PENDERECKI : A Polish Requiem (Antoni Wit) (2004) 2xCD / APE (image+.cue), lossless

 

Naxos continues its exploration into the major repertoire of Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki with his Polish Requiem, which has an interesting background in that its various sections were assembled over time, much in the manner of Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B minor. Although the "Sanctus" wasn't added until 1993, most of the individual parts of the Polish Requiem were premiered separately between 1980 and 1984, and the work as a whole not given until 1985. In this form, Penderecki made a recording for Deutsche Grammophon in 1989 which, so far, has generally been adjudged the best. This Naxos recording, featuring conductor Antoni Wit and the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra and chorus plus soloists Izabella Klosinska, Jadwiga Rappé, Ryszard Minkiewicz and Piotr Nowacki has arrived to give the composer's recording a run for its money.
This is the second time around for conductor Antoni Wit in the Polish Requiem, who recorded it back in 1985 for Polskie Nagrania, albeit minus the "Sanctus." Likewise this is the second appearance in the Polish Requiem for soloists Rappé and Piotr Nowacki, both of whom appeared on a recording of the work made by Penderecki for Chandos in 1996, this time including the "Sanctus." One frequently encountered criticism of Penderecki as an interpreter of his own music is that his sense of sound production from the orchestra tends to be thick and blocky. In the Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, that's not a bad thing -- after all, it's nothing but blocks and intersections. Nonetheless, the Polish Requiem consists of a wide variety of orchestral textures, and Wit does an ideal job of highlighting each of the 16 sections of the work to their best advantage. The light in "Lux aeterna" breaks through as from heaven, the chaos of "Ingemisco tanquam reus" churns up as from hell, the ostinati and exciting percussion flourishes of "Libera me, domine" are spelled out with a sense of drama and urgency, and the giant major chords of the "Sanctus" shake you out of your seat. Of the soloists, Rappé is outstanding, particularly in the "Libera me, domine." Penderecki's Polish Requiem is a big deal, one of only a few late twentieth century works deserving the designation of "masterpiece." This Naxos release is likely the very best way that one might approach and enjoy it.   by Uncle Dave Lewis
Track Listing - Disc 1
Polish Requiem, for SATB, chorus & orchestra    
1     Introitus   4:08    
2     Kyrie    4:16    
3     Dies irae    1:33    
4     Tuba mirum    1:58   
5     Mors stupebit    6:30   
6     Quid sum miser    4:46   
7     Rex tremendae    2:17   
8     Recordare Jesu pie    11:24   
9     Ingemisco tanquam reus    12:07    
10     Lacrimosa    4:38    
Track Listing - Disc 2
Polish Requiem, for SATB, chorus & orchestra    
1     Sanctus    13:42    
2     Agnus Dei    7:34    
3     Lux aeterna    4:42    
4     Libera me, Domine        9:43    
5     Swiety Boize    6:33
6     Libera animas    3:26

PENDERECKI : Credo (Wit) (2010) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Religious music has been a significant part of Penderecki's output from early in his career, and his St. Luke Passion of 1966 was a key work in establishing his international reputation as an iconoclast with an original and arresting musical vision. Since turning his back on the avant-garde in the 1970s he has devoted even more energy to religious music, creating a number of large pieces, some of which are among his most significant works in his mature post-Romantic style. Penderecki's essential perspective -- earnest, dense, and darkly dramatic -- has remained constant throughout his career, though, and is on full display in his 50-minute 1998 setting of the Credo, a part of the Mass most of which is devoted to optimism and affirmation. The composer's setting of the central section asserting belief in the crucifixion and death of Jesus is appropriately grim, but even the more traditionally positive sections sound anguished and angst-ridden, as if every aspect of the composer's faith were very serious business indeed. There are a few moments of brightness, including parts of the first movement and the end of Et in Spiritum Sanctus, but even the concluding Alleluia is almost entirely in a bleak minor mode until the final major cadence. The brief Cantata in honorem Almae Matris, written to honor the Jagellonian University, which Penderecki attended, comes from 1964, the height of his experimental period. Its sinister mutterings aren't out of character with his music of that era, but it hardly sounds celebratory. Led by Antoni Wit, the Warsaw Boys Choir, Warsaw Philharmonic Choir, and Warsaw Philharmonic perform the difficult scores with passion and intensity. Some of the soloists are very fine, and some less so, but all are reasonably effective. The sound is about as clear as could be expected given the textural and harmonic density created by the massed choral and orchestral forces. by Stephen Eddins

PENDERECKI : Orchestral Works Vol. 1 • Symphony No. 3 • Threnody (Wit) (2000) Mp3

 "This is not only a usefully inexpensive introduction to the music of Krzysztof Penderecki; it also includes the only available recording of his Third Symphony. ...
The other three works were composed in the early 1960s, well before Penderecki's change of style, and all three demonstrate his remarkable ear for innovative sonorities. Fluorescences draws a prodigious range of colours and textures from a gigantic orchestra, but the well-known Threnody is even more remarkable in the way that it convinces you that wind, percussion and electronic sources are present, although it is scored only for strings. ...The performances are remarkably fine, the three earlier pieces at least as eloquent as the symphony; the recording is both clear and ample." International Record Review
Penderecki, Krzysztof
Symphony No. 3
1. Andante con noto 3:34
2. Allegro con brio 10:27
3. Adagio 12:43
4. Passacaglia - Allegro moderato 6:46
5. Vivace 10:59
Tren (Threnody), "To the Victims of Hiroshima"
6. Tren (Threnody), "To the Victims of Hiroshima" 9:00
Fluorescences
7. Fluorescences 14:55
De natura sonoris II
8. De natura sonoris II 8:59
Total Playing Time: 1:17:23

PENDERECKI : Orchestral Works Vol. 2 • Symphony No. 1 & 5 (Wit) (2000) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

The superb new Naxos survey of [Penderecki] immensely conceived orchestral music is an opportunity to come to grips with this important composer, as his style evolved from enfant terrible to mature symphonist fanfare
Penderecki, Krzysztof
Symphony No. 5
1. Symphony No. 5 37:37
Symphony No. 1
2. Arche I 4:56
3. Dynamis I 13:46
4. Dynamis II 8:49
5. Arche II 2:56
Total Playing Time: 1:08:04 

PENDERECKI : Orchestral Works Vol. 3 • Symphony No. 2 & 4 (Wit) (1999) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

 "Penderecki shocked the world with the sonic experiments of his avant-garde Sixties before adopting a neo-Romantic idiom in his First Violin Concerto (1977) and Second Christmas Symphony (1980), thereafter gaining attention for timely nationalistic pieces like the Polish Requiem and operas exploring expressionistic themes. The catalogue contains a mere handful of his symphonic works. ... Antoni Wit's readings [of the symphonies] are a genuine alternative to the composer's and an important addition to the catalogue." Nicholas Williams
Penderecki, Krzysztof
Symphony No. 2, "Christmas Symphony"
1. I. Moderato 7:45
2. II. Allegretto 3:49
3. III. Lento 00:10:18
4. IV. Tempo I 4:06
5. V. Allegretto 00:08:32
Symphony No. 4
6. I. Adagio 4:30
7. II. Più animato 3:27
8. III. Tempo I 13:02
9. IV. Allegro 5:46
10. V. Tempo II 3:57
Total Playing Time: 1:05:12

PENDERECKI : Te Deum (Antoni Wit) (2007) APE (image+.cue), lossless

Since 1966, with the composition of the St Luke Passion (Naxos 8.557149), Penderecki has enjoyed an international reputation for music that blends direct, emotional appeal with contemporary compositional techniques. The neo-Romantic choral work, Te Deum, was inspired by the anointing of Karol Wojtyla as the first Polish Pope in 1978. Although Penderecki’s recent choral works have tended to be similarly monumental in scale, he has written several of a more compact nature, such as Hymne an den heiligen Daniel, whose opening ranks as one of the composer’s most affecting. This disc closes with two works for strings: the experimental Polymorphia from 1961, and the expressive Chaconne, written in 2005 as a tribute to the late Pope John Paul II. naxos.com
Penderecki, Krzysztof
Te Deum
1. Te Deum laudamus - 13:02
2. Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus - 7:53
3. (Boze cos Polske - ) Salvum fac populum tuum, Domine 15:51
Hymne an den heiligen Daniel
4. Hymne an den heiligen Daniel 12:14
 Polymorphia
5. Polymorphia 10:48
A Polish Requiem: Ciaconne (Chaconne)
6. A Polish Requiem: Ciaconne (Chaconne) 7:18
Total Playing Time: 1:07:06

PENDERECKI : Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 (2003) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

"Full marks to Naxos for being the first company to couple the two concertos. Chee-Yun can boast of having performed the work on several occasions with the composer during a celebrated tour a few years back, and it shows here with what is by any standards an engrossing, masterly performance...Konstanty Kulka proves no less persuasive or technically adroit in the First Concerto, enhanced by a first-rate accompaniment and atmospheric recording, with the soloist gently spot-lit." by Julian Haylock
Tracklist :
1     Violin Concerto No. 1 39:22
Krzysztof Penderecki
2     Violin Concerto No. 2 ("Metamorphosen") 38:15
Krzysztof Penderecki
Credits :
Conductor – Antoni Wit
Cover [Painting: Trojkat (A Triangle), 1996] – Stasys Eidrigevičius
Orchestra – Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (Katowice)
Violin – Chee-Yun (faixas: 2), Konstanty Kulka (faixas: 1)