IDAGIO | Penderecki: Symphony No. 8 - Dies irae - Aus den Psalmen Davids 0747313045075

Featuring

Antoni Wit
Michaela Kaune
Agnieszka Rehlis
Wojciech Drabowicz
Anna Lubańska
Ryszard Minkiewicz

Jarosław Bręk
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra
Warsaw Philharmonic Choir
Krzysztof Penderecki

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Composition History

Penderecki's Eighth Symphony, 'Lieder der Vergänglichkeit' (Songs of Transience), completed in 2005, sets German poems from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Composition History

Aus den Psalmen Davids, composed in 1958, marked Penderecki's arrival on the new music scene and uses only extracts from the Psalms to evoke their nature rather than capture their essence.

Performer Biography

Antoni Wit, the conductor, studied conducting with Henryk Czyz and composition with Krzysztof Penderecki himself at the Academy of Music in Kraków.

Composer Biography

Krzysztof Penderecki, the composer, has long focused on symphonies, with his works ranging from an 'avant-garde' phase to a 'neo-Romantic' phase.

Composition History

The oratorio Dies irae was commissioned to mark the unveiling of the International Monument to the Victims of Fascism at the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where it premiered in 1967.

Performer Biography

Wojtek Drabowicz, the baritone on this recording, was a prizewinner at several vocal competitions, including the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and the Belvedere Competition in Vienna.

Compositional Technique

Penderecki's oratorio Dies irae uses texts from Polish poets, Louis Aragon, Psalm 116, the Book of Revelation, Aeschylus's The Eumenides, Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians, and Paul Valéry's Le Cimetière marin.