Album of the Week: We will not hear its like again
mainFrom the Lebrecht Album of the Week:
…. a timely tribute to a composer who found his voice in fits and starts. It has at once the dignity of a devotional work and the drama of the greatest story ever told. We will not hear its like again in the next few years, for reasons no one had foreseen. Keep it on your shelves as a reminder of how the world sounded before it was shrunk by COVID-19.
And here.
Is it just me, or does some of the St. Luke Passion sound a bit like the boys choir sections from Britten’s “War Requiem”?
I attended the dress rehearsal and concert in Salzburg: an unforgettable experience!
Penderecki was great when he was young, mining riches from chaos. But like so many of that era, the wheels fell off after a few miles. Composers, KP among them, longed for a systematic approach to writing music. Many, to Music’s everlasting regret, hit the wall, could not power through it, and went Serial; KP hit the wall and retreated into the humdrum land of Neo.
What utter nonsense…. The St. Luke is a great
adventure in sound as is any worthwhile musical work. It is mainly what the listener brings to
the table, narrow minds have limited experiences .
Agreed. It was written 54 years ago. So it’s an early work. Chill.
It has no bearing whether an early work or late.54 years ago he wrote a work that can be easily thought a masterpiece that spoke
to his contemporary audience just as Bach did to his audience.