Playing Penderecki
I am on a grand quest to find a composer that I like as much as Shostakovich. The latest attempt is Penderecki.
So far my experience of his music has been his 5th and 1st symphonies on this Naxos CD. Well, that’s not entirely true. Before properly exploring a composer you almost always have prior exposure, from films, adverts, or other sources. In this case my prior exposure is from Kubrick’s 1980 film of The Shining: one of my favorite movies, and one of my favorite books. The soundtrack for the entire movie is genius (the use of Bartók, for example, is one of the best bits), and one of the standout moments in the scoring is the use of Penderecki’s Utrenja, which is one of the eeriest pieces of music I know:
Aside from The Shining, my Penderecki experience is limited to being aware of the fairly famous piece Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, which I understand is about ten minutes of screaming strings.
So, not too much to go on. A whisper-chanted slab of fear, and a wailing microtonal monument. Neither of these sound musically similar to Shostakovich. The morose attitude, however, does.
In fact, what prompted me to spend some of my hard-earned eMusic credits was Youtube sampling of some of his other pieces. Particularly, the viola concerto, which reminds me of the Shostakovich viola sonata, but perhaps that is instrumental bias. It was enough to prompt a download, though.
Today, while enjoying the October sunshine and the primary-colored scenery, I listened to the 40 minute 5th symphony. I think it has potential. It yearns, and it has interesting percussion — both of which have historically been promising indicators for me. Also, I didn’t immediately decide it was great, which when it occurs can actually be a bad sign. On the other hand, the first symphony is almost certainly going to be consigned to the curiosities bin. It is intense, and stereotypically avant garde. I don’t think there is enough of the traditional Romantic flavor in it to carry my attention.
One of the difficulties I can forsee with trying to get into the 5th is that it is in one movement. That makes it impossible to do my standard technique of repeatedly playing the movement which grabs me the most, and gradually expanding outward. 40 minutes is a big chunk of time, and despite idyllizing (yeah, y not o) the idea of devoting a comfy chair, a mug of tea and a few hours to concentrating on my music, most of the time my listening is done while walking to and from work. That doesn’t work so well with a forty minute movement.
I cannot quite escape my low-attention-span, gen-Y nature.
October 13th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Have you tried Peteris Vasks yet? I suspect you’d really like his Cello Concerto, written for David Geringas. There’s also a crazily beautiful piece for unaccomp. cello and voice (one performer) called, I think, “Book”.
October 13th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
No… I haven’t listened to anything by him so far. I just downloaded this CD from eMusic (unfortunately they had neither of the particular pieces you mentioned). Your recommendation and the brief wikipedia description of his music are both sound good. Thanks for the hint!
October 13th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Hello there. Glad you are back!
Therenody is indeed 10 mins of screaming strings. I’ve only heard it a few times but it is terrifying, which I suppose is the point, given the title.
Popcorn Superhet Receiver by Jonny Greenwood is heavily influenced by Therenody. It’s more gently undulating texture than the cold hand of death on your shoulder but well worth a listen.
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/wordlessmusic/episodes/2008/01/16
October 13th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Yo miss M!
Thanks for the welcoming welcome back.
For the next 41:52 minutes I shall be listening to that WNYC link you provided. If Popcorn Superhet Receiver plays as well as its title does, I’ll be adequately satisfied.
Actually, I was just about to eMail you to ask a question. I’m gonna go do that…
ben
October 15th, 2008 at 5:19 am
Striking though many of Penderecki’s works are (or should I say were), a great deal of his music is quite derivative - the string clusters and glissandi he first became famous for in 1959-60 were suggested by the music of Xenakis and in particular his Metastaseis of 1954; passages in Penderecki’s Canticum Canticorum Salomonis derive fairly directly from Stockhausen’s Momente (which uses the same text), Penderecki’s Partita for harpsichord and ensemble leans very heavily on Ligeti’s Continuum, apart from which many aspects of Penderecki’s music are clear descendants of ideas originated by his slightly older Polish contemporaries such as Lutoslawski and Tadeusz Baird. So I’ve always thought that his standing as an innovator (which is now long in the past, in any case) is somewhat unjustified.
Penderecki’s Threnody (dedicated to the victims of Hiroshima): I remember playing this to a group of schoolkids 20 years ago. Didn’t take long for one of them to come out with the words “radioactive desert”.
Good luck with your quest.
October 15th, 2008 at 5:51 am
Here’s an idea: Mahler’s 10th in Barshai’s edition (And before the other in the room have the chance to speak: I know, I know, not finished; only Cooke is good, bla, bla).
About his version I read numerous times how it sounds more like Shostakovich’s 16th, because of the orchestration. Don’t want to say more: Exploring music is half the fun. For the other half, we’ll talk when you listened to it.
Another vote for Vasks! In most reviews one can find the description of his faster movements as “sounding like Shostakovich”. Depending on whether you like more the big orchestra sound or a string quartet you might try (apart from in places truly beautiful in others really sarcastic “Cello Concerto”) the Symphonies 2 and 3, or the String Quartet No. 4 (played by the Kronos Quartet).
On the other hand, perhaps the next big composer for you will be someone totally different to Shosty (or how could I explain liking Shosty and Rachmaninoff, Mahler and Vivaldi?). How about Rach?
Ever tried the “Symphonic Dances”? Man, I love that contrabasoon pedal note, the crazy sforzati on the G string of the violins, with the whacks on the timpani and the bass drum (Jansons with the St. Petersburgers)!
October 19th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Stainforth,
Whoah, that’s a lot of composer right there. At the moment I’m sort of trying to work out how much of Penderecki is excessively avant-garde (or not, as it now seems) and how much is, errrr, regular music? Oh dear, that’s a horrible description. Anyway, I am significantly more interested in the latter.
Haha Zoltan,
Yeah, nice try with Rach
Although…. this one time I heard a piece I was kinda getting into on NPR, and it turned out to be the symphonic dances. Hmmm. I think it’ll take a while to get over my biases.
Mahler 10 sounds interesting, and I wish eMusic had some of those Vasks pieces.