I first encountered the music of Paweł Łukaszewski through the 2007
Hyperion CD of his choral music by Trinity College, Cambridge and Stephen
Layton (
review).
Since then I’ve also heard a further Layton/Hyperion disc, which was
reviewed by
Michael Cookson. I’ve also come across several additional individual
choral compositions on mixed recital discs and these have impressed me.
The Polish label Dux has done much to foster Łukaszewski’s music on
disc (
review ~
review). Here’s another collection of his music that they’ve
assembled.
The programme contains two instrumental arrangements of vocal works.
Lenten Music is an arrangement for saxophone sextet that
Łukaszewski made of the
Responsoria Tenebrae and it’s most
interesting to have both on the same disc.
Advent Music turns out
to be an arrangement for string orchestra of four of the settings of the so-called Great ‘O’ Antiphons. The original choral version of that music,
composed between 1995 and 1998, appears on the Trinity College/Stephen
Layton CD mentioned above.
It’s the
Responsoria Tenebrae that open the programme. I
wondered at first if these five pieces were written for choir but the notes
inform us that the work was commissioned by the King’s Singers. Here
Łukaszewski sets five of the responsories that are said or sung during the
offices of Matins or Lauds during the last three days of Holy Week.
Unsurprisingly, the music is grave and often sombre, as befits the texts.
The group proMODERN is, apparently, the only Polish vocal ensemble that
specialises in contemporary music. Such a specialisation inevitably
requires a tremendous degree of precision and accuracy. It’s evident from
these performances that the six singers - three ladies and three gentlemen -
are highly skilled individuals and also expert at singing as a team. The
use of a consort of just six voices lends an extraordinary intimacy and
clarity to the music and this means that the import of the various texts
registers with particular power. The singing is remarkably precise: every
chord seems perfectly weighted and balanced so that Łukaszewski’s
fascinating and inventive harmonies register with telling effect. All the
music is very impressive and I especially admired the gravitas of the
fourth piece, ‘O vos omnes’.
The arrangement of the same pieces as
Lenten Music for six
saxophones is intriguing. I didn’t realise that I was about to experience
the same music again until I read the relevant section of the booklet
because Łukaszewski doesn’t carry the titles of the vocal pieces over
into the saxophone version. Instead the instrumental movements merely have
tempo indications -
Grave placido, for instance; indeed every
tempo indication includes the word “placido”. The saxophone ensemble
consists of two soprano instruments, an alto, a tenor and two baritones. I
really did wonder how this music would sound when transferred onto these
instruments but I was very pleasantly surprised by how effective the
arrangements are. I think that’s partly because the saxophones invest the
music with a haunting quality that’s entirely appropriate - especially if
one has already heard the vocal version. The other reason that it works so
well is the extraordinary accomplishment of the players who truly make
their instruments sing and who blend with one another to a remarkable
degree. We are told that there are “some melodic and rhythmic changes
[from the vocal version] here and there” but I suspect these are very
minor. I found it very interesting to use the remote control to skip back
from listening to a particular track to experience again the vocal version.
My personal preference is for the vocal version but it’s fascinating to be
able to compare and contrast both scores.
In
Advent Music Łukaszewski arranges the first, third, fourth
and sixth of his vocal antiphons. The antiphons in question are ‘O
Sapiens’, ‘O Radix Jesse’, O Clavis Davis’ and ‘O Rex Gentium’. Again
I think the arrangements work well and, as with
Lenten Music, the
performances here are expert. It sounds to be a fairly small string
orchestra that is deployed here - 12 players are pictured in the booklet
photograph. I prefer the vocal version - and perhaps a little more strongly
than was the case with
Lenten Music and its vocal original - but
the string version of this music undoubtedly brings something new and
different to the music. I was taken particularly with the fourth piece
which here has a very passionate, weighty opening - material that is later
revisited - which then gives way to richly lyrical lines which suit the
string ensemble very well.
Two much shorter vocal works complete the programme.
Daylight
declines sets an English translation of a sixteenth-century Polish
prayer for six-part mixed choir. It’s an interesting and effective setting
but it’s not remotely as ear-catching as
Prayer to the Guardian
Angel. This piece is the Introduction to the composer’s Third
Symphony, ‘Symphony of Angels’ (2010). It’s scored for the unusual
combination of female choir, piano and Chinese balls. I presume that the
Chinese balls are Baoding balls. These are, I confess, something completely
new to me but I read on Wikipedia that “most Baoding balls made and used
today are constructed as a pair of hollow spheres, one inside the other,
with a chime between which rings as the inner ball strikes it.”
The effects that Łukaszewski conjures up in this piece are quite
remarkable. The accompaniment barely rises above
pianissmo, it
seems, and gives the impression of a gently luminescent halo around the
singers. The notes refer to the Chinese balls “creating a light, somewhat
unreal sound.” As for the choir, they begin by whispering and then sing
gossamer-light music. There’s an air of mystery and delicacy about the
piece and the ethereal sound-world is truly magical. The music is slow-
moving, hypnotic and timeless. I’m not sure the piece would be quite as
effective if the duration were much longer but I found it absorbing.
There’s some very beautiful and deeply-felt music on this disc. My
concern, however, is that it’s all very introspective. For one thing,
there’s a complete absence of happy or extrovert music here. Furthermore,
almost everything is in a slow or moderate tempo. Thinking back over the
disc and re-reading my notes I’m struggling to recall hearing any music
that’s in a fast tempo with the exception of the first movement of
Advent Music. Greater variety would be welcome.
The performances by various ensembles are uniformly excellent. The
recordings themselves are good and the notes, which are in Polish with a
decent English translation, are useful. Subject to the caveat expressed in
the preceding paragraph this is a very good collection of pieces by an
eloquent composer.
John Quinn
