Classical Music

Despite their different musical languages, all works by the Polish composers Karol Szymanowski and Krzysztof Penderecki presented on this album have in common the inherent character of a lament: Szymanowski’s Stabat mater, which was completed in 1926 and is based on a Polish translation of the Latin medieval poem, is considered as one of the most important compositions of the 20th century. Penderecki’s three-part oratorio Dies Irae was commissioned for a commemoration day in remembrance of the murder victims at the former concentration camp in Auschwitz, and hence carries the epithet “Auschwitz Oratorium”. The album closes with a Threnos for 52 string instruments dedicated to the Victims of Hiroshima. The final haunting bars of this composition present a tutti cluster, starting in a triple forte and fading out to quadruple piano.

The calendar year 2023 marks the 90th birthday of Krzysztof Penderecki (1933–2020), one of the most prominent 21st Century Polish composers. Sacred themes and texts surround the creative work of Penderecki, including many of his large-scale works. This album consists of the majority of his impressive sacred a cappella choral works which are mainly written in Latin. These deeply religious choral works are modern classics which will, no doubt, remain in the choral repertoire for years to come.

REVIEW:

Penderecki’s sacred choral oeuvre is usually worthy of the best efforts singers are willing to bring to it. And here we have the self-recommending proposition of one of the world’s finest choirs bringing that music to life in the warm, reverberant space of St John’s Church in Riga, Latvia. The Ondine engineering makes it an even more emphatic win.

— American Record Guide

Antoni Wit adds to his extensive Naxos Penderecki discography with Symphony No. 6 ‘Chinese Songs’ – the composer’s last completed work in the genre. Jaroslaw Brek is the featured bass-baritone soloist in one of the last recordings he made before his untimely death in April this year. Wit conducts the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra in this selection of recent works from the 2010s.

Carl Reinecke is famous for his beautiful melodies and amazing fondness of classical forms, to the point that his oeuvre comprises nearly all such forms that were practiced in his time. Krzysztof Penderecki, on the other hand, was an icon of the avant-garde and definitely preferred avoiding convention, rather than following the mainstream. The two had never met, which would have been impossible, as Carl Reinecke died 23 years before Krzysztof Penderecki was born. Nevertheless, flutist Krzysztof Kaczka has made the improbable come true – thanks to his efforts, the two musicians do finally meet, more specifically, two of their major pieces come together on one album. Both compositions are highly esteemed by critics and flutists alike, who gladly include them in their repertoire.

In Krzysztof Pendercki's catalogue of works, the ones in which wind instruments play a dominant role actually do not constitute an impressive collection, however, they draw attention with their variety. The four compositions on this new release represent the concertare rule; on the one hand, they document the attempts of investigating the sound nature as well as technical and expressive possibilities of the particular instruments. On the other hand, they serve as a record of Pencerecki's change of style within the period of almost 50 years.

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REVIEW:

The Capriccio for oboe and 11 strings is a genuinely virtuoso piece, as much for the string players as for the soloists, but that provides no problems for the outstanding Sinfonia Iuventus, and Arkadiusz Krupa is a commanding soloist. The epic Horn Concerto, subtitled Winterreise though devoid of any quotations from Schubert, dates from 2008 and is naturally utterly different in style. Its opening, mysterious and portentous, may well constitute the most beautiful two minutes of music the composer has ever written.

– Gramophone

Penderecki composed his first violin sonata at age 20, a work in three compact movements lasting seven and a half minutes and strongly influenced by Shostakovich's spiky, acerbic wit. The three Miniatures evoke Webern's "pocket music" language and time scale, but without the Viennese master's fierce commitment to each note and silence alike. Nearly 50 years later, Penderecki's second violin sonata revisits his Shostakovich roots in more ways than one (its five-movement arch form, for instance), yet with plenty of room for the Polish composer to exercise the rhapsodic abandon that typifies the climactic moments of his concerted and choral works. This is particularly true of the 13-minute adagio that serves as the sonata's structural and emotional centerpiece. Lastly, the solo cadenza Penderecki added to his viola concerto is effectively recast for violin.


Violinist Ida Bieler's dynamic and impassioned interpretations ooze accomplishment and commitment in every bar, to say nothing of pianist Nina Tichman's robust tone and ability to sustain long lines in continuous arcs (the first sonata's Andante is a case in point). Naxos' excellent engineering, moreover, effects balances between instruments in the first sonata superior to CPO's recording, where the violin is prominent to a fault (although the latter's finale benefits from slightly faster tempos and from violinist Hans Kalafusz's more fanciful inflections). For this premiere recording of the second sonata Bieler and Tichman set high standards that future interpreters will have to work hard to match. Fine booklet notes by Richard Whitehouse add to my enthusiastic recommendation. [5/21/2004]
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Recording information: Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall, Poland (09/24/2008-09/27/2008); Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall, Poland (09/30/2008); Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall, Poland (12/03/2008-12/04/2008).

Recording information: Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, Poland.

Penderecki deserves a great deal of credit for turning his back on the avant-garde of the 1960s and '70s, recognizing much of it for the music dead-end that it has turned out to be. His "return to Romanticism" was prophetic, but at the same time we must remember that there really are only two kinds of music: good and bad, and the fact that some music might be more conventionally listenable doesn't make it inherently better. On the whole, Penderecki always has been a very talented composer, deeply concerned with serious expressive issues, but this hasn't prevented some of his neo-Romantic works from sounding relentlessly heavy, grey, and dull, nor does his change of style diminish the sonic thrill of his earlier, more radical pieces. He did excellent work in all periods, as you can plainly hear on this marvelous new release.

The Eighth Symphony, "Songs of Evanescence", actually is a cycle of 12 German poems by the likes of Rilke, Goethe, Eichendorf, and Hesse. Far from being uniformly grim, the texts (available on Naxos' website) speak of the cycle of life, death, and renewal in a manner not too dissimilar from Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (save that the entire work lasts scarcely longer than Mahler's last song, "The Farewell"). The music is beautiful: lyrically melodic, sumptuously scored, and highly varied, with harmony that ranges from the sweetly diatonic to ferociously dissonant, everywhere responsive to the text. This piece, which requires solo soprano, mezzo, baritone, and full chorus, must rank among Penderecki's finest recent creations, and I easily could see it becoming a repertory item.

Dies Irae, dating from 1967, is a work of Penderecki's radical phase. As the title suggests, it's a dark, menacing, but sonically enthralling piece that forces both vocal and orchestral forces to make some of the most hair-raising sounds in Western music. It's interesting how with the passage of time much of the music's perceived difficulty has evaporated, leaving behind a raw-nerved, expressionistic intensity that's quite special and all the more moving for being very much of its time and place (aren't all classics?). The brief Psalms of David, from the late 1950s, helped to establish Penderecki's credentials as a major composer. The percussive last movement might strike today's listeners as almost Latin-sounding, though of course the harmonic language is more acerbic, but the music exudes the freshness of a powerful new voice on its first flights of fancy.

Antoni Wit's Naxos recordings, particularly those of contemporary music, have been almost uniformly splendid, and this one is no exception. He summons terrific playing from the orchestra, has a brilliant and enthusiastic choir at his disposal, and has assembled a very impressive team of soloists, especially soprano Michaela Kaune, baritone Wojtek Drabowicz, and tenor Richard Minkiewicz. Singing this stuff isn't easy, but they make it seem so. The sonics capture the music's massive climaxes as well as its more ethereal moments in natural balance, and with plenty of head room. In short, this disc makes an ideal introduction to Penderecki's art, and to his vocal music in particular. It covers his entire creative life thus far, and offers compelling evidence of just how fine a composer he was, and remains.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Antoni Wit's ongoing cycle of Penderecki orchestral works is yet another of those truly outstanding Naxos projects that's unlikely to get the attention it deserves. The music isn't easy, or popular, but Wit is a marvellous conductor in this repertoire, and his unfailingly intense and idiomatic performances look to become the standard by which all others will be judged. This new release just may be the best so far.


The Seven Gates, though largely unthreatening in its use of consonant harmony, is a very difficult work to perform. The choral and solo writing is tiring (if often incredibly moving and impressive), and the presence of a lengthy narration may bother some listeners. In my opinion Penderecki is one of the very few composers who can pull it off, and here he does so magnificently.


Perhaps the most wonderful thing about this recording is its ability to be serious (isn't Penderecki always?) without sounding labored, or relentlessly heavy. Partly it's a function of really exceptional choral singing and a uniformly high-quality bunch of soloists. The rest, though, is Wit's ideal pacing and that feeling for timbre and texture that made his Messiaen Turangalila-Symphonie so memorable. In short, even if you don't normally warm to Penderecki, you probably will find this disc surprisingly appealing. The sung texts are available on Naxos' website, but it's just as much fun to simply wallow in the evocative sonorities that Penderecki gets from his very large vocal and instrumental forces. Excellent engineering makes the music both rage and shimmer as it must. A splendid release in every way! [1/24/2007]
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

PENDERECKI: Sextet / Clarinet Quartet / Cello Divertimento

Symphony No. 7 for five soloists, speaker, three mixed choirs and orchestra. First recording of the original version. Bozena Harasimowicz-Haas: soprano / Izabella Klosinska: soprano / Jadwiga Rapp�: alto / Wieslaw Ochman: tenor / Romuald Tesarowicz: bass / Boris Carmeli: narrator / National Philharmonic Choir Warsaw / Henryk Wojnarowski: chorus master / National Philharmonic Orchestra Warsaw / Kazimierz Kord: conductor.

PENDERECKI: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 2

It is a trite assumption that by association with Krzysztof Penderecki's Polish identity, a performance of his work by a Polish conductor and orchestra suggests itself to be naturally definitive. In this case however, it may be true. As a former student of Penderecki's, Antoni Wit brings authoritative insight to his direction of the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra on this three volume set of Penderecki's orchestral works. The pieces are not presented chronologically. Instead, each disc pairs earlier and later works, which provides a good comparison of the composer's earliest groundbreaking work to his later neo-romantic symphonies.
The third volume includes Penderecki's Second and Fourth Symphonies. The Second Symphony, known as the 'Christmas Symphony,' continues the composer's exploration of neo-romanticism. Tortuous chromaticism, darkly introspective strings and fierce brass declarations color this as a Christmas of extreme sobriety. Moments of exuberant triumph alternate with ferocious doom. A careful listening will reveal the setting of the carol "Silent Night" in the first movement, and again in the finale. The Fourth Symphony opens with long sustained notes in the brass, wrapped in winding chromatic lines by the orchestra; this is a texture that recurs in various combinations through the symphony.