This relatively short piece has a complex compositional history. In 1984 Lutoslawski completed his Partita for violin & piano, written for pianist Pinchas Zuckerman. The next year, Lutoslawski completed another violin work, this time with a small-orchestra accompaniment, called Chain 2. This was written for Anne-Sophie Mutter, the young German player who quickly became one of the composer's favorite violinists. In 1988 he wrote an orchestral version of the 1984 Partita and dedicated it to Mutter, who played the solo part in the premiere of this work on a recording the same year.

In 1989 Lutoslawski composed this work for small orchestra (flute, two oboes, two clarinets, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, percussion, celeste, harp, piano, and strings) to serve as a link between concert performances of Chain 2 and the Partita's orchestral version.

This work, in which the violin does not sound, lasts about five minutes. The sound world of the Interlude is remarkable, similar to the mysterious textures of Charles Ives' "The Unanswered Question." The strings form a separate body, playing slow-moving chords against brief figurations from the other instruments. The string chords are eight-note aggregates: the strings are divided into eight sections, and assigned to the high, upper-middle, lower-middle, and low registers. Each register gets only two notes of a chord aggregate, and the instruments in that register play those notes. The individual parts do not coincide exactly in time, so that the chords merge with each other, although they do change with a regular rhythm. The effect of the piece is of a photographic "soft focus" background to the short sounds of the "foreground" instruments. The Interlude forms a moment of relaxation and calm between the two complex works it links.



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