Collectors who have
been picking up the other symphonies in this ongoing Naxosseries
will know a little about what to expect on this new recording.
Krzyzstof Penderecki created a major stir in the contemporary
music world as far back as 1962 when, having stirred international
interest with such avant-garde works as Anaklasis (1960)
and the Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (1961),
he came up with his Stabat Mater – a work whose emotional
directness and faith-based simplicity lead critics to accuse
the composer of turning his back on musical progress. Penderecki
is however a devout catholic, and the neo-Romantic, pluralistic
idiom which he developed in the 1970s and 1980s served both
his symphonic and his religious output well.
The Symphony
No.7 “Seven Gates of Jerusalem” is, in the
most simplistic terms, a choral symphony. Originally commissioned
to celebrate the city of Jerusalem’s third millennium, the piece
first appeared as an oratorio, being re-named as the seventh
symphony on the work’s Polish premiere in March 1997, two months
after the world premiere in Jerusalem. The number seven crops
up at a number of levels in this work: seven movements, seven-note
phrases in the building up of thematic content, and seven repetitions
of notes at the same pitch.
The initial and
pervading impression is of substantial orchestral forces, reinforced
with extensive percussion and by exotic instruments such as
the bass trumpet and the tubaphone. Lauda Jerusalem has
some fascinating effects with tuned tubes like ‘Boomwhackers’
spread spatially to left and right. The dramatic choral and
orchestral writing of this and other movements contrast strongly
with the gentle but intensely intertwining polyphony of the
third, a capella De Profundis movement. The orchestral
writing has echoes of Shostakovich, and enthusiasts for his
symphonies mixed with the drama of something like Orff’s ‘Carmina
Burana’ will find a great deal to get their teeth stuck into
here.
The
recording is superb, and Antoni Wit’s
direction leads to some hair-raising
moments. The transition between Lauda
Jerusalem and Facta es super
me manius Domini, with some convincingly
baleful Hebrew narration from Boris
Carmeli is particularly moving. The
Warsaw chorus and orchestra sing and
play out of their skins, and this
whole production is highly impressive
– far too vast and spectacular for
a budget price issue. As far as I
can see this is the only CD recording
available at the moment*, although
there is an Arthaus DVD of a performance
conducted by the composer. This piece
is very much a statement for our times,
being simultaneously accessible and
uncompromisingly intense and forceful
in both message and manner. There’s
nothing to be afraid of by trying
this new disc – just a disturbingly
moving and dramatic apocalypse in
your front room.
Dominy Clements
*It
has been drawn to our attention that
there is a version available on Wergo
and also on CDAccord.
Olga Pasichnyk, Aga
Mikołaj (soprano), Ewa Marciniec (alto), Wiesław Ochman (tenor),
Romauld Tesarowicz (bass), Boris Carmeli (narrator).
