As a student at the Warsaw Conservatory in the 1930s, Witold Lutoslawski showed great promise as a composer, pianist, and conductor. Just as he was about to embark on a brilliant career, World War II broke out. Throughout that difficult period, during which he was taken prisoner and suffered the loss of his family home, he worked steadily and with great dedication on his first major orchestral score, the Symphony No. 1 (1941 - 47). In 1948 the work was premiered in Poland to great acclaim, but as the Soviet-backed regime exerted its influence on cultural activity in Poland in the following year, the Symphony was roundly criticized for its "excessive formalism."

The Symphony No. 1 falls squarely into the neoclassical tradition. It comprises four movements, clearly structured according to a conventional Classical design: Allegro giusto, Poco adagio, Allegretto misterioso, and Allegro vivace. The harmonic language pushes the limits of tonality at times, but the work does not blaze a trail beyond the innovations of Prokofiev, Bartók, or Stravinsky. Perhaps its most notable feature is Lutoslawski's brilliant orchestration, an attribute that pervades his subsequent works for orchestra.

Lutoslawski, who as a student had felt himself weak in the discipline of counterpoint, expended much effort toward honing his skills during the war, and the Symphony abounds in sophisticated contrapuntal textures on practically every page. The harmonic language is chromatic, the rhythms often elaborate. Much of the music suggests the influence of the composer's Eastern European predecessors, and, to a lesser extent, that of Lutoslawski's fellow countryman Karol Szymanowski (1882 - 1937). The more explicitly Polish side of the composer's musical character emerged more fully in the 1950s, when he immersed himself in folk music.

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