The piece was written in memoriam Stafan Jarocinski and belongs to a category of personal epitaphs and elegies which also include Funeral music (written 1945 for string orchestra in memory of Bartok) and Epitaph (written 1979 for oboe/piano in memory of Alan Richardson)

Stefan Jarocinski was a famous authority on Debussy and the work opens with the sounds of 'Pelleas et Melisande': A whole tone 4 note idea which is immediately repeated and extended in bar 2.

However this is not to be the overriding tonal world of the piece and in bar 3 and 4 of the cello line we have a tritone followed by a semitone.

This is Lutoslawski's 'death figure' and can be found in the other pieces mentioned above.

Aside from the Requiem his response to the subject of death was personal and not connected with any wider social or political ideas, unlike works of other Polish composers such as Penderecki or Gorecki.

Put simply, Grave feels like a gradual acceleration climaxing on a high Bb at figure 10 before a long descent and a disintegration to a repeat of the opening statement which this time becomes an ascending passage into nothing. We are left with a high cello harmonic and a piano figure reminiscent of the night or dreams.A world the composer shared with Bartok and Szymanowski.

Death for Lutoslawski as Professor Harley says is "portrayed as a humanised, dangerous and seductively beautiful, mysterious and ever-present threat.."

All the 'eptaph' pieces are characterised by long sections in slow tempi and low register. Also fragmentation,silences and pauses are present in all these pieces.

As the sound clip shows, the piece is also characterised by disorientating but clear counterpoint between the piano and the 'cello including a rapid changing of meter.

The 'morendo' ending (as professor Harley terms it) ends inconclusively before the final ascending figure.In this, it belongs to the convention of the musical representation of death modelled on JS Bach's 'Art of Fugue'.(Click here for enlightening analysis on the work)

The high ascending line in the final bars of the cello is termed an 'in paradiso' ending by Tadeusz Kaczynski."..its presence an expression of Lutoslawski's belief in resurrection:since the burial of the body is not final, the music does not conclude with a descending passage."

Instead the phrase ascends to the highest range portraying the soul's ascent to God. Unlike the works of Olivier Messiaen his paridiso endings are not filled with bells or triumphant angelic choirs:the resurrection is not proclaimed emphatically.

Rather they feature a dissolution of the musical texture into silence. This makes a very calming end to the concert and explains its position in the programme.

As professor Harley concludes: .."perhaps the musical treatment of the theme of Death.. was his way to "unlearn" the useless knowledge of death that he experienced so profusely in his lifetime".