More excellent music-making from Warsaw

From June 24, 2015:

Thirty-five years separate the first work on this new Naxos disc, the Magnificat from the mid-1970s, and the 2009 Kadisz. During that time Penderecki made a major stylistic shift, from an avant-garde international style to a more emotional and personal tonal one. But both works share some typical Pendereckian traits: an intense expressionism and a focus on instrumental and vocal colour.

Antoni Wit has put together an impressive string of CDs for Naxos in the past few years, conducting the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Philharmonic Choir. Here is another. His soloists have character-filled voices, full of emotion but always musical. In the Magnificat Penderecki makes effective use of a choir of boys’ voices, and the Warsaw Boys’ Choir are excellent in this recording. Incidentally, it’s been interesting to hear how much children’s choirs can add to a work with a choral element. Just in the past month I’ve reviewed discs by Villa-Lobos and Honegger that also make good use of the special colour and extra-musical connotations of children’s voices.

We have Naxos to thank for their support for Wit the conductor, as he continues the great tradition of musical excellence in Poland. Keep ‘em coming!

An excellent recording, but short measure

From October 12, 2013:

Constanze Muller tells the fascinating story of Krzystof Penderecki's Piano Concerto in the CD liner of this new Hanssler CD from Polish Radio. It's something of a soap opera, and as happens so often in that genre, a similar story has played out many times before.

The reaction to the premiere of the work that Penderecki wrote in response to the events of September 11, 2001 began a critical and polemic firestorm that took years to subside. Once the darling of the avant-garde, the composer was criticized in the strongest terms for bringing back Social Realism to the music of Eastern Europe. True believers so often see as a sell-out the artist with a career longer than a couple of years and any kind of growth and development. Villa-Lobos was skewered by modernists in Brazil for moving to a more accessible and populist style. Many of Bob Dylan's fans were scandalized by his use of electric guitars. Some of this is perhaps just hipsterism: "I liked Penderecki better when he was remembering the Hiroshima victims in his 1960 Threnody. Much more authentic!"

There is a whiff of banality in the Piano Concerto, if one takes it all at face value. But surely Shostakovich has shown that every large-scale work with a political subtext can not be judged only by the obvious outer layer. That the work has a number of layers is clear after a couple of listens.

This recording, with pianist Florian Uhlig and Lukasz Borowicz conducting the Polish RSO, came out only months after the early 2013 release of a very well-received Naxos CD that features pianist Barry Douglas, who premiered the 2007 version of the Piano Concerto. That CD included a second work, the Flute Concerto. At less than 38 minutes, the Hanssler disc gives short measure. As well-played and well-recorded as the new disc is, I would opt for the Naxos disc, and save some money in the bargain.