Krzysztof Penderecki - Emanationen, Partita, Cello Concerto, Symphony (1995 compilation, rec. 1972/3)

Following on from last Monday's post, a further tribute to Krzysztof Pendercki after his recent death.  This compilation from the 90s, like the second of the 'previously posted' links below, pulled together the composer-conducted recordings made for EMI in the early 70s.  On this one are four of Pendercki's slightly less famous but no less engrossing and distinctive works for orchestra.

First up is Emanationen, one of Pendercki's early works composed in 1958.  Two orchestras tuned a minor second apart generate a queasy churn that hints at the extremities to come in the 1960s.  The next two works are concertante, firstly Partita for harpsichord and chamber orchestra.  This was the 1972 premiere recording with harpsichordist Felicja Blumental (it was written the previous year); the instrument's spidery rattling sits well with parts for electric guitar and bass guitar.

Cello Concerto No. 1 was originally written in 1967 as a rare feature for the five-string violino grande, and was transcribed into a cello concerto five years later.  The legendary Siegfried Palm ably takes the lead part to its dark, violent depths and screeching heights - you can imagine a young Iancu Dumitrescu taking notes.  Closing the collection is Penderecki's first Symphony, commissioned in 1972 by, of all things, an English gas-engine manufacturing company (they were involved in a series of Annual Industrial Concerts).  It aptly starts out sounding like some unearthly mechanical device sputtering into life, before going deep into atmospheric soundworlds that only Penderecki could conjure up.

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pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
St Luke Passion, Threnody etc (Polskie Nagrania Muza recordings)
Threnody, etc (EMI recordings)
Symphony No. 2
Utrenja

Krzysztof Penderecki - St Luke Passion, Threnody, Polymorphy etc. (1989 compilation, rec. 1963-72)

R.I.P. Krzysztof Penderecki, 23 Nov 1933 - 29 Mar 2020

The great, the magnificent, the occasionally utterly terrifying Penderecki, one of the most viscerally thrilling composers of the 20th century (in his early work at least), has died at the age of 86.

Penderecki kept busy right into his eighties, but it's his music from the 1960s - early 70s that will remain the most celebrated, certainly by me, for its sheer power, brutality and unearthly beauty.  Like many people, I first came to Pendercki's music through its use in film & TV; Kubrick and Friedkin in particular knew how effectively music this unsettling could enhance psychological horror to a degree that little other music could.  Most recently, I remember sitting dumbfounded at the single most avant-garde hour of TV I've ever seen, courtesy of David Lynch, with a perfectly-placed Threnody To The Victims Of Hiroshima soundtracking the Trinity nuclear test.

The original recording of Threnody is here on Disc 2 of this collection, kicking off 48 minutes of some of Penderecki's most mind-melting early music.  Polymorphy, String Quartet No. 1 and Psalms Of David are also featured in their original 1960s recordings, ending with Dimensions Of Time And Slience, recorded in 1972.  And the main feature of this collection is the St Luke Passion from 1966; whilst not quite as blood-curdlingly extreme as Utrenja, it definitely has its hair-raising moments.  Farewell, then, to one of the most singular and stunning composers of all time.  More Penderecki next week.

Disc 1 link
Disc 2 link
pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Utrenja
Symphony No. 2
Compilation of EMI recordings

Krzysztof Penderecki - Threnody etc (1994 compi of 1970s recordings)

Feels like the ideal week for a nice back-to-basics Pendercki primer, at his most vital and extreme in these self-conducted 70s recordings for EMI of his breakthrough 60s work.  I've certainly been going back to Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima more than once since Monday (with and without David Lynch's magisterial adaptation), and reading up about the remarkable, ear-shredding piece that Penderecki originally wrote as an experiment in sonoristic writing for strings.  Apparently it was only on hearing an early performance that Penderecki "was struck by the emotional charge of the work... I searched for associations and, in the end, I decided to dedicate it to the Hiroshima victims".

All the other most recognisable pieces from this period are gathered here too, including Kubrick favourites The Awakening of Jacob, De Natura Sonoris I & II (and I've previously posted Utrenja in its entirety).  Perhaps inevitable that such striking, forceful and unique music would end up being used in film and TV again and again.

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Penderecki: "Christmas" Symphony / Bruzdowicz: Concertos (1989 compi, rec. '81 and '84)

Still working on something to post with an actual Christmas angle... how about Penderecki's 2nd Symphony - it has Christmas in the title, doesn't it?  Well, not really.  Symphony No. 2 might've been written over the winter of 1979-1980, but it doesn't have any official name, and only became informally known as the 'Christmas Symphony' due to the little snippets of Silent Night that Penderecki included, and can be most clearly heard about four minutes into each movement.

Being a big fan of Penderecki at his most fearsome, e.g. Threnody, De Natura Sonoris, Utrenja etc, the 2nd Symphony was initially a bit of a letdown for me, as was apparently the case for listeners in the early 80s - where's the nail-biting sheer terror?  Not to worry though, as soon as I gave it a chance I found out what a fine, full-bodied work it actually was. Enjoy.

That's only half the disc though, and the remainder is a real treat - one of the very few available recordings of any works by Joanna Bruzdowicz (b. 1943, Warsaw), with a star turn from 'Buddha of the bass' Fernando Grillo.  The Concerto for Double-Bass, here in its 1984 premiere, is a brilliantly choppy work that gives the great bassman free rein to saw, rattle and soar over a nicely unsettling ensemble backdrop.  Lastly, Olympia records (who are becoming a bit of an obsession for me at the moment, appearing to have been quite the reissue goldmine for Eastern European/Russian obscurities) very kindly give us another Bruzdowicz concerto; a single-movement Violin vehicle, and very good it is too.


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Krzysztof Penderecki ‎– Utrenja (1970-71, rec. 1972)

So, it's Easter weekend.  What to do... wish my readers/listeners a restful, reflective, spiritually restorative weekend?

Or... (you can probably guess where this is going)...

How about wishing everyone a nightmarish, hair-raising, bloodcurdling Easter weekend, courtesy of an hour-and-a-quarter of some of the most extreme liturgical music ever conceived?

This wonderful two-part holy racket came forth from the genius of Krzysztof Pendercki in 1970 (Entombment of Christ, the first part) and 1971 (The Resurrection, the second part), inspired by Eastern Orthodox rites.  Utrenia, Utrenya, or Jutrznia are all alternate spellings (I couldn't find the distinction between each, from admittedly brief research - any ideas?) of the most common title Utrenja.  The full two-part work's premiere recording under Andrzej Markowski in 1972, reissued here, still arguably has an edge over the Naxos recording (Antoni Wit, 2009).  So, whether the second half of Utrenja does bring to your mind images of Christ's resurrection, or just images of Shelley Duvall running about in a dressing gown brandishing a kitchen knife, download and be richly blessed.

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