The Livre (or Book) for Orchestra was commissioned for the city of Hagen and its State Orchestra by their director of music, Berthold Lehmann. Written in 1968, the work was premiered in Hagen on November 18 of that year.

Lutoslawski's had originally planned to write, as he put it, "a cycle of independent pieces, several in number, different in character and length," inspired by similarly-titled works like the Livre pour clavecin by François Couperin. The result, however, proved to have a different structure than had intended. He wanted to change the work's title, but by that time the sheet music had already been printed.

The Livre he ended up writing is in four "chapters," with three interludes separating them. These interludes, quiet and static, are meant to be moments of relaxation for both players and audience, more or less in the manner of the pauses between movements of a classical symphony. Glissandi (slides) and quartertones from the strings open the work. This stasis is interrupted by brass, various tuned percussion, and chattering woodwinds. After a fast scherzo-like section, a more lyrical line emerges in the lower strings, only to dissolve in a gradual, very dissonant crescendo. In the final section, the various kaleidoscopic sounds heard earlier in the work seem to pass in review. The work ends ambivalently with sustained, dissonant chords.

© All Music Guide