# SS 24.12.22 - Penderecki - Symphony # 2 "Christmas Symphony"



## Mika (Jul 24, 2009)

A continuation of the Saturday Symphonies Tradition:

Welcome to another weekend of symphonic listening!

For your listening pleasure this weekend:

*Krzysztof Penderecki (1933 – 2020) *

*Symphony No. 2, "Christmas Symphony"*

I. Moderato
II. Allegretto
III. Lento
IV. Tempo I
V. Allegretto


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Post what recording you are going to listen to giving details of Orchestra / Conductor / Chorus / Soloists etc - Enjoy!


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## Mika (Jul 24, 2009)

Ho Ho Ho. Greetings from the land of Santa Claus. Christmas without SS is waste . Krzysztof looks a lot like Santa and his second symphony is actually Christmas Symphony. Symphony is pretty dark I would say, so maybe not happy Christmas. Anyway, I liked it and I hope you too. I will listen this one:


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

I listened to my Muza LP copy just yesterday. Except for two very short soft spots (c. 20 seconds each of "Silent Night"), this is a very angry/menacing sounding piece. I'm not sure why. It certainly doesn't set my mood for Christmas. LOL!!


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## Xenophiliu (Jan 2, 2022)

Penderecki conducting

Dux
2012


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Vasks said:


> I listened to my Muza LP copy just yesterday. Except for two very short soft spots (c. 20 seconds each of "Silent Night"), this is a very angry/menacing sounding piece. I'm not sure why. It certainly doesn't set my mood for Christmas. LOL!!


 Maybe Fry's Santa Claus Symphony will change your mood!


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## Highwayman (Jul 16, 2018)

Just my type of Christmas music. 

_Bah! Humbug!_


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

Alfacharger said:


> Maybe Fry's Santa Claus Symphony will change your mood!


I did listen to the Fry a few days ago. It has one section depicting a man dying in a snowstorm. Yeah. Nothing says Christmas as much as death by freezing. LOL!!


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

I promise I will try the You tube , I have no recording from that piece .


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

Great symphony, but it barely has anything to do with Christmas at all, apart from so briefly quoting Silent Night I wouldn't be surprised if you missed it entirely.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Good piece...just listened to it the other night....not sure what it has to do with Xmas....


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

This is the first time that I listened to Penderecki's Symphony No. 2 on Christmas Eve.
I have a "Dux" CD, but this edition is volume 1 of KP's orchestral works (including "Passacaglia & Rondo" which I understand Penderecki withdrew because he incorporated this into movements within a subsequent symphony).










Wojciech Czepiel conducts Krakow Philharmonic

This opus is determined, too much so for my taste, to have its audience take seriously the bombast.
Completed in 1980, Symphony No. 2 is the work on this disc that I like the least; Krzysztof's 1960 vintage sour grapes slide down my hatch easier. 
Anyone else wonder about how the young 'sonorist' morphed into a middle-aged poly-stylist carrying a neo-romantic torch after the death of Shostakovich?


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

Highwayman said:


> _Bah! Humbug!_


Stada Ba(h)ba Humski Bugiel


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

Correct. Passacaglia and Rondo are the last two movements of Symphony No. 3. I do wonder why they added them to that disc when they made a full version of the symphony as part of that cycle.


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## cougarjuno (Jul 1, 2012)

I have the Polish Radio Symphony under Jacek Kasprzyk on Olympia for this piece due to the weird coupling of the obscure double bass concerto. I haven't listened to it much but always glad to hear whatever Penderecki offers.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Prodromides said:


> This is the first time that I listened to Penderecki's Symphony No. 2 on Christmas Eve.
> I have a "Dux" CD, but this edition is volume 1 of KP's orchestral works (including "Passacaglia & Rondo" which I understand Penderecki withdrew because he incorporated this into movements within a subsequent symphony).
> 
> 
> ...


It has been stated many times by the composer himself that he said he exhausted his previous avant-garde style and I believe this culminated with the _Utrenja_. He said he had nothing left to say this this particular style. Anyway, I love all periods of Penderecki, so it's no wonder I hold _St. Luke Passion_ is the same esteem as _Symphony No. 7, "Seven Gates of Jerusalem" _for example.


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

That's interesting, as Symphony No. 1 (1973) is very much of the avant-garde.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Heck148 said:


> Good piece...just listened to it the other night....not sure what it has to do with Xmas....


Other than having a quotation of _Silent Night_, not much! This is blackest Christmas piece I've heard (besides, perhaps, Schnittke's own wonderfully nutty arrangement for violin and piano of _Stille Nacht_), but this is why I love Penderecki because he wasn't afraid of composing music that pushed the envelope.


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

I'm not sure regressing to Romanticism and tonality after a long period of avant-garde experimentalism is "pushing the envelope"


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

maestro267 said:


> I'm not sure regressing to Romanticism and tonality after a long period of avant-garde experimentalism is "pushing the envelope"


No it's not "pushing the envelope" but it's not a regression either (although I can see how some would call it a "regression"). He felt his "avant garde" style had reached a dead end. And it's not uncommon for composers whose harmonic language were quite tough early in their careers to mellow out later in life. Look at Bartok, Schoenberg, Hindemith, Rochberg.

This symphony however is not mellow. Not really tonal. There's plenty of dissonance, but void of his unique instrumental techniques.


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