The music of Paweł
Łukaszewski
does not seem to have been reviewed
previously on the pages of MusicWeb
International, so a little background
may not be out of place. Son of the
composer Wojciech Łukaszewski,
Paweł
Łukaszewski
studied cello (with Andrzej Wróbel)
and composition (with Marian Borkowski)
at the Frédéric Chopin
Academy of Music in Warsaw, from 1987-1995.
He studied choral conducting with Ryszard
Zimak at the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz
in 1994-95. Although he has written
a small number of orchestral works and
at least two string quartets, by far
the greater part of Łukaszewski’s
body of work is made up of sacred music
for choir. Many of his choral compositions
have won prizes, in Poland and elsewhere,
and many performed outside Poland; quite
a number of them having been recorded,
notably on Dux and on Acte Préalable.
All the works on this
CD belong to the mid-1990s, to the composer’s
late twenties.
The Concerto for Organ
and String Orchestra, which opens the
CD, adheres to the classical model,
with the two outer movements marked
moderato and the central movement
marked adagio.Like most of Łukaszewski’s
music, the language is largely tonal,
though with the occasional unexpected
harmony. A busy first movement is succeeded
by a restful second, in which strings
and organ are blended with particular
skill. The final movement contains some
impressive writing for the organ,
in a relatively conventional idiom.
O Adonai is
part of an ongoing cycle, to be entitled
Seven Antiphons for the Advent.
Richly harmonised and largely unhurried,
though never losing forward momentum,
it would serve liturgical purposes very
well. In the Two Motets for mixed
choir the writing for the higher voices,
especially in the second (Crucem
tuam adoramus, Deum) is particularly
fine. All three of these pieces for
mixed choir are very competent music
in the modern Catholic tradition; eminently
listenable and with moments of beauty;
perhaps the work of a composer on his
way towards finding a fully individual
style, rather than one who has got there
already. Recordationes de Christo
moriendo which, despite its Latin
title, sets a Polish text in thirteen
quatrains, is a more striking piece.
With a fine contribution by the mezzo
soloist, Anna Lubánska, it is
conceived as a kind of arch which grows
in musical complexity before returning
to the simpler idioms with which it
began. The relationship between the
solo voice and the chamber orchestra
is subtly handled and the whole has
a hieratic beauty of some power.
The most substantial
work here, the Missa pro Patria,
sets the ordinary of the mass, plus
an Introit - setting a text taken
from Pope John Paul II’s homily on the
occasion of his first pilgrimage to
Poland in 1979 - an Offertorium -
an anonymous prayer in Polish), the
Communio - a prayer from Renaissance
Poland - and a Cantus Finalis.
The Mass was written in 1997, commissioned
for the eightieth anniversary of Polish
independence and is organised in five
sections: Ritus initiales, Liturgia
verba, Liturgia Eucharistica,
Ritus communiones and Ritus
conclusionis. The choral writing
is sophisticated, especially effective
in quieter passages, the Agnus Dei
is beautifully set for the mezzo
soloist and there are some impressive
percussive passages – all in the service
of a declamatory celebration of faith
and nation. I wasn’t entirely convinced
by it all, musically speaking, some
of the
parts being decidedly better than the
whole. This is my first exposure to
Łukaszewski’s music and I am inclined
to reserve judgement. There was enough
here that I found intriguing and beautiful
as to ensure that I shall look out for
his name in future; but there
were also passages that were relatively
banal.
Texts in Latin and
Polish are provided, but no English
translations. There are booklet notes
in Polish, English and German.
Glyn Pursglove
Full
Acte Préalable Catalogue
Waclaw Golonk (organ) 
for
details
