Classical Works Spotlight #356--Penderecki

[erik]

The Polish conductor Krzysztof Penderecki was (and is still) known for very dissonant and avant-garde works; and one of those that managed to find its way into one of the pre-eminent horror films of modern times is in this week's Classical Works Spotlight.

Penderecki: DE NATURA SONORIS NO. 1

Along with Witold Lutoslawski and Karol Symanowski, Krzysztof Penderecki counts as one of the most important composers of (extremely) modern music, particularly among Polish and/or Eastern European composers, in the 20th century. Indeed, Penderecki pushed the envelope for much of the 1960s and 1970s, starting with his frighteningly dissonant 1961 work “Threnody For The Victims Of Hiroshima”, which was scored for fifty-two string players. And while he did later turn away from dissonance and avant-garde sounds for things more of the late Romantic variety, he never quite disavowed the early works. One of those avant-garde works was the first of three works he titled “De Natura Sonoris”, or “Of The Nature Of Sound.” An experiment in sounds that frequently used string and percussion instruments in a very unusual fashion, not to mention disturbing, this 1966 work, along with its 1971 follow-up, also utilized such effects as an iron bar struck by a hammer and a saw. “De Natura Sonoris No. 1? Saw its premiere at the International Festival of Contemporary Art in Royan, France on April 7, 1966; while No. 2 was premiered at the Juilliard School in New York on December 3, 1971. Very little of Penderecki’s work was heard with much freedom in his home country, which was then still locked behind the Iron Curtain. But the first two “De Natura Sonoris” works, along with other Penderecki works like “Polymorphia”, “Utrenja”, and “The Awakening Of Jacob” were given a huge boost when film director Stanley Kubrick utilized them, sometimes overlapping one another, in his 1980 horror masterpiece The Shining.



Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra/KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI (EMI)

Included:
THRENODY FOR THE VICTIMS OF HIROSHINA
CAPRICCIO FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA (Violin: WANDA WILKOMIRSKA)
PARTITA FOR HARPSICHORD AND ORCHESTRA (Harpsichord: FELICJA BLUMENTHAL)
CELLO CONCERTO (Cello: SIEGFRIED PALM)

SYMPHONY NO. 1 (London Symphony Orchestra/KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI)

[egoodstein]

I really like Penderecki: one of my favorite 'contemporary' composers, both in his earlier more 'dissonant/atonal/serial' works like this one, and many of his later, more 'lyrical/Romantic' based ones (also his operas interesting). These 'Nature of Sound' works and others like especially the 'Threnody' are fascinating for the ways they use and stretch multiple strings sounds. And yes, impressive 'eerie' qualities that Kubrick could well use for The Shining. If Penderecki has kinship with Berio or Reich, also very different, arguably even richer. He's also a very good conductor: I've heard conduct even Haydn and Schubert for example as well as his own work, and quite impressed. This is a very good compilation album of a number of his early works. And interesting surprises in much of his later work I would recommend too. I also like the other Polish composers you mention: some rich musical forces and traditions there in fact, despite overall some very tragic historical epochs.

[erik]

I think it can be argued that such highly modern works as "De Natura Sonoris" were hugely instrumental in the artistic world's efforts to hasten the downfall of Communism at least in Europe. Though the very sharp dissonances of a lot of his works are a turn-off for some people, they weren't necessarily for others, let alone Kubrick, given how mind-bustingly effective his uses of Penderecki were for THE SHINING.

It is also good that Penderecki has been able, as a conductor, to conduct more traditional repertoire; and a lot of his later work does more or less follow well-established forms, including his 1998 choral work "Credo".