Warsaw Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra, Antoni Wit - Krzysztof Penderecki: Magnificat; Kadisz (2015)

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Warsaw Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra, Antoni Wit - Krzysztof Penderecki: Magnificat; Kadisz (2015)

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Antoni Wit’s impressive Naxos survey of the large-scale works of Krzysztof Penderecki may well one day come to be regarded as definitive, but not until Poland’s leading composer puts down his pen. For now, the series will always be playing catch-up, since Penderecki keeps adding substantial pieces to his output. This latest release is a case in point: 35 years separate the Magnificat, a seminal work in the composer’s stylistic evolution, and Kadisz, one of his most powerful scores of recent years. Together they represent the Catholic and Jewish traditions that have shaped the culture of Poland.

Kadisz, written in 2009 for the 65th anniversary of the liquidation of the Łódz´ ghetto, is not strictly liturgical; it opens with lines written by a teenager from the ghetto, sung with eloquent, shining pathos here by the soprano Olga Pasichnyk. Its four movements encompass various texts and culminate in a melismatic setting of the Kaddish, the Hebrew mourners’ prayer, led here hauntingly by the cantor Alberto Mizrahi. By contrast, the Magnificat, composed in 1974 for Salzburg, is a big and richly complex work that signalled the composer’s shift towards stylistic pluralism. Wit conducts his brilliantly accomplished choral and orchestral forces with magnificent control.

Review by John Allison, BBC Music Magazine

The Christian Magnificat and the Jewish Kaddish are, you might think, completely different kinds of religious text. Yet judging by this pair of vocal works, completed 35 years apart (1974 and 2009), Penderecki approaches both in terms of a basic contrast between human frailty and divine power; it is this disparity that counts for more than the celebration of the miracle of Virgin Birth in the former or the solemn commemoration of human mortality in the latter. When the Magnificat finally explodes into celebration, it does so in spectacularly emphatic fashion, and the ever-imperturbable Antoni Wit is in his element throughout, sustaining the tension in the quieter early stages and delivering maximum impact later on.

Lasting 45 minutes and scored for substantial vocal and instrumental forces, this is unambiguously a concert work – a kind of choral symphony in five movements. Its emphasis on male voices seems at odds with the character of the text and this, coupled with the weighty, lament-like demeanour of much of the score, set against moments of well-nigh brutal turbulence, might even suggest that the composer cannot suppress some scepticism about the Magnificat’s spiritual ethos.

But there is no question of scepticism when it comes to Kadisz. This four-movement cantata is haunted by the Holocaust, beginning as it does with settings of anguished lines by a young Polish writer who died at Auschwitz in 1944. The short second movement is even more aggressive, as verses from the Lamentations of Jeremiah are fiercely declaimed in Polish. The second half – verses from the Book of Daniel for a cappella choir, and Kaddish prayers featuring a cantor-style tenor – is more consolatory; and the relatively short time-span of the whole contributes to a sense of concentration and clarity missing from the much earlier Magnificat.

Review by Arnold Whittall, Gramophone

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Warsaw Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra, Antoni Wit - Krzysztof Penderecki: Magnificat; Kadisz (2015)

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Warsaw Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra, Antoni Wit - Krzysztof Penderecki: Magnificat; Kadisz (2015)

Close

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Warsaw Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra, Antoni Wit - Krzysztof Penderecki: Magnificat; Kadisz (2015)

Close