Composer: Krzysztof Penderecki
Performer: Anna Stolarczyk, Marta Olga Mularczyk, Anastazja Lipert, Maria Lenart, Pawel Fundament, Leszek Solarski, Izabela Matula, Jerzy Trela, Choir of Academy of Music in Krakow
Orchestra: Symphonic Orchestra of the Academy of Music in Krakow
Conductor: Krzysztof Penderecki
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Dux
Release: 2000
Size: 241 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Symphony No. 7, ‘7 Gates of Jerusalem’
01. I. Magnus Dominus et laudabilis nimis
02. II. Si oblitus fuero tui, Jerusalem
03. III. De profundis
04. IV. Si oblitus fuero tui, Jerusalem
05. V. Lauda Jerusalem
06. VI. Facta es super me manus Domini
07. VII. Haec dicit Dominus
Kazimierz Kord led the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra in the world-premiere recording of Krzysztof Penderecki’s Seventh Symphony in Vienna in 1999. Antoni Wit led the same orchestra in the first studio recording in Warsaw in 2003. Penderecki himself recorded the work in 2004 leading the Symphonic Orchestra of the Academy of Music in Krakow. This 2008 Dux release contains — just barely — that performance.
The Seventh Symphony is a gargantuan work scored for five soloists, narrator, chorus, and orchestra that fairly explodes from the speakers in any recording, and this recording is larger and louder than either of its predecessors. The big moments, and this is a work full of big moments, have enormous impact here. Penderecki is not a great conductor in a technical sense. The strings are sometimes out of sync in fast passages, and tutti attacks and releases are not always together. But the composer does inspire the performers into giving their all for the work, and their performance has the emotionality, monumentality, and the sense of occasion it needs to succeed.