Born in Warsaw, Poland, Lutoslawski's musical talents surfaced early, with his first compositions dating from 1922. He studied piano, violin and composition (with Witold Maliszewski, a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov), graduating from the Warsaw Conservatory in 1937. His first substantial orchestral work, the Symphonic Variations, was premiered in 1939. Lutoslawski survived the difficult war years and Stalinist period by writing for radio, film and theatre, and doing folk-song arrangements and music for children. Considered too formalist, his concert music was rarely performed. He continued, however, to develop his musical language on his own, culminating in the folk-influenced Concerto for Orchestra (1954).
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