Ben Rutt Howard considers the importance of this giant of Polish music whose death was announced on 29 March.
Krzysztof Penderecki (23/11/33 – 29/3/20):
Krzysztof Penderecki (23/11/33 – 29/3/20):
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| (source: Wiki Commons) |
It seems that in times such as we find ourselves the death of one of Poland’s pioneering composers who, alongside the likes of Lutoslawski and Gorecki, heralded a new fascination with the Polish Avant Garde, may understandably have gone unnoticed. Whilst myself and many other of my fellow musicians feel like this is just another proverbial kick in the gut as we navigate an unfamiliar world in which cabin fever may start to manifest, the death of Krzysztof Penderecki is at least providing me with a macabre solace from the endless days of Netflix and Disney Plus, as once again I am able to dip into this wonderful composer’s oeuvre of works, and hopefully pick some out that may be of interest.
I was a devotee of Penderecki’s music since I first heard the harrowing Threnody to the victims of Hiroshima. Written in a musical landscape that shunned emotion, the directness and innovative notation of this piece cemented Penderecki’s place in the Polish Renaissance that was taking Western Classical Music scene by storm. His St. Luke Passion resulted not only in consolidating his position as one of the most up and coming composers of his generation, but also in regular commissions both at home and abroad.
With age his music also softened, as can be heard in Symphony 3, yet his passion and anger at human injustice never faltered, and his oratorios often reflect the turbulent relationship between church and state in 20th Century Poland.
Aside from the pieces I have already mentioned, I am going to highlight 5 of my favourites purposefully avoiding his most famous pieces (the aforementioned Threnody and Passion).
Symphony No.2 ‘Christmas Symphony”
Nicknamed so because of the constant references to the well-known tune ‘silent night’. Yet this symphony is anything but quiet and lilting. A wide range of emotions are demonstrated from anguish and lament, to stoic bravery and declamatory brashness. The symphony is in one continuous movement lasting around 35 minutes and exploits a particularly nifty sonata form. The key motif of Symphony No. 2 undergoes constant transformations, is revised and rearranged. In this process the musical substance of the work emerges out of two motifs: one linear, and one built of two chords.
What is so striking in this symphony is Penderecki’s aesthetic U-turn. Symphony No. 2 is a kind of homage to post-Romantic music. It draws on the symphonic idioms of Bruckner and Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Richard Strauss, Wagner and Mieczysław Karłowicz, Sibelius and Shostakovich.
Paradise Lost
An opera in 2 acts, or 42 scenes, takes its inspiration from John Milton epic poem of the same name. The librettist Christopher Fry omitted the philosophical elements, selecting 1,500 lines from among more than 10,000 in the poem. Fry also shifted the emphasis; in the 17th-century English epic, the symbolic central figures had been Satan and God, but in Fry’s arrangement their roles seem less important, and the libretto focuses on the first people and their lives within the orbit of good and evil. This universal theme and the libretto’s handling of fundamental existential questions – the origins of evil, the cost of free will, man’s “fallen” nature and the transforming power of love – mean that Penderecki’s work can be seen as addressed “not only to a Christian audience”.
Note: It seems that there are no complete recordings on Spotify, although there is a rather good recording on YouTube!
String Quartet No.1
This 6-minute one movement quartet uses techniques similar to those heard in Threnody, indeed it was written in the same year, but it employs them on a much smaller scale. Its brevity means that the dissonances last long enough for you to appreciate them, but perhaps not long enough for you to want to end the piece prematurely. When tackling dissonance of this sort, where melody seems confined to sounds rather than a discernible tune, a technique called disinterested contemplation comes in handy, i.e. do something at the same time, let it blend into the background, every so often a particular sound will grab your attention.
Serenade
These pieces are indicative of Pendenrcki’s softening style. Almost neo-classical in their backwards looking approach to form and melody, this means they are much more accessible, especially when compared to String Quartet and Threnody. The serenade’s opening Passacaglia with its short rising melodic motif gives way to a much more sonorous Larghetto, definitely carrying on this post-romantic style, similar to Symphony 2 yet much surer of its own limitations. There are no juxtapositions of soaring melodies suddenly being supplanted by an almost complete breakdown of tonality, but a more measured sense of looking backwards to help shape the contemporary music of the day. Echoes of Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht can be heard in the agitated passages, but also the melodramatic ironic yearning of Mahler’s slow movements, especially the Adagietto of Symphony 5.
Symphony 6 ‘Chinese songs’
Subtitled “Chinese Songs”, Symphony No. 6 comprises eight songs based on Chinese texts connected by solo intermezzos played on the erhu, a Chinese stringed instrument. Evoking a melancholic atmosphere, the use of a small orchestra creates an intimate chamber music feel and at just under 25 minutes, the work contrasts his earlier extended symphonies. This wonderful symphony is, in my opinion, perfect. The last symphony he wrote (Symphony 7 and 8 were completed before the 6th) this seems more like a fond farewell, a mutual understanding between composer and form, and since this little article is being written the wake of this amazing man’s death, it only feels right to end my list with this piece.
Spotify playlist: spotify:playlist:4aoMwV4uUWlMIAXSXRnnaE
Other pieces to listen to
3 Baroque pieces
Violin concerto
Symphony 3
Threnody to the victims of Hiroshima
St Luke. Passion
Missa Brevis
Polish Requiem
Kadisz
Anaklasis for Strings and Percussion
Cello concerto No.1
Hymne an den Heiligen Daniel
Metamorphosen for violin and orchestra
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