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