Penderecki: Orchestral and Vocal Works

Five compositions from three decades are brought together here representing all of Penderecki’s creative periods. This provides an interesting possibility for reflection. The series of works begins with the 1983 Concerto for Viola, music by the composer at the age of 50, reflecting the current position of his compositional work: a pluralism which combines all the possible aspects of his earlier writing experience. This began in 1959 with “Strophes”, his first point of contact with the west European avantgarde. This however had no further consequences, because Penderecki had already in 1965 in his Capriccio for Oboe condensed his very personal and bold experiments with material in the border region between sound and noise. Similarly in 1973 at the age of 40 when he wrote his little Intermezzo for Strings, he had already written his First Symphony, the emphatic work of his middle period. Only thereafter came the surprising shift in style – Penderecki’s “romantic phase” – one of the results of which is the Concerto for Viola.