# Favourite Penderecki symphony



## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

Worth a shot. Which is your favourite symphony by the Polish master?

(For the record, and for those who don't know, I haven't deliberately missed No. 6. He hasn't completed it yet.)


----------



## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

Sorry, but how can 38 people look at this and no one vote or reply?


----------



## Guest (Apr 3, 2014)

Well, I can't speak for the others, but I've only heard 3 and 7 so far (though 1, 2, and 4 are surely imminent), and I can't remember anything about 3.


----------



## Whistler Fred (Feb 6, 2014)

Symphony No. 1. It is so wonderfully over the top that I can't help but love it!


----------



## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

No. 1 has to be it, by default--composer conducting (EMI). At one time I had Nos. 1 - 5 (Naxos). I lost interest in them, and culled. Haven't heard subsequent symphonies. Re orchestral, my preference is for his concerti (violin, cello, horn), and some of his incidentals, such as Fonogrammi. :tiphat:


----------



## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I have the complete Penderecki orchestral works on Naxos. I went through all of them a couple times, and the complete experience was such a downer, I haven't wanted to do it again, so I can't give an informed opinion. I remember liking the early, noisy ones. The neoromantic pieces didn't click with me. 

I guess I need to try them again.


----------



## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I have the complete Penderecki orchestral works on Naxos. I went through all of them a couple times, and the complete experience was such a downer, I haven't wanted to do it again, so I can't give an informed opinion. I remember liking the early, noisy ones. The neoromantic pieces didn't click with me. 

I guess I need to try them again.


----------



## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

I have not heard all of the Penderecki symphonies, but the 8th symphony does it for me. It is perhaps Penderecki's most Debussian work to date.


----------



## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

I've never cared much for Penderecki, either in his modernist or his neoromantic guises. I hear a piece every now and then, but it never leaves much of an impression (I prefer Xenakis's Metastasis to Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, for example).


----------



## Guest (Apr 3, 2014)

Vaneyes said:


> No. 1 has to be it, by default--composer conducting (EMI). At one time I had Nos. 1 - 5 (Naxos). I lost interest in them, and culled. Haven't heard subsequent symphonies. Re orchestral, my preference is for his concerti (violin, cello, horn), and some of his incidentals, such as Fonogrammi. :tiphat:


How would you rank his concerti? I bought the piano concerto / flute concerto album and the EMI compilation with the 1st cello concerto, and I downloaded his horn concerto. Haven't heard violin 1/2 or viola or cello 2. I really love the sweeping, grandiose contemporary stuff from time to time (though I can't binge on it for long). I guess I listen to Rautavaara a lot more as far as that stuff is concerned, but I think I'll be getting around to most Penderecki eventually.


----------



## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

Hmm...strange to find the general indifference toward Penderecki, not just here, but everywhere. His music has really grabbed me and he ranks highly among my favourite composers, and top among living composers.


----------



## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Meh, I like Penderecki's early stuff alright. But in his later stuff he repeats the same configurations and themes in so many works that he starts sounding like a goofy parody of himself. 

Sorry, that's my opinion at least. 

I roll my eyes every time he does that "chromatic jumpy scales with random accents!" thing.


----------

