Welcome to the final program in our series The World and Music of Krzysztof Penderecki. I?m Christopher Coleman from the Department of Music and Fine Arts of Hong Kong Baptist University. As I listen to Penderecki's music, I'm continually impressed not only by his technical proficiency, but more importantly by the depth of his emotional communication. Every piece has its own clearly articulated and vivid emotional world. Perhaps more than any other living composer, Penderecki has often made explicit connections between his own emotional experiences and his moral and religious beliefs. He does this through musical references to earlier music such as Gregorian Chant or Renaissance polyphony and through programmatic titles and through choice of texts and subject matter for his works. He seems to feel the weight of the modern age heavily, and unquestionably this condition arises from his childhood in Poland under the Nazi occupation, his coming of age in the Stalinist years, and much of his adult life spent under an oppressive communist regime. The Polish character is not easily suppressed, however. Poles long opposed the government forced on them by the Soviets, and it was in Poland that the first steps were taken that eventually led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. That this country bred an individualistic composer not only dedicated to finding his own musical path, but also deeply interested in questions of morality should be no surprise. Penderecki's works probe these moral and religious questions fully. Among these pieces are of course the Threnody with its dedication "To the Victims of Hiroshima" and the Dies Irae dedicated to those murdered at Auschwitz. But the issue is even more pervasive, and it is no coincidence that Penderecki's opera, Paradise Lost is about original sin--the failing of Adam and Eve to follow the word of God; and the Saint Luke Passion deals with the sin of Christ's crucifixion. Even those purely instrumental works like the Violin Concerti seem to speak of a pervasive sadness, as Penderecki takes on the role of the modern conscience. In so many works he speaks for us in his deeply moving music of contrition.

Antoni Wit conducting the Polish National Symphony Orchestra in Penderecki's Adagietto from his opera Paradise Lost. This opera was commissioned for the American bicentennial by the Lyric Opera of Chicago. That this commission was awarded to a composer who was not American was controversial at the time. That the composition fully embraced lyric Germanic romanticism was no less scandalous. Although the piece is a major work by a major composer-- Penderecki worked on the piece for 4 years--it has been seldom performed in its entirety and no commercial recording exists--such are the chances a composer takes on a major project like an opera. In spite of this, the Adagietto, which we will now hear, has become one of Penderecki's most frequently performed works. In the opera this movement occurs after Eve has persuaded Adam to disobey God and eat the apple of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. This short work perfectly conveys the polarities of the first night of human love with the ominous arrival of Sin and Death

From the disobedience of Adam and Eve let us now turn to Christ's ultimate submission and sacrifice. In Penderecki's Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke the composer vividly portrays the crucifixion, the darkening of the heavens and the last words of Christ in the final movements. Listen to the programmatic depiction of the growing storm in the lower instruments of the orchestra, and the dramatic dynamic and textural change at Christ's last words and death. Note the use of a speaker, preaching the opening text and the contrast with Christ's last words, which are the first sung music of the movement. Penderecki's Saint Luke Passion is not in fact solely taken from the Gospel according to Luke. There are other sources of the text and the piece ends with a setting of the 31st Psalm; the words of the Psalmist "In thee, O Lord, I put my trust" to which Jesus referred at his death speak to us of His sacrifice for us. In invoking this psalm Penderecki confirms the humanity of Christ and the universality of God's love. Here now is the ending of the Saint Luke Passion, with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Warsaw National Philharmonic Chorus, conducted by the composer.

The Death of Christ from Penderecki's Saint Luke Passion, completed in 1966. The composer returned to this subject matter much more recently in his Credo written some thirty years later. In the Crucifixus movement the setting is less pictorial and dramatic, as befits the text; not a portrayal of the physical horror, but a gentle lyrical statement of belief that Christ's sacrifice has won our salvation. The Credo's second movement perfectly captures the duality of the emotional realm of Christian belief--sorrow and contrition in the necessity of Christ's sacrifice, but joy in the salvation thereby gained.

The second movement from Penderecki's Credo, performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic, directed by Kazimeirz Kord. Christ's crucifixion is not, of course, the central belief of Christian doctrine; instead, that position is held by His resurrection. In his two-part cantata Utrenya from 1969-70, Penderecki tackled the entombment and resurrection of Christ. The dualism of emotions is present here, too, but expressed in a wildly eclectic array of styles, ranging from the extreme, avant-garde rhetoric reminiscent of the Threnody, to chant of the Eastern Orthodox Churches. I also detect an influence of Stravinsky's Les Noces, a work which had interested Penderecki many years earlier in his Psalms of David. Here are the last two movements from Utrenya, Part II, The Resurrection of Christ, performed by the Warsaw National Philharmonic and choir, conducted by Andrzej Markowski.

Ten years after composing Utrenya, Penderecki wrote his Polish Requiem, a large work on the scale of the grand romantic requiem of Verdi. I believe that his is one of his finest compositions, and the synthesis of stylistic and technical material works to superb emotional effect. Movements of the piece bear various dedications to Polish patriots, leaders, and martyrs, with one movement dedicated to the insurgents who lead the Warsaw uprising of 1944. The sixth movement, Libera me, Domine begs God to deliver us from eternal death; and is dedicated to the over four thousand Polish army officers murdered by the Soviets in World War II. Let's listen now to that movement of the Polish Requiem, directed by Antoni Wit leading the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra.

Penderecki believes that he has now accomplished all that he wishes to in the realm of religious music and wants to concentrate on abstract music, especially symphonies. That his career has been characterized thus far by rather dramatic shifts in direction should serve as an indicator that this might not be his last chapter, though. Even his most recent symphony, the Seven Gates of Jerusalem, is a huge cantata on biblical texts which reveals that the composer's concern for moral issues is tempered by optimism based on faith and experience. This piece, our final work for this series, closes on a positive note, as it ends with praise for the Lord and the confident statement that God will be our guide "even to the end." Here is the last movement of Penderecki's Seventh Symphony, The Seven Gates of Jerusalem, in a performance by the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Kazimierz Kord.

The powerful finale of The Seven Gates of Jerusalem. Thank you for joining me, Christopher Coleman, in our journey into the most interesting World and Music of Krzysztof Penderecki.