajectory was almost as varied as Stravinsky’s, but much less well-known.

The first Symphony was composed during WWII and ranks with the Symphonic Variations and the Concerto for Orchestra among his assimilable early masterpieces. This four-movement symphony is a likeable work with a pulsating opening rhythm which anticipates the opening of the Concerto composed more than a decade later. The Adagio movement grows darker as it progresses and contradicts the composer’s description of the work as pogodny or “bright” and “cheerful”. The main feature of the third movement is an introverted waltz, while the finale is a purposeful toccata. It’s hard to imagine that this work was such an affront to the orthodoxy of socialist realism that the Polish Minister for Culture allegedly suggested that the composer should be thrown under a tram! I found this attractive music alternately poignant, witty and vibrant.

Two of the other works on the CD were inspired by violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter. Chain 2 was composed in 1984-5 and Partita in 1984 although only orchestrated in...