Krzysztof Penderecki: Orchestral Works, Vol. 3 (Symphonies Nos. 2 and 4)

Note: This post was intended to be uploaded on 1 April and here we are 7 1/2 months later.  We'll blame it on COVID and demands on time, but the intention is to resume sharing interesting music, but even more concisely than before.  So, here goes:

Another towering figure in modern music died in late March when Krzysztof Penderecki, the Polish composer whose remarkable career engendered controversy in its earlier, more experimental days and more recognition during his more straightforward later period, passed away at age 86.  The latter is emblematic with the two symphonies, the Second and Fourth, in this third set of orchestral works released by Naxos.

The second and fourth symphonies show a range of emotions through passages that express intense emotions, a tense ominousness and calming pastoral interludes.  The liner notes state that the turbulent and roiling dynamics refer to the turmoil rocking the composer's county of Poland at the end of Soviet domination and Communist control (though now the nation is dealing with the rise of right-wing politics and protests over such issues as the access to abortion procedures.)

This is powerful music from 1979 and 1989 when Poland was experiencing traumatic political periods and Penderecki, formerly a young lion of the avant garde, was moving into a different phase of his composing, merging the old and the new.

Krzysztof Penderecki: Orchestral Works, Volume 1

This Naxos recording of four orchestral works by Penderecki by the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Antoni Wit, includes the dense, dramatic and dynamic Symphony Number 3, composed between 1988 and 1995 and which represents something of a balance between the avant-garde work Penderecki became noted for in the early 1960s and more traditional approaches after he found his earlier fixatons "more destructive than constructive."

To this amateur, the balance is struck quite well.  There is a lot going on sonically, with soaring brass and strings accompanied by a variety of propulsive percussion, especially in the second movement, while the third movement's adagio has a very pretty and lyrical melody.  These were composed at the end of the seven-year gestation of the piece, whereas the final two movements were the earliest, including a foreboding fourth movement passacaglia that has a powerful and dramatic apogee and a finale that blends darkness with power in a very gripping fashion.

Then, there's the best-known and somewhat infamous piece, coming at the peak of Penderecki's early avant-garde period in 1960.  The "Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima for 52 Strings" is a devastating sonic experience, in which the use of all those stringed instruments are taken to a aural extreme in segements of a piece spanning about 9 minutes. 

The composer stated that, in a conceptual form, it was to be called 8'37" in direct reference to John Cage's notorious 4'33", but that, once it was recorded, he decided that its emotional power led him to change the title as a dedication to those who died in the atomic blast let forth by the United States in August 1945.

While I've had this disc for some time, it was more than interesting to watch David Lynch's highly experimental and visually starting eighth episode of the Twin Peaks return just a couple of months ago and, during an extended sequence that dealt with the atomic bomb and its setting off the evil form that became the underpinning for the series, there was "Threnody" providing a stunning soundtrack to the incredible scenes unfolding on screen.  Coincidentally, at about the same time, I was reading a couple of books dealing with Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so the confluence was remarkable.

As experimental and mind-blowing is "Flourescences," which was composed a year after Threnody.  Utilizing a full orchestra, but also a variety of additional sound sources, inlcuding an alarm siren, and wood, tin and glass, cowbells, a typewriter and gongs, Penderecki unleashed an adventure into sound that moves beyond music and the composer once said about it, "all I'm interested in is liberating sound beyond all tradition."  It is a fascinating excursion into unusual combinations of instrumentation and the presentation of sound that seems, to this untrained listener, evocative of a soundtrack.  This is because, though the piece doesn't have defined movements, it does seem to have distinct and set-apart elements.

Finally, there is "De Natura Sonoris II" from the early 1970s, a short piece that is more restrained than its provocative predecessors.  There are some unusual instruments here, as well, including a piston flute and musical saw, with violas and plenty of brass standing out.  There is a long climax followed by a calm ending and the effect is striking.

A second volume of the orchestral works of Penderecki is certainly in the offing for a future post here and as a continuation of the absorbing, if often difficult, music of this always-interesting composer.