Krzysztof Penderecki - St. Luke Passion (Antoni Wit)

Information

Composer: Krzysztof Penderecki

• St. Luke Passion

Izabela Kłosińska, soprano

Adam Kruszewski, baritone

Romuald Tesarowicz, bass

Krzysztof Kolberger, evangelist

Jarosław Malanowicz, organ

Warsaw Boys Choir

Warsaw National Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra

Antoni Wit, conductor

Date: 2003

Label: Naxos

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Review

The St Luke Passion is an obvious candidate for the Naxos Penderecki series, and I was particularly interested to hear how the ever-resourceful Antoni Wit would handle it. As I suggested in connection with the Dabringhaus and Grimm recording under Marc Soustrot, the piece has worn rather less well than that other major choral composition of the 1960s, Britten’s War Requiem, with its more obvious ambiguities and secular resonances: and the intense, economical treatment of the Passion story found in Arvo Pärt’s Passio, and other examples of so-called ‘holy minimalism’, now seem rather more compelling as settings of sacred texts than Penderecki’s alternations of drifting understatement and rather blatant bombast.

Wit has chosen to stress the contrasts between these different modes of expression, and his expansive reading is closer in spirit as well as timing to the composer’s own version than to the more tautly projected Soustrot. Wit’s reading, like Penderecki’s, tends to draw attention to the music’s lack of melodic flow, and its reliance on a narrow repertory of technical devices of the kind which seemed much more original and effective in 1967 than they do today. It’s the relatively brief moments of almost expressionistic drama (especially those surrounding the death of Christ) which come off best, aided by a pungently immediate recording, complete with rasping organ and blazing brass. (The recording was not made in a cathedral but in Warsaw’s Philharmonic Hall.)

The soloists are all excellent – a pity that they don’t have more to do – and the large chorus copes well, if not always with ideal spontaneity. Given the importance of the spoken narration, the absence of text and translation is particularly unfortunate, though Richard Whitehouse’s track-cued synopsis is certainly better than nothing.

— 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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