Suggestions of it may be noted in the restrained but oddly literal evocation of nocturnal imagery in Les espaces du sommeil (1975), here persuasively sung by David Wilson-Johnson.
The other events offered further opportunities to hear the early output itself: rare neo-classical and other scores from the Communist years and earlier. The Twenty Polish Christmas Carols (1946, but only orchestrated in the Eighties) – unpretentiously performed by the soprano Claron McFadden, the women of the BBC Symphony Chorus and members of the BBC SO under Stephen Jackson in St Giles, Cripplegate late on Saturday – proved models of ingenuity with simple tunes, though somewhat over-wrought. On Sunday there were even two films with music by Lutoslawski.I continue to find some of his late works problematic. Despite its skills (including deployment of the “chain” technique that helped give the Barbican weekend its title), the Piano Concerto’s recuperations of Chopin and Brahms still strike me as backward-looking and empty. The almost Ravelian artifice it exhibits has been noted in Lutoslawski’s earlier output too.

Yet I find the more “difficult” compositions of the second period can produce a powerful emotional experience. Though I heard it on Radio 3, the Trois poemes d’Henri Michaux (1963) in Friday’s BBC SO programme (also under Davis plus, for this choral work requiring two conductors, the BBC Singers conducted by Simon Joly) was direct and compelling. Even the scholars now seem nervous about celebrating such modernist works in these post- modernist times. The BBC’s delegation of most of them to the Guildhall could be interpreted as a failure of nerve. The long chain of late “chain” compositions in the first half of Friday’s concert, on the other hand, was simply bad programme planning.It’s by no means a banal matter of “middle-period, good / late-period, bad”, of course.

On Saturday night, the composer’s last completed major work, the Fourth Symphony (1993), was magical, blazing and deeply moving; it’s also, structurally, surely one of the most sophisticated symphonic compositions of the second half of the 20th century. And on Sunday there were two works suggesting that Lutoslawski on his way towards something new, but by no means there yet, could create some of his greatest masterpieces. The Five Songs (1957-8) – in the London Sinfonietta’s valuable but lengthy afternoon sequence, movingly sung by Lucy Shelton and conducted by Oliver Knussen – explore 12-note chords to gorgeous, riveting effect. And the still officially “middle-period” Cello Concerto (magnificently played by Paul Watkins in the concluding concert) deploys, to powerfully dramatic and ultimately individual ends, the sorts of gestures and tonality that compel comparisons between late Lutoslawski and Benjamin Britten.. For such a small country, New Zealand has been making impressive waves in recent years. Just as Britain’s privatisation programme has been copied across the world, so New Zealand’s public management reforms have been seen by many as a blueprint for the modern state.

But while most attention has focused on changes to the way central government operates, a study published today looks at council reforms which might be copied here. Bob Chilton, head of local government studies at the Audit Commission and author of the report Kiwi Experience, is careful to say that it is not the commission’s place to propose further local government reform. That does not prevent him arguing that political parties and local authorities should examine the effects of what is probably the world’s most comprehensive overhaul of municipal government.
Change has started at the top, improving the quality of strategic management. The chief executive is the sole employee of a New Zealand council, the only person accountable to elected councillors All other staff are employed by the chief executive. While this gives chief executives more operational freedom, it also gives them greater responsibilities. In one authority, the director of finance made a major mistake and resigned but the councillors still sacked the chief executive. There was no other way councillors could show electors they had taken action.New Zealand councils are required to conduct strategic financial planning, incorporating draft budgets for at least 10 years into the future.