Krzysztof Penderecki (1933-2020)

[Symphonic Addict]

Just listened to this.  I think the Symphony is very beautiful!  It reminds me of Mahler's Das Lied von Der Erde though without any of the fast or loud moments.  Like Mahler's song cycle, this work isn't quite a symphony but more of song cycle and sung in German but of Chinese songs.  The general feel is lyrical, somewhat impressionistic, and exotic oriental song cycle.  It's a lovely and gentle work.  There is no angst in it at all but it does have a yearning quality.  I don't think I've heard anything from Penderecki that sounds like this.  In contrast, the Viola Concerto is what I consider typical of his late romantic style though here it is arranged for clarinet and strings.  This is a very fine disk.

You piqued my curiosity now. Sounds lovely for your description. It's definitely something I have to hear soon!

[Maestro267]

Dammit, I want a No. 9!  And it would be his magnum opus.  The work that ties his early works and brings them full circle to his later neo-romantic style.

Given his penchant for revising works and re-titling them (see Symphony No. 7, "Seven Gates of Jerusalem"), I've contemplated the idea of his song cycle "A sea of dreams did breathe on me..." could potentially be seen as his 9th Symphony.

[schnittkease]

RIP Krzysztof Penderecki (1933-2020). This is a huge blow as he was one of the first 'contemporary' composers I was introduced to.

[vers la flamme]

Rest in peace to one of the greatest living composers...  The news hit me really hard, even though I'm not as familiar with his music as I should be. I'll be seeking out more of it, now.

[71 dB]

RIP Krzysztof Penderecki (1933-2020). This is a huge blow as he was one of the first 'contemporary' composers I was introduced to.

Sad news. Did Corona virus have anything to do with this? I haven't explored his music and don't know it apart from what Kubrick/Lynch used in their works...

[steve ridgway]

Sad news. Did Corona virus have anything to do with this? I haven't explored his music and don't know it apart from what Kubrick/Lynch used in their works...

Apparently he had a long and serious illness, his carer had the virus but he tested negative. I like a lot of his music, the 1960s avant garde as well as the later choral religious works and neo-romantic symphonies (although that could be as I don't listen to real romantic symphonies). There are a load of relatively cheap ones on the Naxos label.

[MusicTurner]

I've tried to be updated also regarding major, contemporary composers. Here's the collected items, LPs and CDs.

Favourites are the vocal works generally and the Naxos CD that includes the Partita and the Horn Concerto, it is the most varied and attractive Penderecki disc I know (I am listening to it now ...)

[Maestro267]

This still hit me like a brick just now, even knowing how old he was. Still, what a body of music he's left us with. There are a few gaps in the collection I need to plug in.

[greg]

Ugh.
Probably was my favorite living composer...

(so glad he at least got the 6th symphony out- will be arriving sometime this week... a gap in the numbering forever would have been intolerable lol)

Tbh the times I'd check up on this thread I was often anticipating the dread of this news. He just doesn't have the look of someone who would live to be extremely old- unlike someone like Elliott Carter. So 86 years old- fantastic job.

[Symphonic Addict]

Just some weeks ago I had revisited his symphonies. A most important loss in these dramatic times and a most significant legacy he left us. Rest in peace.

[Maestro267]

Today I listened to the Piano Concerto ("Resurrection") and Utrenja.

[relm1]

Today I listened to the Piano Concerto ("Resurrection") and Utrenja.

Two very fine works. 

[vers la flamme]

Maybe someone can help me with this.

Penderecki is a composer I have long been meaning to explore in further depth, and what better time than now, in honor of his memory. But he wrote sooo much music, I don't know where to start. To the Penderecki die-hards of GMG, if you had to choose five essential works of Penderecki, what would they be? Either representing multiple parts of his career, or focusing on a certain era, whatever is fine. Just curious, perhaps it's not even possible to distill his legacy into 5 works!

FWIW, the works of his I like are the Metamorphosen concerto, De natura sonoris II, Fluorescences... and that's about it!

[Maestro267]

Those works you mentioned are all very good. I do need to listen to (both) Violin Concertos more though. Not sure if you've heard any of these and perhaps dismissed them, but here goes.

Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (1960)
St. Luke Passion (1966)
Symphony No. 2 (1980)
Symphony No. 7 ("Seven Gates of Jerusalem") (1996)
Piano Concerto ("Resurrection") (2002)

[vers la flamme]

Those works you mentioned are all very good. I do need to listen to (both) Violin Concertos more though. Not sure if you've heard any of these and perhaps dismissed them, but here goes.

Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (1960)
St. Luke Passion (1966)
Symphony No. 2 (1980)
Symphony No. 7 ("Seven Gates of Jerusalem") (1996)
Piano Concerto ("Resurrection") (2002)

Awesome, thanks, this should be a good starting point for me. I have heard the Threnody for the record, not sure why I did not mention it as it's a great piece. But I'll seek out the Luke Passion and a couple of the symphonies. Is Penderecki's own Argo recording the way to go for the Luke Passion? The Wit looks good too. I'll sample both and see what I think.

[North Star]

I recall enjoying Kosmogonia a lot, but haven't heard that many other works yet.
https://www.youtube.com/v/JyC7WBuyQYo

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Is Penderecki's own Argo recording the way to go for the Luke Passion? The Wit looks good too. I'll sample both and see what I think.

The Wit is good, better than the older recordings I think.

I'm not crazy about his symphonies; I don't think he really had the structural mind for that type of composition. But I do like No. 3 (probably his most fun neo-romantic symphony) and No. 8 which is not really a symphony at all, but an orchestral song cycle.

A minor gem: Als Jakob erwachte (AKA Dream of Jacob), which you already know if you've seen The Shining.

But how could I forget - his great chamber work, the Sextet! This dates from 2000 and is one the best chamber works by anyone in recent decades. Even if you don't much like his neo-Romantic approach, you should hear this lively and soulful piece.

[Mirror Image]

A shame Penderecki has passed on. He seemed to be a gentleman. R.I.P., Maestro Penderecki.

[Joaquimhock]

I would add :

Utrenja (mesmerizing and terrifying)

Cello concerto N°2 (dark and lyrical)

Horn concerto "winterreise" a relatively shor piece with great melodic inspiration.


He will be burried in the Polish Pantheon in Saints Peter and Paul's church in Cracow, a superb  baroque church where the great writer Slawomir Mrozek has also been buried a few years ago.

[pjme]

You piqued my curiosity now. Sounds lovely for your description. It's definitely something I have to hear soon!

"It reminds me of Mahler's Das Lied von Der Erde though without any of the fast or loud moments.  Like Mahler's song cycle, this work isn't quite a symphony but more of song cycle and sung in German but of Chinese songs".

"Bethge published several volumes of poems (chiefly on love and nature), diaries, travelogues, short stories, essays and plays. He had great success as an editor of modern poetry, German and foreign. But above all, his poetic translations of oriental classics (starting in 1907) gained him wide recognition, in spite of their reliance on previous translators. The first such book, "The Chinese Flute", had a printing of 100,000 copies. Gustav Mahler used six of its poems in Das Lied von der Erde. The fresh, musical rhythm of Bethge's language and his free versification inspired settings by more than 180 other composers, among them Richard Strauss, Karol Szymanowski, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Hanns Eisler, Viktor Ullmann, Gottfried von Einem, Ernst Krenek, Artur Immisch, Ludvig Irgens-Jensen[1], Paul Graener, Bohuslav Martinů, Ernst Toch, Fartein Valen, Krzysztof Penderecki and Egon Wellesz."

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Bethge_(poet)