Post by erik on Aug 29, 2020 18:09:25 GMT -5
A very controversial sacred work by the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki is in this week's Classical Works Spotlight--not because it is a very dissonant work (though it is), but because sacred works of any kind were banned in his native country at the time of its composition.
Penderecki: ST. LUKE PASSION
Given a reputation for being so avant-garde and so atonal in much of the music he writes, some of which would later show up in such classic American horror films as The Exorcist and The Shining, it is also instructive to note that the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki was able to write a fair amount of religious music. What makes it even more remarkable was that he was able to do this at a time when his native Poland was a satellite nation of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe, where the mere practicing of religion was expressly forbidden. Such is the case with his 1966 work “St. Luke Passion”. Taking his cue from the Passion settings made two and a half centuries before by Johann Sebastian Bach, but with an extremely modern and dissonant approach, Penderecki wrote the work to commemorate the thousand-year celebration of Polish Christianity, following the conversion and baptism of the Polish duke Mieszko I in 966 AD. The work, which is sung entirely in Latin and requires large orchestral forces quite typical for the composer, utilizes text from the Gospel of St. Luke, the Stabat Mater, and various psalms, hymns, and Lamentations found in the Bible. Despite the extreme modernism of the work, the St. Luke Passion found extremely receptive audiences following its initial premiere on March 30, 1966; and by all accounts, it could be said to have helped in the formation of the Solidarity movement in Poland in 1970, one of many movements among the East Bloc countries that eventually bought the downfall of the Soviet Union in 1989.
Soprano: SARAH WEGENER
Baritone: LUCAS MEACHAM
Bass: MATTHEW ROSE
Speaker: SLAWOMIR HOLLAND
Warsaw Boys Choir
Krakow Philharmonic Choir
Montreal Symphony Orchestra/KENT NAGANO (BIS)
Penderecki: ST. LUKE PASSION
Given a reputation for being so avant-garde and so atonal in much of the music he writes, some of which would later show up in such classic American horror films as The Exorcist and The Shining, it is also instructive to note that the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki was able to write a fair amount of religious music. What makes it even more remarkable was that he was able to do this at a time when his native Poland was a satellite nation of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe, where the mere practicing of religion was expressly forbidden. Such is the case with his 1966 work “St. Luke Passion”. Taking his cue from the Passion settings made two and a half centuries before by Johann Sebastian Bach, but with an extremely modern and dissonant approach, Penderecki wrote the work to commemorate the thousand-year celebration of Polish Christianity, following the conversion and baptism of the Polish duke Mieszko I in 966 AD. The work, which is sung entirely in Latin and requires large orchestral forces quite typical for the composer, utilizes text from the Gospel of St. Luke, the Stabat Mater, and various psalms, hymns, and Lamentations found in the Bible. Despite the extreme modernism of the work, the St. Luke Passion found extremely receptive audiences following its initial premiere on March 30, 1966; and by all accounts, it could be said to have helped in the formation of the Solidarity movement in Poland in 1970, one of many movements among the East Bloc countries that eventually bought the downfall of the Soviet Union in 1989.
Soprano: SARAH WEGENER
Baritone: LUCAS MEACHAM
Bass: MATTHEW ROSE
Speaker: SLAWOMIR HOLLAND
Warsaw Boys Choir
Krakow Philharmonic Choir
Montreal Symphony Orchestra/KENT NAGANO (BIS)
