Product Review

The range of Penderecki's music is exemplified by this disc, which presents five works written over a period of nearly 40 years. Hymne an den heiligen Adalbert was composed in 1997 and evokes the martyred eighth-century Bishop of Prague through spare but fervent gestures. More austere, but intense in its focus, is Song of the Cherubim, whilst Canticum Canticorum Salomis is a richly sensuous exploration of the Song of Songs. Kosmogonia explores a complex sound tapestry. Strophen (1959) was a breakthrough work - spare, intricate and marvellously tensile. In 2002 Antoni Wit became managing and artistic director of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir. He has received six GRAMMY-® nominations for Penderecki's St Luke Passion in 2004 (8.557149), A Polish Requiem in 2005 (8.557386-87), Seven Gates of Jerusalem in 2007 (8.557766), Utrenja in 2009 (8.572031) and Karol Szymanowski's Stabat Mater in 2008 (8.570724) and Symphonies Nos. 1 and 4 in 2009 (8.570722).