Customer Reviews

Penderecki: Anaklasis; Threnody; etc.

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is THE essential collection of Penderecki works, concentrating on the youthful, ferocious instrumental pieces of the 1960s, along with a sample of his choral writing ("Canticum canticorum Salomonis"). Penderecki has gone through many stages since then, most recently as a somewhat conservatised elder statesman for 20th century Eastern European music. Most of his work is excellent, but for my money nothing compares to the intensity and imagination of "Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima," one of the most terrifying, beautiful pieces of music of all time.

Look, the number of people who abhor this kind of stuff must be several billion. Ignore them. Yes, this is unforgivingly dissonant, elitist, at times physically painful music (as any piece about the bombing of Hiroshima should be), but if you listen and you let it draw you in, it can remind you (or teach you for the very first time) that there are places music can take you, states that music can put you in, that the vast majority of "music lovers" will never understand. But that's okay, there's plenty of PRODUCT out there for them. If you want to hear something truly genuine, if you want to immerse yourself in one of the great creative imaginations of our era, listen to Penderecki.

This IS music.

I am not usually a fan of so-called "avant-garde" music. Though this may fit into that category, everything that Penderecki does seems to be used as a form of expression. What is he trying to express? Horror.

The very beginning of "Threnody" makes one flinch. I remember turning up the volume quite loud when listening to this, and upon doing so, I was in for quite a surprise. I had never heard music quite like this before. "Threnody" starts with a high, shrill note in the violins, and the rest join in. By the time this section is over, just about anything else that follows seems tame.

What amazed me was, although the work was brutally dissonant at times, there was a beauty in the dissonances. The jarring harmonies all seemed to fit in place. They made sense, though they might have been painful to listen to.

The capriccio was fascinating. The violinist was quite good, both technically and expressively. This piece is quite difficult to describe. The term "capriccio" makes one think that it is supposed to be humorous in some way... and in a sense it is, but in a way that is almost terrifying.

The Canticum Canticorum Salomonis was beautiful and haunting. The voices, like spirits, surround you, crying, gasping, whispering, and moaning. At times there seem to be tonal influences, though they are rare. Overall, this is probably my favorite track on the CD.

I would definitely recommend this CD, even to those without much experience with atonal music, if they are willing to give it a try. It really is beautiful, though the beauty can only be found when one realizes that this music is not supposed to be "pretty", it isn't supposed to be tonal, and it IS supposed to contain strong dissonances. That is how it gets its point across, and in that sense, Penderecki knew what he was doing.

This is, with no doubt, one of the most interesting CDs dedicated to the polish composer Krzysztov Penderecki, under the own composer as conductor, a very usual fact anyway in most of his CDs (DG, Chandos, Sony, Erato, Argo, Orfeo...).

The works here recollected come from the period in which I think Penderecki gave his best, and this is something I talked to him in person, in a way of asking him for going back to '60s innovation, vanguardism and a bit of wildness... but it's clear Mr. Penderecki is now in other way very different from the works this CDs presents.

From all this compositions the Threnody is the most popular and known, and probably one of his best ever works. The piece is presented in this version full of desesperation and chaos, controlled chaos, of course. I know Wit's version for Naxos and I really have to say this EMI one is the best I've listened. It's very graphycal to compare this version and Wit's one saying that this is watching and listening Hiroshima bombing from the ground of the own Hiroshima, while Wit's one is like watching it from the Enola Gay, as listening it from a distance, more clear, more controlled, but with no fear, horror, pain... If you want to feel the work and cry with it this is your version. I had a conversation with Krzysztov about this comparation, which he liked very much... and agreed.

The rest of the CD presents marvellous works, as the impressive Capriccio (Were the hands of the violinist complete after this playing?... I doubt it), which is one of the most difficult works for violin ever composed, with incredible entrances of the orchestra, specially metals.

You can listen too De Natura Sonoris I & II, which Stanley Kubrick took to his marvellous film The Shining, where this music finds an incredible home with fantastic Kubrick's direction and with the outstanding Nicholson's interpretation.

The only reason why I don't give this CD five stars is because I think the orchestra could be even better (It could be amazing to listen this works played by the Berliner Philharmonic ind a clear DDD recording), but the way they play, the sense is wonderful because it have the taste of the moment, the way of playing and feeling the music in the sixtees.

Anyway, I don't know any other version better for this works.

At long last, this member of EMI's glorious Matrix series has been re-released, and not a moment too soon.

Kryszstof Penderecki is most known for his "Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima," one of the most harrowing pieces of music ever created. Every time I have played this piece for myself or for freinds, the reaction is the same- that of abject horror. Of course, this is what he intended in his piece. The atonality adds to the disjoint nature of the piece. This reading by the Polish National orchestra is brilliant.

The rest of the pieces are not to be ignored, however. wanda Wilkomirska's reading of the ambitious "Capriccio" is awesome, showcasing her insightful approach to her playing. Also awesome is the "Song of Solomon," written for large orchestra and 16 solo voices. Wonderful.

The whole lp resonates with chilling beauty, and leaves no doubt that these are definitive recordings. We are lucky to have them among us again. Hopefully, EMI will re-release the rest of the awe-striking Matrix series in good time. This cd is a must have. Chilling to the bone. Genius.

Along with Gyorgy Ligeti, Penderecki is probably one of the truly great composers of the last third of the 20th century. Like Ligeti, Penderecki strove throughout the 1950s and 1960s to develop a musical vocabulary that would adequately communicate his sense of postwar alienation, horror at the crimes of the Holocaust and the cold war and, paradoxically, his hope for the future.

The selections on this disc cover all of those preoccupations. The Threnody is a chilling aural manifestation of abject terror. Had I heard the piece in my childhood, it would have been the ideal soundtrack for my recurring nuclear armageddon dreams. I can't listen to it today without breaking out into a cold sweat.

In contrast, the Capriccio is strangly upbeat, even bouncy -- though no less atonal. Wanda Wilkomurska's solo violin is searching, penetrating and soaring. This is not a tune you can, or would want to hum, but it is a fascinating hopeful contrast to the Threnody.

The Canticum Canticorum -- the Song of Solomon -- is sexual love expressed as the primal emotions and motivations that so many other composers glossed over with romantic allusion. If it had an odor, this piece would smell sweaty and musky. You can hear it in the sighing and soaring voices of the choir. Alng with Ligeti's Lux Aeterna and Requiem, this is the essential choral work of the late 20th century.

This is an astonishing collection of music.

I had to remind myself several times during the course of listening that this was actually a string orchestra. Penderecki creates so many colors and effects with the orchestra that make you actually feel for the victims of Hiroshima. I almost cried several times. Genius.

I first became aware of Krzysztof Penderecki through the use of some of his music in "The Shining". The chilling, outer-worldly soundscape he creates fascinated me a lot, and I got this cd because it featured most of the music which appeared in the film (- but for the sad omission of Polymorphia which stands right up there with the Threnody and De Natura Sonoris No.2).
This is much more than simply "horror-music" - an unfortunate and unjustified label often given Penderecki's early music, not only by those who do not know better, but also those who - for God knows what reason - wish to reduce his accomplishments as a composer. Penderecki wrote these pieces as experiements in sound and forms of expression, in each work trying to create new ways of using the classical instruments. Whether strings, percussion or the human voice, Penderecki brought new ideas to the ways in which these could be used, and in doing so, created some very dramatic, intense, and chilling compositions. I highly recommend this recording to anyone who is willing to challenge their conceptions of music and sound.

Penderecki is undoubtedly best known for his "Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima," written in 1960 for 52 strings. I first heard it some 25 years ago, on an LP called "The New Music" with the Rome Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bruno Maderna.

In this version, the composer and the Polish Radio Orchestra do equally well reproducing the eerie palette that gives "Threnody" such power. The score is filled with effects that were considered experimental at the time, such as tone clusters: imagine each of the 52 musicians playing a different note, creating a "cloud" or "wall" of sound - no discernible melody, but considerable emotional impact. One might imagine being surrounded by radioactive dust. Later sections of the piece sound like agonized screams, with the violins making piercing, shrieking sounds at the highest registers of their instruments, or frightening glissandi that sound like air raid sirens. This is not music for a languid Sunday morning.

The other works on this excellent collection are equally striking, and similar in style to the "Threnody." All told, a fine collection of early work from one of the world's most unusual composers.

In the liner notes, the composer is quoted in regard to Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima "the problem of the great Apocalypse (Auschwitz), that great war crime, has undoubtedly been in my subconscious mind since the war when, as a child, I saw the destruction of the ghetto in my small native town of Debiça". Nazi Germany was responsible for that destruction, not to mention Auschwitz, and although Imperial Japan took no direct part in those atrocities, they were allied with Germany during the war. So the bombing of Hiroshima, in some way, was connected to the atrocity the young Penderecki witnessed. Thus, through this association, the Threnody becomes a lament for all victims of war. At least, I think that's what the composer intended. Perhaps this is a work where title and comments can only detract from its effectiveness. Standing on its own as a pure cry of horror, Threnody has few equals.

First of all if you've never heard any Penderecki and are wondering weather or not to buy this album DO SO. Penderecki is a fine conductor and does wonders with his own compositions (and others I might add). For me the test of a really great composer is that some think he's "the greatest genius of this or that"...and others dismiss him as a total charlatan....Hey it happened to Beethoven. If you are at all sensitive to the power of music, Penderecki will move you...one way or the other. Personally I would count the famous Threnody as one of the greatest works of all time. And although I adore Xenakis as well....I find Xenakis on the coolish side and Penderecki on the more visceral side (a Brahms-Tchaikovsky parallel perhaps?). Even Penderecki's detractors...as in one of the reviews I saw here...admit to K.P.'s musical structuring abilities (whether atonal or not). So if you're curious...which you should be...take the dive and get the album. You'll enjoy the ocarinas in the Dream of Jacob and Wanda's rip roaring violin playing is always a delight....enjoy!