Alex Ross: Witold Lutoslawski: The New Yorker Every few months, I put on a recording of Witold Lutosławski's Third Symphony and wonder why it hasn't become a modern warhorse. Completed in 1983, it is a masterpiece of organic architecture, in which gleaming towers of brass emerge from gaseous clouds of instrumental activity. In a kind of reverse teleology of music history, the avant-garde engenders a new Romanticism. Lutosławski, the most significant Polish composer after Chopin, would have been one hundred on January 25th; his chief celebrant these days is Esa-Pekka Salonen, who has already honored him with concerts in Los Angeles and who will lead further events in London and elsewhere in the coming weeks. Alas, New York has little Lutosławski on tap, although the violinist Jennifer Koh will play "Chain 2" with the Philharmonic this week. A new two-disk set on Sony gathers Salonen's recordings of the four Lutosławski symphonies, all with the L.A. Philharmonic. Their account of the Third remains the best, hurtling forward with Beethovenian fury. ♦