Great passacaglias...

Hi Chris: An Introduction to Penderecki's earlier Symphonies for you!

Penderecki, at the last count, had notched up eight symphonies, but I am only familiar with the first four. He turns 80 next year. His development as a symphonist has thus been fairly rapid I suppose since his first symphony written in 1973 at the age of forty. Will we get nine from him? Perhaps, like Brian, he might churn them out after his 80th birthday. Who knows!

His first, bizarrely commisioned by the firm of Perkins Engines in Peterborough is 'old school' Penderecki. What can you say about a symphony which begins with seven whip cracks? It is full of his earlier fingerprints like tone clusters and glissandi etc...I wouldn't recommend it to anyone new to Penderecki, as the Penguin guide noted how athematic a work it was. Certainly striking in terms of colour and big blocks and dramatic contrasts.

The Second from 1979-1980 caused a bit of a backlash from the critics. Begun on Christmas Eve 1979 it uses Silent Night as one of its themes. It marked a return to more traditional sounds, and was the beginning of Penderecki looking and learning from Bruckner and Shostakovitch symphonies. Some dark Brucknerian colours, but one writer in exasperation said something like 'pages from the symphony writer's handbook' (paraphrasing I can't recall the exact words).

The 3rd to me is his most innovative so far - it seems to combine this more tonal language with an equally interesting structure. Symphonies 3, 4 and 5 were apparently written close to each other chronologically: 3 (1988-95) 4 (1989) and 5 (1992). The 3rd is by turns violent and contemplative, and in 5 movements.Symphony 4 was commisioned by Radio France in commemoration of the bicentenary of the French Revolution and is described in the sleeve notes as 'discursive formally'.

Strangely enough, the four symphonies all have a five part structure listed on the sleeve notes. Although usually classed as being in 4 movements, the first has yet another passacaglia section in the middle between the two 'Dynamis' movements.

My recording of 1 is on EMI Electrola LP with LSO conducted by the composer. Symphony 2 is on Pavanne LP, with Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra/Jacek Kasprzyk. Premiere recording.

I also have symphonies 2 and 4 on one Naxos CD, same orchestra under Antoni Wit, and Symphony 3 is also on Naxos with the same orchestra and conductor. I think the composer revised/added to the 2nd, as on the CD it is longer by a few minutes and broken down into 5 movements, whereas the earlier Pavanne LP has that 'beginning' and 'conclusion' that we often used to see given on LP records in the bad old days!

Naxos leads the way I think Chris. The last time I checked, they had recorded 7 of the composer's eight symphonies. I will I am sure at some point in the near future get around to exploring his later ones.

Generally speaking, the tone clusters etc...of his youth have given way to dark sonorities and brooding moods. Still the emphasis on dramatic contrasts of tone colour. I like his work anyway! I do hope if you decide to explore his symphonic oeuvre that you find it interesting!

Regards

Mark

My pleasure Chris! It is good to give each other factual information sometimes on this forum instead of taking up different viewpoints!

Anyway, talk of Krzysztof Penderecki has reminded me of this little tale, on a lighter note:

An older guy I knew at the gym once told me that he and a coach party of his rotary types had gone abroad to a Scandinavian country to meet up one weekend with their counterparts. (You know, wealthy businessmen doing their charity work).

SO dressed for dinner they amble into the hotel bar. Along comes one of the Europeans and says , 'Hello! I'm Kristof', to which the Englishman replies 'Well actually, I've not been too flippin' happy meself recently'!

Now that I am assured, really did happen!

Have a good weekend!

Mark

Hi Parla,

Hope this reaches you before you are cut-off from the internet.  Glad you and Vic reached a peaceful conclusion.  And I hope you have an enjoyable (if tiring) trip to China.  

Thank you for your helpful comments on Penderecki's music.  I don't know the symphonies at all - and the Naxos CDs are so cheap that it is worth a try!  Your description of the big choral works is, I suppose, quite right, and yet I found the St. Luke Passion made a really big impression in the enormous Royal Albert Hall. I also heard the first UK performance (in the Royal Festival Hall). I must look into the string quartets too though.

For the Buxtehude, I'm tempted, as I said to Mark, to try Koopman's recordings. I'll probably try one volume of Herrick's set too.  For Bach I tend to favour more austere performances (not so much though for the chorale preludes). The Berlin Dom organ you refer to must be a very new instrument.  It would be interesting to hear it. Ah well, I can't afford everything.  Difficult decisions ahead!

Added later: I see the organ is not new but dates from the inauguration of the cathedral in 1905.  It is a monster: 4 manuals and over 7000 pipes! I had not realised that anything had survived the bombing of the cathedral.

Hi Mark!

I liked the Kristof story! It has to be true!

I thought you might be interested: I found the Walcha Buxtehude disc (73' of Buxtehude, mostly Preludes and Fugues, only the Passacaglia duplicatied on your Herrick CD) on the Universal Classics site.  It's only available as a download (FLAC, or MP3 at 320kbps) and I downloaded it.  It is really excellent, beautiful playing, fine organ, excellent recording. And cheap.

I didn't mean necessarily the 1st String Quartet, Mark. I believe Penderecki's Chamber Music and, of course the String Quartets, sound more focussed and definitely less noisy, being, at the same time, musically exciting in their invention.

I'm glad you find the new forthcoming Brilliant CD on Organ music (mentioned in my previous post) a sort of "must", as I do.

Parla

You're right, Chris. I checked with Brilliant Classics and the Kotka Organ is in Finland indeed.

However, I believe the real interest in this CD is the very intriguing program and we have to expect the (unknown to me) rather young soloist would prove himself able to tackle the challenges of such a variety of works.

Parla

Yes, it is on my next list too, though the list is starting to get worryingly long!