Bob Draper wrote:
>You will need another 200k for psychiatric treatment after the premier.
>Is there anyone out there who has managed to listen to a Penderecki piece
>from beginning to end? Has anyone purchased a Penderecki CD and kept it?
Listened lately? Penderecki left his free atonality phase (the era which
brought the Threnody for the Victims of Hirshima and the St. Luke Passion)
for a much more traditional and tonal style. Have I purchased a cd and
kept it? You bet. I am even planning to program a work of his (the Hymn to
Cherubim) on one of my upcoming concerts with The Helios Ensemble. (That's
the professional choir that I conduct, if I may shamelessly plug it.)
>A friend of mine who runs a cd swap club just could not get rid of a
>Pederecki CD (can't remember the work). Every time someone took it a
>week later it came back too him. Eventually, he was very relieved when
>it got lost in the post and he received compensation from the UK PO.
There's no accounting for a lack of taste. (Spoken with tongue firmly in
cheek before you all point your weapons in my direction.) But I find that
his music has a great deal to offer and I appreciate it very much. The
Stabat Mater is a work that I will always rank as one of the best of the
genre.
Kevin Sutton