Krzysztof Penderecki - A Polish Requiem (Antoni Wit)

Information

Composer: Krzysztof Penderecki

• A Polish Requiem

Izabela Kłosińska, soprano

Jadwiga Rappé, alto

Ryszard Minkiewicz, tenor

Piotr Nowacki, bass

Warsaw National Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra

Antoni Wit, conductor

Date: 2005

Label: Naxos

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Review

When Krzysztof Penderecki conducted the first complete recording of his Polish Requiem, the soloists were Polish but the orchestra and chorus were Swedish. This new recording, an all-Polish affair, certainly can’t be faulted for lack of fervour, and the work’s origins in a setting of the Lacrimosa dedicated to Gdansk shipyard workers who died during clashes with the Communist authorities in 1970, helps to explain the mixture of intensity and deliberation with which Penderecki approached his task.

I was fairly dismissive of the work in 1997, and I can’t say that I’ve warmed greatly towards it since. At worst, there’s a tendency to swing between bombast and sentimentality which makes one long for the austerity of an Arvo Pärt. Nevertheless, if you approach it as a valid attempt to continue the tradition of 19th-century concert Requiems – Verdi’s, above all – then you might feel that it has much to offer.

This performance is well played and conducted, Antoni Wit ensuring that the big climaxes make their effect without labouring the less eventful episodes. The choral singing is robust, though the sustained high writing is demanding enough to give the Polish Philharmonic Choir some anxious moments. Of the vocal soloists, both Jadwiga Rappé (also on the Chandos recording) and Piotr Nowacki are excellent, but the normally reliable Izabella Kosinska was clearly under strain, and Ryszard Minkiewicz also sounds out of sorts in places. Finally, the sound is typical of Naxos’s Polish recordings in being rather too bright and generalised for music which depends for its effect on such strong contrasts between the very quiet and the extremely loud.

— Arnold Whittall

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Krzysztof Penderecki (23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer. After graduating from the Academy of Music in Kraków, he began teaching there and gained international recognition. His innovative compositions, characterized by experimental sonorities and distinctive orchestral techniques, include Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, St. Luke Passion, Anaklasis, Utrenja and Polish Requiem. His output also include 5 operas, 8 symphonies, concertos, chamber works and numerous choral compositions. Penderecki received many prestigious honors, including 4 Grammy Awards.

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Antoni Wit (born 7 February 1944) is a Polish conductor. Educated in conducting at the Academy of Music in Kraków and in Paris under Nadia Boulanger, he also holds a law degree from Jagiellonian University. Following success at the Herbert von Karajan Conducting Competition, he led major Polish orchestras, serving as director of the Warsaw Philharmonic from 2001 to 2013 and later as music director of Spain's Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra. Wit has made over 200 records, earning numerous international awards, including a GRAMMY Award, for his acclaimed interpretations of Polish and classical repertoire.

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