Concerto for Orchestra (1950-54) is the crowning achievement of Witold Lutosławskis first creative period, during which the composer stylised Polish folk music and used compositional techniques characteristic of neoclassicism. In his Concerto for Orchestra he drew on several folk tunes from the Mazowsze region. He transformed these melodies by changing their rhythms and by subjecting them to colouristic alterations through varied instrumentation.

He also endowed them with a new musical sense ...