Track Listing

1. Symphony No. 2: Moderato
2. Symphony No. 2: Allegretto
3. Symphony No. 2: Lento
4. Symphony No. 2: Tempo I
5. Symphony No. 2: Allegretto
6. Symphony No. 4: Adagio
7. Symphony No. 4: Piu animato
8. Symphony No. 4: Tempo I
9. Symphony No. 4: Allegro
10. Symphony No. 4: Tempo II

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #115284 in Music
• Released on: 2000-03-14
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

The dark, brooding Neo-Romantic
Penderecki, who was viewed as a god in avant-garde circles, shocked them utterly with his St. Luke Passion, employing traditional forms and harmonies (yes, even minor and major chords). Obviously, he went backwards further, as if searching for his roots, in his Symphony No. 2, his most romantic/traditional work.

Penderecki's symphonies all display the common trait of despair, dark undercurrents, and unresolved sombreness that would have made Shostakovich cry. Indeed, the codas are always resigned, never victorious. His music is not about happiness and the joys of life, but more about fate and the horrors of death.

His music also contains threads of Shostakovich irony in the fast passages, combined with his trademark of using descending chromatic scales in the melodies, as if falling into doom. (The tragic history of 20th century Poland must have had a strong influence on Penderecki's music).

Symphony No. 2, with its recurrent quote of Silent Night (the symphony is subtitled 'Christmas'), is relatively more wistful than the other symphonies, but still, the sense of tragedy is to be found everywhere in the work. I especially admire Penderecki's masterful use of the sonata form (both symphonies are in one movement). Climaxes build up surely and inevitably, and satisfaction is always rewarded, especially the tragic march, replete with howling horns and tolling bells, rooted in traditional harmonies. The heart of the work is of course the haunting adagio in the middle.

Symphony No. 4, subtitled 'Adagio', is a slightly more rigorous work, opening with grim calls from trumpets and poundings from lower strings. It is not that slow, as the title suggests, but the symphony does contain slow, introspective quasi-cadenzas for different instruments. There is an interesting use of roto-toms in the latter part of the work (also used in the fiery Symphony No. 3). Again, the symphony ends fatefully.

Wit and his Polish orchestra play with much power and feeling. The sound is more than good. For those who want to investigate Penderecki's mature neo-Romantic style, Symphony No. 2 would be the first place to start with. Penderecki is especially recommended for all lovers of Shostakovich.

Loud, Melodramatic, & Brooding
Some of this music is so over the top I can't possibly take it seriously; having said that, it's fun to listen to every once in a while. Lots of loud horn-blowing and gong hitting. This CD finds Penderecki writing music that is late-Romantic and yet as violent and brooding as he can muster. There are moments in which it has the kind of frantic mania that I suppose one could find in Shostakovich, but as I listen to it I find it easier to think of as a really angry version of Szymanowski. If you like over-the-top late-Romantic music, this CD is for you.

Dark Symphonies of Transformation
I agree with everything the previous reviewer has written. These two symphonies are fascinatingly dark, brooding, searching works. Listening to Symphony No. 2, I feel the presence of Bruckner and Shostakovitch, especially the latter. The re-occurrence of the enigmatic "Silent Night" motif thorughout this dark work gives it an ironic spiritual centre. Yet this is not by any means an affirmation of faith. It more clearly resembles a dark night of the soul. And the calamatous Allegretto, like the shattering of a stained glass window of a cathedral, pronounces that despair is not far off. And in the end, there is no faith, only further searching, and possible resignation.

The Fourth Symphony resembles the Second in many respects; it is dark, probing, sullen. Commissioned to commemorate the bicentennial of the French Revolution in 1989, it is an ambiguous work, written in a more modern and sometimes more dissonant manner than the Second. The Fourth begins with ominous Shostakovichian undertones. Gradually however, we begin to feel the emergence of a uniquely individual voice, with something new and profound to say.

It seems to me that both works deal with the idea of inward transformation. The transformation is ominous, because success is not assured. As the Second so ably demonstrates, catastrophe is one very possible outcome. Even though both symphonies may mirror the state of the composer's own spirit, they may also relate to the tenuous spirit of the times that existed in Poland during the 80's.