Composer: Krzysztof Penderecki
Performer: Bartłomiej Niziol, Katarzyna Budnik, Piotr Przedbora, Tomasz Zymla, Arkadiusz Adamski, Agata Piatek, Andrzej Cieplinski, Bartlomiej Dobrowolski
Orchestra: Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra
Conductor: Krzysztof Penderecki
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Dux
Catalogue: DUX1537
Release: 2019
Size: 237 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Concerto doppio per violino, viola ed orchestra
Viola Concerto
02. I. Lento
03. II. Vivace
04. III. Meno mosso
05. IV. Vivo
06. V. Tempo I
07. VI. Vivo
08. VII. Lento
09. Concerto grosso no. 2 per 5 clarinetti ed orchestra (2004)
Krzysztof Penderrcki here conducts his own compositions, directing Bartlomiej Niziot and Katarzyna Budnik in the Double Concerto for Vioin, Viola and Orchestra, guitarinst Piotr Przedbora in Piotra Przedbory’s arrangement of the Concerto for Viola and Orchestra and a grop of talented clarinettists in the Concerto Grosso No. 2.
Finished in 2003, the Concerto Grosso No. 2 by Krzysztof Penderecki, apart from its Spanish premiere, has not been presented to a wider audience for 15 years. The Concerto Grosso No. 2 is a composition difficult to be considered only in the context of inspiration with the form of musical expression established in the Baroque era.
In addition to numerous Baroque references, the work contains a number of harmonic phrases identical to the music of late Neoromanticism and 20thcentury expressionism. This album is, in essence, the first opportunity to present this fascinating piece to a wider audience. In addition to the work mentioned above, the album also includes a recording of Penderecki’s viola concerto, enjoying huge popularity over the world, arranged in 2018 for guitar and orchestra, and the Double Concerto for viola and cello, composed in 2012.
The unique journey of Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, born in 1933, is exactly the opposite of Stravinsky’s, who began with the glamour of Tchaikovsky and Rimski-Korsakov to lead to Rite of Spring and finished his life composing serial music. It is the latter that Penderecki seized from his youth with purely dodecaphonic works. He even became one of the leaders of European avant-garde music before devoting himself, at the turn of the 1960s, to religious music ( St Luke Passion), then composing increasingly classical music until it became the post-romantic style we know today.
It is to this movement that the Double Concerto for violin and viola belongs, composed in 2013 for the bicentenary of the Musikverein in Vienna, and is the most recent work of this release. Dating from 1983, the Concerto for viola is halfway between the concerto and the sinfonia concertante. Written following a commission from the Venezuelan government, this concerto has attracted several soloists who have adapted it for various instruments: cello, clarinet, saxophone and guitar. It is this latest version that is presented here.
The Concerto grosso n° 2 (revised in 2003) features three clarinets and two basset horns (one of Mozart’s favorite instruments). Written in a single movement, it is inspired by both baroque music and 20th century expressionism; a duality that brings together very different emotional expressions, from drama to levity, and from the spontaneous style of a scherzo to fugal writing.
Founded in 2007 by the great Polish conductor Jerzy Semkov, who passed away in 2014, Sinfonia luventus is made up of young musicians under the age of 30, all from Polish conservatoires, that have found the opportunity to perfect their orchestral skills before dispersing to the main orchestras of the country and the world.