VOTD 12/31/2022

 Krzysztof Penderecki: Works (Naxos) double LP

Purchased at The Government Center

This came up in the used section at TGC, and I thought, "You don't see used Penderecki records every day." But then I corrected myself: you don't see this Penderecki record used every day. Others? All the time. 

Jerry's Records always has some Penderecki on hand, if nothing else a space copy of his opera The Devils of Loudon. Just earlier this week, I had to look up if I had a different recording of Passion According to St. Luke than the one that came up in the Jerry's bins. (I do.) 

I can run hot and cold on Penderecki. I generally like his work as a sound mass-style composer, which generally called for large forces (such as orchestra). He can at times sound like a perfectly ordinary, uninteresting academic composer too. I listened to some of his chamber music and it didn't do anything for me. 

So we have this double LP of Penderecki orchestral music, where I find he's usually at his best. It's textures, sounds, motion. Don't go in looking for traditional melody. I have 1/3 or so of this elsewhere? Polymorphia, Anaklasis,  and the famous/infamous Threnody are included in other records I have. The remaining works, Fluorescences, Intermezzo,  and Kosmogonia, are of a generally similar flavor.

Though I'm sympathetic to the sound mass approach, I'm also not without some criticisms. Sometimes I wonder if the (perceived) lack of overall form leaves things hanging in the wind, so to speak. Unmoored, not really adding up to much. On the other hand, maybe everything doesn't need to be so formalized? Maybe more people should be writing more freely for the orchestra.

Then there's moments such as the ending of Polymorphia. It's a work of generally fast-moving sound and action, which ends definitively on a major chord. Well, I guess I like that there's some humor to that, but I also thought, really? THAT is how you're going to end this piece?

The works at times also feel a little short? There's a thing with post-war composers that Morton Feldman noted, and that's writing the 20 minute work. There's some of that here (Fluorescences,   Kosmogoni). The shorter pieces maybe feel like that could have added up to more, though. 

Apart from Threnody, I think Intermezzo and Kosmogonia might be the strongest works here. The former is the most "classical" in the truest sense. It takes a melodic texture and tosses it around the ensemble, on top of itself in layers. It's a simple principle that works well.

The latter adds a chorus with soprano soloist. How any chorus accurately sings Penderecki (or Ligeti or other post-war composers) is beyond me. I have to admit it punches up the drama, or even that this piece has a sense of drama to it.

I'll get back to more Penkerecki soon. I've had some on recently (his opera, Dies Irae) but there's always so much to listen to.