Word: penderecki
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Krzysztof Penderecki: Violin Concerto (Isaac Stern, Minnesota Orchestra, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski conductor, Columbia). Stern could easily coast along on the war horses of the repertory, so more power to him for continuing to stretch himself in challenging new works. This somber single-movement piece, composed for him in 1976, is less abstract, more late Romantic, than the experiments in shifting sonorities that made Penderecki's name in the 1960s. Over brooding drumbeats and pedal tones, Stern gets a virtuoso workout in involuted runs and dissonant double-and triple-stops. But what stays in the mind is the sustained, eerie high...
...Penderecki'sopera in limbo...
...this secular age, God is not very popular among composers. One notable exception is Krzysztof Penderecki, 45, a Polish Roman Catholic. He has written a St. Luke's Passion (1966), Dies Irae, an oratorio for the victims at Auschwitz (1967) and a Magnificat (1974). For the past four years, Penderecki (pronounced Pen-de-ret-ski) has labored on a huge, lofty project: recasting Milton's epic poem, Paradise Lost, into an opera. But last week, in its world premiere at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Penderecki's huge effort failed to justify the ways...
...Baritone William Stone and Soprano Ellen Shade, and Satan, Bass-Baritone Peter Van Ginkel, stumbled about in semidarkness. There seemed to be a ban on imaginative staging. Only twelve days before the premiere, the director, Virginio Puecher, resigned under pressure. "He wanted to do too much movement," said Penderecki. "I think that the drama should be in the music...
...ANOTHER giant step away from the tortured world of Penderecki, the HRO ended its concert with the Second Symphony of Brahms. Although he had written a number of symphonic works, like the two orchestral serenades and the Haydn Variations, Brahms was middle-aged before he published his first symphonies. The reason for his hesitation is clear: "I shall never compose a symphony! You have no idea how hard it is for our kind to hear the tramp of a giant like [Beethoven] behind us." But Brahms finally mustered his courage, published his First Symphony in 1876 and followed...