Search - Penderecki, Mayer, Haufa :: Music for Chamber Orchestra

Celestial music with a dark tinge

ygghur | Rome, Italy | 06/17/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I'm not a massive classical music fan, for instance I can't swallow Opera or anything with human voices. Nevertheless, when I like it I really like it, from Bach to...well, Penderecki! My taste I guess is rather by instinct and I can appreciate "easy" classical as well as "difficult", especially atonal stuff. Penderecki notoriously started out as a true avant-garde composer and he made a well-deserved reputation with music that was innovative uncompromised but always "musical". Then later on he focused on what is usually called neo-classical or such, more recently it seems to me he tries to melt the two worlds and usually succeeds. This compilation is very well done and serves as an example of the various passages and demonstraing that, especially when he writes for Strings, he can stretch from Baroque to avant-garde without ever losing his peculiarities. In addition, what makes the cd a very good buy is the fact that certain pieces are extracts from longer stuff and therefore easy to skip if you're not a hardcore fan. The music itslef is usually very inspired, celestial with a continuous dark tinge that makes it listenable and interesting throughout. Recommended to Penderecki fans in general but also to lovers of music for strings not of the sentimental kind."

Brooding and spiritual.

greg taylor | Portland, Oregon United States | 07/08/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"First, to business. Amazon provides us with little information about this recording so here it is. Penderecki himself directs the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra in the performance of the following works

1. Adagietto from "Paradise Lost" (adopted for English horn and string orchestra featuing Albrecht Mayer on the English horn)

2 Chaconne (in memoria del Giovanni Paolo II)

3. Agnes Dei from "Requiem" (version for string orchestra)

4. Intermezzo (for 24 strings)

5. De Profundis (from "Seven Gates of Jerusalem")

6. Serenade (for string orchestra)

Passacaglia

Largheto

7. 3 Pieces in Baroque Style (after sound tracks to "The Saragossa

Manuscript" for string orchestra)

Aria

Menuetto I

Menuetto II

8. Sinfonietta per archi

Allegro Molto

Vivace

The pieces were composed anywhere from 1963 to 2005.



As for describing the music, I agree with most of what ygghur has to say in his review. Penderecki writes music that has an avowedly spiritual and philosophical intent. He is, I think, writing against the history of the 20th century. He wants to reconnect us with a way of life that is supported by a metaphysics, one that is largely Biblical in origin.

The result is music that is very beautiful and rarely self-consciously experimental. At times, this music strikes me as very cinematic. By which I mean, it seems sometimes to be accompanying and intensifying some action just out of my sight. I am thinking of the Chaconne in particular.

Okay, so obviously I am terrible at describing music. I will add only this. The performances are superb. Mayer is a wonder on his one piece. His tone on the English horn positively yearns. And the SVO is wonderful throughout.

I am new to Penderecki. I am not sure, therefore, how essential this CD is for those who listen to him a lot. As ygghur mentions, several of the pieces are extracts from larger works. But for someone like me, who loves chamber music, this is a wonderful entry into Penderecki's music oeuvre.

And I should mention that it is part of a series devoted to Penderecki's music, the Penderecki Special Edition on the Dux label."