Krzysztof Penderecki's symphonies have a special place in the composer's legacy. In celebration of the composer's 80th birthday, DUX Recordings presents, for the first time in a box set, the symphonies as conducted by the Maestro himself, performed in collaboration with the Sinfonia luventus. These works have never been recorded in a series before under the artistic direction of the composer. He himself has said the DUX Recordings represent the best recordings of these works, making the series even more special. Founded in 2007, the Sinfonia luventus orchestra consists of the most talented graduates and students of music academies who have not attained 30 years of age. The orchestra has performed on many concert stages and at numerous festivals in Poland and abroad: in Austria, China, France, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Italy.

Radomska Orkiestra Kameralna consists of 16 musicians, working under Maciej Żółtowski as the ensemble’s Manag­ing and Artistic Director. In addition to regu­lar concerts, the orchestra organizes special events including the Krzysztof Penderecki International Composers’ Competition ARBORETUM. The important part of ROK’s repertoire is music of the 20th and 21st century.

This new release of works by the Poland-based Dux label's greatest and most highly-acclaimed living fellow countryman composer Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933) features two concerti - the Clarinet Concerto (1984; transcribed from the Viola Concerto), the Flute Concerto (1992) and his (2001) Concerto Grosso No. 1. These concertante works were written during a time when Penderecki had synthesized experiences of Romantic provenance (typical of his middle period) with other, sometimes drastically varying sources of inspiration, while aiming at an anchoring in universal humanistic values.

Penderecki: Music for Chamber Orchestra

Krzysztof Penderecki is one of the most famous and prominent living Polish composers. Symphonies have a special place in his legacy, but until now have never been recorded in a series under his artistic direction. In celebration of his 80th birthday, DUX presents the best performances of his works with the Sinfonia luventus. His great musical authority influences the young musicians' energetic and fresh sound.

Krzysztof Penderecki is one of the most famous and prominent living Polish composers. Symphonies have a special place in his legacy, but until now have never been recorded in a series under his artistic direction. In celebration of his 80th birthday, DUX presents the best performances of his works with the Sinfonia luventus. His great musical authority influences the young musicians' energetic and fresh sound.

Krzysztof Penderecki is one of the most famous and prominent living Polish composers. Symphonies have a special place in his legacy, but until now have never been recorded in a series under his artistic direction. In celebration of his 80th birthday, DUX presents the best performances of his works with the Sinfonia luventus. His great musical authority influences the young musicians' energetic and fresh sound.

Krzysztof Penderecki is one of the most famous and prominent living Polish composers. Symphonies have a special place in his legacy, but until now have never been recorded in a series under his artistic direction. In celebration of his 80th birthday, DUX presents the best performances of his works with the Sinfonia luventus. His great musical authority influences the young musicians' energetic and fresh sound.

This compilation of Penderecki works features his best-known compisitions.

SYMPHONY NO. 4 - ADAGIO

Krzysztof Penderecki’s works for string instruments constitute a rather abundant group of compositions of different forms and genres. The selection presented on this release comprises concerto pieces created at various stages of Penderecki’s creative path. The Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra was established in 2007. The Orchestra’s mission is to bring together the most talented students and graduates of musical academies who are under thirty years of age. They are deeply convinced that an opportunity to cooperate with outstanding artists will inspire many talented musicians and make them more eager to continue to develop as artists, and the personal artistic responsibility of each musician will translate into shared responsibility for the shape and quality of the orchestra. They believe that the Polish Orchestra Sinfonia Iuventus will be perceived by young musicians not so much as an institution, but as a community of shared objectives.

STRING QUARTETS, STRING TRIO,

In the works of Krzysztof Penderecki, the cello occupies a special place, being the main protagonist of numerous chamber and orchestra compositions of this outstanding composer. This CD, which continues the series of Krzysztof Penderecki's chamber music, was devoted entirely to cello, as a solo instrument and as a multiplexed composition. The next compositions on the record illustrate the richness of the artist's work, which in the long-term process of searching and improving his musical language reached both the avant-garde and the old epochs. So we will hear the full sonoric experiments of Capriccio per Siegfried Palm, referring to the tradition of Baroque and Romanticism. Suité, virtuosic and lyrical compositions of Agnus Dei, in a word full of palette of cello artistry and expression. Everything is performed in full concentration of performance by Jakob Spahn, a young German cellist, whose chamber music has accompanied the most prominent Polish virtuosos of this instrument.

Born in Debica on November 23, 1933, Krzysztof Penderecki studied composition with Artur Malawski and Stanislaw Wiechowicz at the State Higher School of Music in Krakow (1954-58). In 1959 three of his works won him the top prizes at the Young Composers’ Competition of the Polish Composers’ Union. A year later, he captured the attention of Western critics with Anaklasis, performed at the Donaueschingen Festival. Penderecki’s international position was consolidated in the 1960s thanks to such pieces as Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, the St. Luke Passion, and Dies irae. This release in the Polish Sinfonia luventus Orchestra’s Penderecki series features his Concerto per viola ed orchestra (version for saxophone, 2015), and his Concerto per violin ed orchestra no. 2 Metamorphosen (1995).

Penderecki's Concerto doppio per violin e viola was composed in 2012 on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Wiener Musikverein. The Concerto doppio is a piece with a clearly outlined neoromantic architecture. Although the composer often uses semitones as form shaping means, the Concerto is also saturated with many consonant solutions mitigating tensions. Penderecki's Concerto per viola ed orchestra has been transcribed for a variety of instruments. The original version was created in 1983 as a result of a composing commission by the Venezuelan government in the context of commemorating the bicentenary of birth of the hero of the fight for independence of South America- Simon Bolivar. Completed in 2003, the Concerto Grosso No. 2 for three clarinets and two basset horns, apart from the Spanish premiere has not been presented to a wider audience for 15 years. It is a composition that is difficult to consider only in the context of the inspiration with the form of musical expression developed in the Baroque.