Warsaw Boys Choir - Stabat Mater

'Stabat Mater', come from St Luke Passion, Krzyzstof Penderecki

After taking private composition lessons with Franciszek Skolyszewski, Penderecki studied music at Krakow University and the Academy of Music in Krakow under Artur Malawski and Stanislaw Wiechowicz. Having graduated in 1958, he took up a teaching post at the Academy. Penderecki's early works show the influence of Anton Webern and Pierre Boulez (he has also been influenced by Igor Stravinsky). Penderecki's international recognition began in 1959 at the Warsaw Autumn Festival with the premieres of the works Strophen, Psalms of David, and Emanations, but the piece that truly brought him to international attention was Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (see threnody and Hiroshima), written for 52 string instruments. In it, Penderecki makes use of extended instrumental techniques (for example, playing on the "wrong" side of the bridge, bowing on the tailpiece). There are many novel textures in the work, which makes great use of tone clusters (many notes close together played at the same time). The work was originally titled 8' 37", (the duration of the fatal bombing of Hiroshima) perhaps in a nod to John Cage, but Penderecki changed the title after his publisher suggested he give it a more colorful name.
Fluorescences followed a year after, increasing the orchestral density by adding more wind and brass and an enormous percussion section of 32 instruments for six players, which included a Mexican güiro, typewriters, gongs and other exotic non-standard instruments. The piece was composed for the Donaueschingen Contemporary Music Festival of 1962, and its performance was regarded as highly provocative and controversial. Penderecki's intentions at this stage were quite Cagean: 'All I'm interested in is liberating sound beyond all tradition'.[1] This preoccupation with sound culminated in De Natura Sonoris I, a piece which frequently called upon the orchestra to use non-standard playing techniques to produce different sounds and colours, often very different in character. A sequel to the original was composed in 1971, with a more limited orchestra, and it incorporates more elements of post-Romanticism than its predecessor. This foreshadowed Penderecki's renunciation of the avant-garde in the mid-1970's, although both pieces feature dramatic glissandos, dense tone clusters, and a use of harmonics, and unusual instruments (the musical saw features in the second piece).

The St. Luke Passion (196366) brought Penderecki further popular acclaim, not least because it was a major and devoutly religious work, written in an avant-garde musical language, composed within Communist Eastern Europe. Western audiences saw it as a snub to the Soviet authorities and were keen to give it their support. Various different musical styles can be seen in the piece. The experimental textures, such as were seen in the Threnody, are balanced by the baroque form of the work and the occasional use of more traditional harmonic and melodic writing. Penderecki makes use of serialism in this piece, and one of the tone rows he uses includes the BACH motif, which acts as a bridge between the conventional and more experimental elements. The Stabat Mater section towards the end of the piece concludes on a simple major chord of D major, and this gesture is repeated at the very end of the work, which finishes on a triumphant E major chord. These are the only tonal harmonies in the work, and both come as a surprise to the listener; Penderecki's use of tonal triads such as these remains a controversial aspect of the work.
Penderecki continued to write pieces that explored the sacred in music, such as Dies Irae, a version of the Magnificat, and Canticum Canticorum, a song of songs for chorus and orchestra from the early seventies

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[mactoja]

Well... I hope I can present to all of you teh fragments of St. Luke's Passion by K. Penderecki with Warsaw Boys Choir from Canterbury. This concert will take place on May 2nd, 2009 Hope it will be possible to make a clip out of it... Just wait, please :-)

[treblechoir99]

Oh absolutly Mactoja. I think It's a great moment at this date if you shared this concert. Thank you very much.

[loupblanc26]

Déroutant!

[treblechoir99]

lol lol Mais pour les voix/chant choral c'est un beau défi, pas facile à interpréter.

[wskfan]

Hi Denis, I have a video with that work sung by Dresdner Kreuzchor and Thomanerchor Leipzig together in 2001...:)

The information to your video is unbelievable

considerably !