# Krzysztof Penderecki (1933-2020)



## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

https://culture.pl/en/artist/krzysztof-penderecki






Share your thoughts on the great Polish composer. RIP


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Sad as his demise is, I'm happy that he lived to a ripe age. Any thoughts of Penderecki usually turn to how many people are divided by what were two distinct eras to his output - the spikey modernism to begin with, followed by an incrementally more conservative style over the last forty-odd years. I've read that some consider Penderecki's abandonment of modernism as akin to heresy, or 'selling out', but the man himself was convinced that there was nothing more to be gained by continuing along that road, and he wasn't necessarily speaking only of himself. He wasn't the first composer to think in those terms and recalibrate his career as a result, yet he seemed to attract more flak than others who did. For my part, I'm happy with his music from any time of his career.

_Wypijmy za niego, niech jego dusza spoczywa w pokoju._


----------



## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

This hit me like a brick. Penderecki is one of my favorite composers...


----------



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Threnody to the victims of Hiroshima is still a favourite of mine. RIP.


----------



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Agreed with Art Rock, Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima is my most vivid memory of his music. I imprinted on the Maderna recording from this album, and found all succeeding versions I heard to be unsatisfying in some way.


----------



## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

To any passer-by:

let it forever be known, that he was Penderetzky, not Penderekkie.

A very respectable composer.


----------



## NLAdriaan (Feb 6, 2019)

Art Rock said:


> Threnody to the victims of Hiroshima is still a favourite of mine. RIP.


Must admit I just listened to the Trenody for the first time. It is a very recent recording from 2015, conducted in London by the late composer himself, impressive piece:


----------



## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Nooo!!! Terrible news 

Rest in power, Mr. Penderecki.


----------



## Janspe (Nov 10, 2012)

This is very sad news. I'm not going to pretend that I was ever a huge fan Penderecki's work, but I've always admired his integrity when it comes to choosing one's own path, despite all the criticism. The aggressive rejection of Penderecki by the 'modernist camp' (which I _usually_ happily feel a part of) has always bothered me a lot.

Certainly there are many works of his that I admire, and certainly I shall revisit many of them following these news. The world of music has a lost a great artist but his music will live on for sure.

RIP


----------



## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

I'll take this untimely news as an excuse to explore more of his music. He wrote so much, and I've heard so little.



millionrainbows said:


> Agreed with Art Rock, Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima is my most vivid memory of his music. I imprinted on the Maderna recording from this album, and found all succeeding versions I heard to be unsatisfying in some way.


Going to seek this out now, thanks. I have a few entries of that "Prophets of the New" series of reissues and they're all fantastic.


----------



## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

Portamento said:


> This hit me like a brick. Penderecki is one of my favorite composers...


Ditto. Ripe old age or not, this is an immensely sad loss, a giant has passed.


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

The end of an era. Sad to see the great maestro go. RIP


----------



## Guest002 (Feb 19, 2020)

Love his Seven Gates of Jerusalem. 
Vale, Krzysztof.


----------



## Room2201974 (Jan 23, 2018)

Spoczywaj w pokoju i wiedz, że twoje życie nie było nadaremne.

It's a darker world today, the shades drawn just a little tighter across the window pane. I'm going to need vodka for this.


----------



## Joachim Raff (Jan 31, 2020)

I was introduced to his music through Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. The film struck a chord with me and i could not understand straight away. I then realised it was the soundtrack that gave the film its edgy feel. The Awakening of Jacob is a masterpiece. The film and the soundtrack fit like a glove. RIP


----------



## Shosty (Mar 16, 2020)

I was saddened by his death, but take relief in believing that his music will hopefully outlive him for decades and give pleasure to lovers of music. I was introduced to his music a couple of years ago through Shutter Island that included a movement of his 3rd symphony, which is now one my favorite symphonies. I've since listened to several of his works and loved most of them. May his music last for years.


----------



## DaddyGeorge (Mar 16, 2020)

Very sad news... I had the privilege of meeting Mastero personally (two years ago). RIP


----------



## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

Joachim Raff said:


> I was introduced to his music through Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. The film struck a chord with me and i could not understand straight away. I then realised it was the soundtrack that gave the film its edgy feel. The Awakening of Jacob is a masterpiece. The film and the soundtrack fit like a glove. RIP


Film music and other more conservative works are for me also to be remembered. His modern works (which the composer himself abandoned) are for me unknown or very complicated ground to exploit. A great loss for the music, without any doubts.


----------



## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

I have little to add to the comments above - a very sad loss to the musical world.


----------



## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Can't say I ever took to his music, but perhaps it's time to give it a try again. Any recommendations? Works/Performers?


----------



## Schopenhauer (Jan 9, 2020)

I'm going to spend the rest of the night listening to his work. 

RIP Penderecki.


----------



## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I first encountered Penderecki on a Nonesuch LP in the early 1970s.









The disc featured two works by Xenakis and two by Penderecki. It was the seven and a half minute Penderecki composition titled _De Natura Sonoris_ which sold me on the composer and actually launched my interest in avant-garde contemporary music, about which I knew very little in 1970.

_De Natura Sonoris_ (the first of the composer's compositions by that name) was a breakthrough piece for me. It quickly established itself as a go-to favorite on my record player and it encouraged me to seek out other works by the great Polish maestro. I recall that in an undergraduate Theatre course I attended one assignment was to choreograph and then dance a work that told a story of some sort. We were to select the music. I chose _De Natura Sonoris_ and conceived a dance structured around the birth to death story of a being. No small task, thinking back to it. I don't actually recall much of that dance today, but I do remember that the course instructor and my fellow students in the class found the Penderecki music "strange", to say the least. It was, in any case, far different from the music of anyone else's choreographed dance. I still have the Nonesuch record in my collection, and it is evident from playing it, which I did just a while ago, that track B2 is more worn out than the other three tracks on the disc.

Since that time I have become acquainted with much Penderecki music and have quite a collection of his works on my disc shelves.

I remember getting tickets in late summer of 2001 for a Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra concert which was scheduled to feature the Penderecki _Threnody_ on the program. I was looking forward to hearing that work live. On September 11th of that year the Twin Towers tragedy happened and by the time the PSO concert was held the Penderecki piece had been replaced by a work by Messiaen, I believe it was _Les Offrandes Oubliées_. So, to date I have still not heard the _Threnody_ performed live. But it remains a favorite work.

I lament the loss of Maestro Penderecki who has added so much to how I hear this world, but I will continue featuring his compositions in my listening sessions, as I am doing at this very moment. (As I type, Penderecki music -- _The Dream of Jacob_ -- plays in the background.) Perhaps I will set aside time to rehear the complete _St. Luke Passion_, long a favorite. But I will never abandon my advocacy of Penderecki the composer. Where ever are my ears, Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki sounds on.

Another reason to remember this 250th year since Beethoven's birth.

RIP, Maestro. And thank you.


----------



## PeterFromLA (Jul 22, 2011)

Penderecki had a very impressive career. It started off with a splash, in the 1960s. He received commissions from the major orchestras and opera houses, and his works were regularly recorded by major record labels, especially EMI and Phillips; up through the mid 1970s, works like the St Luke's Passion, the Devils of Loundon, Polymorphia, De Natura Sonoris, the stellar First Symphony, or the Threnody, could be readily found in classical record store music bins. His LPs were not "remaindered," but kept in updated pressings, a feat only composers like Stockhausen could manage. 

Penderecki's turn, in the mid-1970s toward neo-romanticism was big news, but left many of his fans feeling betrayed: the rapid-fire appearance of such works as the Violin Concerto that he wrote for Issac Stern, or the Second Symphony (so different from the First) or the Te Deum (so different from the Dies Irae!) confirmed that this was no mere passing phase. All of this activity happened by 1980 or so. And he continued writing and touring and conducting for another forty years. Amazing.


----------



## Durendal (Oct 24, 2018)

Very sad. For classical music, he was a significant "current" composer, and a major loss. 

Does anyone know how far he got with his 9th symphony? I found an interview from July 2018 where he said he composed many sketches for it. I'm just wondering how much progress he was able to make on it since then, if any.


----------



## Oakey (Nov 19, 2017)

Sad to hear. By coincidence I was thinking of him the night before he died, as I watched Kubrick’s the Shining and during the end titles saw that some of the musical pieces were his. Next morning I read that he passed away.

I do not own much of his music, just ordered the Naxos symphonies 5-CD box set.


----------



## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

jrjqhrrehharqrgarhaerha


----------



## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

RIP to a very intriguing composer and a man who seems to have made the most of his years. A very sad day indeed, but this is a reminder that I need to dive deeper into his extensive lifes work!


----------



## gvn (Dec 14, 2019)

Oakey said:


> just ordered the Naxos symphonies 5-CD box set.


I think this is an excellent collection. The symphonies are diverse and characteristic of their composer; the Threnody and several other works are also included; and the performances (conducted by his pupil Wit) seem both authentic and effective. Note that Penderecki himself was also a good conductor (not often the case with composers!).

Outside that collection, I personally would draw attention to his two Violin Concertos (written for Stern and Mutter respectively) and his Cello Concerto No 2 (for Rostropovich). In the field of choral music, the obvious major works would be the Luke Passion (in his earlier style) and the Polish Requiem (in his later style).

I know everyone says that Penderecki became more conservative in the mid-1970s. I personally think exactly the opposite. Before that time, he had conservatively followed the conventional post-serialist fashion, like just about every other young composer of the period. Then, by contrast, he broke out in a new, radically unfashionable style, in which he had no predecessors and has had no successors. Yes, his new style employed sonorities that had been used by Brahms and Bruckner; but he used them for totally individual purposes, which neither Brahms nor Bruckner would have comprehended.



> Does anyone know how far he got with his 9th symphony?


I too would be interested to learn this. Will there be an unfinished Ninth, like Bruckner's?

Afterthought: We still need recordings of some of his major works, e.g., the opera-oratorio Paradise Lost (a bootleg of the world premiere has been posted on some shady websites, but it isn't well recorded and you won't make anything of it without the libretto). And am I right in thinking that there still isn't a complete recording of the final form of the Polish Requiem??


----------



## Guest (Mar 30, 2020)

My Polish physician and friend (now living in Australia) lived in the same apartment building as Penderecki and they walked their dogs together 25 years ago. He liked the composer but loathed his music.


----------



## calvinpv (Apr 20, 2015)

Undoubtedly one of the greatest Polish composers ever, behind only Chopin and Szymanowski in terms of impact. And he was the very first modern composer that clicked for me. If it wasn't for his music, who knows if I'd be listening to contemporary music today.

RIP

Some favorite works not named _Threnody_:

Utrenja (1969-1971) (playlist here; parts of this were in _The Shining_)
A sea of dreams did breathe on me (2010) (playlist here; one of the best contemporary song cycles, imo)
Symphony No. 3 (1988-1995) (below)
Sextet (2000) (both parts below)
Polymorphia (1961) (below)


----------



## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

Not sure how far Penderecki got with his Ninth Symphony, it'll be interesting to find out; I really want to see a recording of his Sixth (sic) Symphony (aka Chinese Poems), and really hope Naxos can get Antoni Wit to record it and complete the cycle. It'd be a fitting honour to both composer and conductor, the latter having done so much to keep his music in the public eye.


----------



## Janspe (Nov 10, 2012)

CnC Bartok said:


> I really want to see a recording of his Sixth (sic) Symphony (aka Chinese Poems)


You're in for a treat then: the premiere recording has been recently released!


----------



## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

^Has anyone heard the 6th symphony yet? I understand people were anxiously awaiting a recording for years and years, but now that it's finally available, I've scarcely heard a peep about it. 

Me, I've never heard any of his symphonies. I'll try one out today, I have the Wit/Polish NRSO of the 3rd.


----------



## Janspe (Nov 10, 2012)

flamencosketches said:


> ^Has anyone heard the 6th symphony yet? I understand people were anxiously awaiting a recording for years and years, but now that it's finally available, I've scarcely heard a peep about it.


I think it's literally been out for like 10 days or so, might take a while before people get their hands on it.

I'm also exploring Penderecki's symphonies properly for the first time. 4 done, 4 more to go...


----------



## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

I just listened to the 3rd. Kind of interesting. Reminded me a little of Shostakovich, but more directionless... not that that is a bad thing.


----------



## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

CnC Bartok said:


> Not sure how far Penderecki got with his Ninth Symphony, it'll be interesting to find out.


18 months ago Penderecki said he had lots of 'absolutely different' sketches made for a Ninth Symphony but wasn't sure he would use any of them. Because it was his ninth he wanted it to be an important piece and said was in no hurry to write it, though he felt sure he would. It was to be one big movement, possibly with choir, and he estimated its length to be 40 minutes.

Last year Maestro Penderecki stopped composing though he still wished to write the symphony. I now understand from Remy Franck that there will be no Ninth Symphony.


----------



## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

I just ordered the Wit/Warsaw St. Luke Passion. I'm excited to explore the music...


----------



## leonsm (Jan 15, 2011)

R.I.P, Penderecki. A work that I like very much by him, but it's not very mentioned, is his Credo:


----------



## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

His early music transferred very well to the big screen and was used in both "The Exorcist" and "The Shining" a couple notable horror films.


----------

