This interesting collection of sacred music by Penderecki includes works from various periods of his life. The Psalms of David, from 1958, are classic first-period Penderecki, while the two Hymns date from 1997 and the Dies illa from a mere two years ago. As one has come to expect from his recent works, it is the latter that is the most sumptuous. Written to commemorate the victims of the First World War and commissioned by the Flanders Festival, it plunges us into a dramatic world of richly orchestrated neo-Romanticism, positively glowing with musical nostalgia. There is much use of trumpets (as well as the plastic tubaphones that the composer has employed before), illustrating the theme of judgement, and Penderecki follows the text extremely closely, illustrating every nuance (which makes the lack of texts in Warner’s booklet the more lamentable).

The Hymn to St Daniel and Hymn to St Adalbert are very different in both tone and style. The latter is very much more restrained, with an entirely appropriate quasi-liturgical ambience that often suggests the Russian choral tradition of the 19th century. Russia is even more present in the Hymn to St Daniel, composed as it was for the 850th anniversary of the foundation of Moscow, and it contains much broad reference to Orthodox choral music. The orchestra is used sparingly but effectively, particularly at the end, which evokes bells.

The pointillistic serialism of the Psalms of David is hugely refreshing after the sonic bath of Dies illa. It was one of the three works that each won Penderecki a prize in the 1959 Young Composers’ Competion organised by the Polish Composer’s Union (the other two were Strophes and Emanations), and its spare, fragmented sound world still impresses today. The singers of the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir would appear to relish the music; and performances throughout are not only outstanding but beautifully recorded.